Job Discussion Forums

[Shaman]

I used the expression "right as rain" recently, and immediately paused for thought. Outside of those living in a drought-ravaged locale, who else would use this expression and actually mean it?

Shaman

[denise]

The expression is used in a Cure song. (Why Can't I be You?)

Other than that, I don't think I've ever heard it used.

d

[rj]

I hear it used all the time, especially from older generations (in the US). I use it sometimes, but not with a literal meaning. I can recall my grandmother using it all the time when I was a kid.

[latefordinner]

rj:
>I hear it used all the time, especially from older generations

Am I that old? I grew up with "right as rain", as well as "make hay while the sun shines" and... Maybe I am.

[Teacher Lindsay]

How about gob-smacked? A British teacher in his late 30s whom I worked with in Thailand said that often.

Recently, here in China, a Canadian woman in her 60s told me that she was looking for new digs. I think the last time I had that was when my father was still alive.

Americans - I guess
British - I think
Australians - I reckon

Cheers

[Capergirl]

I have certainly heard that expression before but cannot recall if I've ever used it. Some expressions we use in English don't make a lot of sense, to be sure. Yesterday, I found myself trying to explain the phrase "the world is your oyster".

English is a crazy language.

[zaneth]

The American South uses "I reckon" too. Some people think of it as a "Southernism."

[Gowump]

How about "it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick"? From the Ottawa Valley.

[Stephen Jones]

"right as rain" is exceptionally common. It forms part of a large number of alliterative phrases: "daft as a duck" is another one. As it is an English phrase it can hardly be said to have originated in desert lands.

"gob-smacked" is estuary English. lager-lout cuture. The guy in his thirties would be the oldest to use it naturally. With anybody older, that phrase, like "double-whammy" would be an affectation from somebody trying to pass himself off as younger and lower class. This happened quite a lot under Thatcher - Chris Patten got mocked for using the phrase in the 1992 election.

"digs" refers to a rented room in somebody else's house - the somebody else being called a landlady, whilst the person you rent an entire living unit off is called the landlord. "Student digs" is common now.

[khmerhit]

Dear Stephen,

Rather than Estuarial English (EE), I believe "gob-smacked" is a scouserism from Liverpool and that it goes way back. There was an exchange of letters about it in the TLS about fifteen years ago.

Chris Patten--great man. I wish we had politicians like him in my country. Why did people turn on him for using a proletarian expression? Everyone knows the Thatcherites were jumped up petty booojois shopkeepers. Was it so hypocritical of him to use an expression that was no doubt used in his own family at some point? I mean, he was a working class kid made good if I remember right. London Irish, went to a top Grammar School, Oxford, Conservative Party, Cabinet, the last Governor of Hong Kong ("Les jeux sont fait, Guv, les jeux sont faits!") the EU Commissioner--Bob's your uncle and right as rain. His grandparents would have been gobsmacked.

Acutally, come to think of it, it is a very COMMON-sounding word. It smacks of something unsavoury.

[scot47]

"gob" is vulgar for "mouth"

"gobsmacked" is of recent vintage and IS vulgar.

Just what I would expect from Liverpool. Yuk !

[Teacher Lindsay]

[Teacher in Rome]

[Lanza-Armonia]

I start okky dooky. I think it sounds cute and it's a 1000 times better that the formidable "OK"

LA

[Bethan]

[/quote]Just what I would expect from Liverpool. Yuk !