Yes to all of the above, I believe. I wasn't allowed many sweets (you wouldn't think it to look at me now), but, on the rare occasions I went to play with my friend who was, I had a bizarre fondness for aniseed balls. I still love licorice comfits and can't buy them in case I eat the entire packet! (If I did, the results would just serve me right for being such a pig.)
Here's another one - slang terms for going to the loo. My mother said 'spend a penny', which is, oh god, oh god, just agonising to me in its tweeness. Quite honestly, I find 'having a pee' less offensive.
My preference is part long-acquaintance with people for whom public toilets were penny slot, and experience of similar in childhood (they were 2p (new pence), on account of actually being made for old (1d) pennies).
Still anything is better than those people who return and regale you with details ...
One time in a bookstore I worked in, we created our own rather disturbing euphemism for attending to such bodily functions. One girl started saying she was going to the WC rather than the bathroom. Then someone got punny and started calling it the Debussey. Then I came along and started saying I was going to visit Claude.
It was nice working with people who got the joke. What a pity most of the customers were...not the sort of people who would comprehend that one.
I loved aniseed balls. I'm a cruncher of sweets, not a sucker. However hard I try not to crunch, I do. I used to try so very, very hard with aniseed balls, though. They were an exercise of willpower.
I'd say "I'm going to the toilet" (non-U, I know.) I'm trying to think what people at work and dancing say. "I'm going to use the facilities." "I'm off to the little boys' room." "I'm taking a pit stop". "I'm going to see a man about a dog." I've heard men say "she's gone to powder her nose", but I don't think I've heard the women in question say this.
Here's another one - slang terms for going to the loo. My mother said 'spend a penny', which is, oh god, oh god, just agonising to me in its tweeness. Quite honestly, I find 'having a pee' less offensive.
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Best euphemism on this subject I've ever heard was from a schoolfriend:
"I'm just going to fumigate your bathroom."
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Still anything is better than those people who return and regale you with details ...
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It was nice working with people who got the joke. What a pity most of the customers were...not the sort of people who would comprehend that one.
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I'd say "I'm going to the toilet" (non-U, I know.) I'm trying to think what people at work and dancing say. "I'm going to use the facilities." "I'm off to the little boys' room." "I'm taking a pit stop". "I'm going to see a man about a dog." I've heard men say "she's gone to powder her nose", but I don't think I've heard the women in question say this.
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