As I was growing up, my family had a couple of sayings I took for granted were universal, at least within my language. As I became an adult I have learned that these are not universal at all:
- the ketchup effect. It is an expression meaning that when things arrive, they all arrive at the same time. Think of an old school glass ketchup bottle. When you hit the bottom of it, first there is nothing, then there is nothing and then the entire content is on your food.
- faster than Jesus slid down the mount of olives. Basically a saying that implies that the mount of olives is slippery due to olive oil and Jesus slipped.
- What you lack in memory, your legs suffer. An expression meaning that when you are forgetful, you usually need to run back and thus your legs suffer.
Please share your own weird family sayings.
“Don’t yuk somebody else’s yum.”
“play with fire. get burnt!!!” or “play with a cobra. your face gets bitten!!”. both mean the same concept and are truly interesting and true
Fritzlehoffers. As a general term for anything you either don’t know the name of or cant remember. Hand me the fritzlehoffers next to you please.
You better finish your dinner, don’t you know there are starving children in Africa?
Were you born in the 1970s? Both me and my wife heard that exact same sentence from our mothers.
Yup. We also might come from the “step on a crack, break your mother’s back” generation?
A Dutch one I got from my Oma: “It’s as if the angels upon my tongue have pissed”. It means “yum”.
