"Arms like Garth"

Johnny Vincents Motorbike said:
Billy - oh is The Devil !.

i came across this, and interesting its first recorded in the North East Gazette.



The actual 'Billy-oh' variant is first found in the UK newspaper The North-Eastern Daily Gazette, August 1885:

Around the same time, a similar phrase emerged in the USA. In the North Dakota newspaper The Bismarck Tribune, September 1883, there's a piece of what Mel Brooks would have called "authentic frontier gibberish", under the title An Old Frontiersman Talks:

This latter example appears to be a version of 'Billy-be damned', which had been recorded earlier, in 1849, in the Gold Rush Diary:

The Billy in question is this phrase isn't the Reverend Billio but his arch enemy, the Devil.
Like billy-o
The citations above are minced oaths, that is, euphemistic phrases that endeavour to avoid speaking the name of religious figures.
1849 sees the first use in the USA (and possibly anywhere) of the name billy-goat to denote a male goat. The term 'billy-be damned' indicated the Devil, following the imagery that pictured Satan as a monster in goat's form.


Nice work! I enjoyed that 😁




| Copyright © Gary Martin
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I’ve always used “arms like Garth” too and always received blank looks since I left the area to join up…

mess it just a northern thing as I would’ve thought it would be more well known from the daily mirror cartoon…
 
xxlshirts_fit_all said:
I’ve always used “arms like Garth” too and always received blank looks since I left the area to join up…

mess it just a northern thing as I would’ve thought it would be more well known from the daily mirror cartoon…
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Definately the Daily Mirror. The Mirror ran three cartoon strips (They were literally just one strip each across the width of the page)
They were Garth- about a very muscular mans man and his adventures.
The Perishers- about a group of small children and there dog, and sometimes a crab that lived in a rockpool and wondered about the "Great Eyeballs in the Sky"
Andy Capp- no explanation needed
These strips took up the bottom third of the page. The top two thirds was taken up by the "Old Codgers".
This was a column where readers could write in and ask any question under the sun and the Old Codgers would give their answer.
They ended their column in about 1984 or so.

Other sayings that I used to hear when i was younger-
As one door closes, another one slams in your face.
There's light at the end of the tunnel, I just hope it's not a train coming towards us
 
If anything went missing, my uncle always used to say it was probably "up dicks ar*e in America"
He was something in the RAF but ground based logistics and travelled to a number of countries.
Never did find out where that saying came from, but have heard a few people use it.
 
swordtrombonefish said:
If anything went missing, my uncle always used to say it was probably "up dicks ar*e in America"
He was something in the RAF but ground based logistics and travelled to a number of countries.
Never did find out where that saying came from, but have heard a few people use it.
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My nana used to say that. I always just took it as her way of saying to forget about it because it was well hidden in an obscure place a long way away. A bit like the infinity stones.
 
swordtrombonefish said:
If anything went missing, my uncle always used to say it was probably "up dicks ar*e in America"
He was something in the RAF but ground based logistics and travelled to a number of countries.
Never did find out where that saying came from, but have heard a few people use it.
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"up dicks ar*e in America"
Haven't heard that for years.

P.S. Don't try Google for an answer. 🤣
 
Chinny reck-on, said whilst stroking your chin. Indicating that you don't believe what the person you're talking to is saying.

Was used regularly in the early 80s at primary school but I think the last time I heard it elsewhere was a Rob Newman sketch on the Mary Whitehouse Experience back in the early 90s!
 
Four-All said:
Chinny reck-on, said whilst stroking your chin. Indicating that you don't believe what the person you're talking to is saying.

Was used regularly in the early 80s at primary school but I think the last time I heard it elsewhere was a Rob Newman sketch on the Mary Whitehouse Experience back in the early 90s!
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I think "cheezy wazzed" was also used as chinny reckon in Eaglescliffe
 
Borobuddah said:
When he gets his eye back, surely
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Along with the whole Flynn/Flint debacle I'm having a bit of a mare here.
Definitely his eye. It was pretty obvious where his arm was. Even if he did try and hide it.
Can't even try and blame autocorrect for that effort.
 
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That girls got Gerd Muller's thighs. Unfortunately not many people today remember him. Probably saves me from a lot of trouble.
 
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