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.
"watch the ficus" - telling somebody to be more careful after they do something clumsy like tripping or nearly dropping something. I used it in front of some friends once and got confused looks. Apparently grandma used to have a potted ficus tree and used to tell me to watch it when I was playing close to it, so it stuck as a saying in the family.
"Dead meat is hung, live meat is hanged." Turns out most people's grandma's aren't radical leftist english teachers.
My family never said that, but I've heard a lot of the native English speakers say that.
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.
Not a family saying, but my grandad used this joke soooo often:
Q: What's the difference between a snake in the grass and a goose?
A: A snake in the grass is an asp in the grass, but a grasp in the ass is a goose!
My folks liked to purposefully mix metaphors, so instead of saying "The worm has turned", they'd say, "The shoe has turned" and "The worm is on the other foot".
I'm sure there's an origin somewhere, but since I don't know it, the call-out for doing something particularly dumb was, "Why don't you just ram your face into my fist?" (suggesting your stupidity was impressive, but not worth the actual bother of 'punishing' you for it, especially given you were probably stupid enough to punish yourself).
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?
We have a similar saying in my family, but it translates into break one generation at a time, meaning you allow the kids to be lazy while the parents work themselves to death. It is usually used as a dig when someone younger is lazy.
I'm familiar with the last one. Love the "ketchup effect", have to remember that one
"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
Ketchup effect is known outside your family. Some years ago, the then head of government of my country used the term in the context of COVID-19 vaccines. I can't quickly find sources in English, but: https://kurier.at/freizeit/trending/ketchup-effekt-mcdonalds-scherzt-ueber-kurz-sager/401206246
