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Local English Sayings

Posted by ESC on May 17, 2002

In Reply to: Local English Sayings posted by ESC on May 17, 2002

: : The link below is to a small site of 'Black Country' sayings. The 'Black Country' is the old industrial heart of England. Some of the Sayings I recognise as being used well outside that part of England. Do others use them too?
: : NB Please note lack of apostrophies!

: (West Virginia/Kentucky) The only one that is familiar to me is "Well, e's took 'is eggs to a fine market, ay 'e?" Only our version is "He drove his geese to a fine market." (Speaking sarcastically.) I think that's how it goes.

DRIVE ONE'S DUCKS TO A POOR MARKET -- To make a poor manager or to associate with the wrong people. Also to drive one's goose to a poor market. 'He's driving his goose to a poor market, Pa said.' (Jesse Stuart, (Kentucky writer) 'Plum Grove Hills') See also DROVE ONE'S DUCKS TO A PORE PUDDLE." From Mountain Range: A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks by Robert Hendrickson, Facts on File, New York, 1997) And I've heard it said of someone marries an unsuitable person.

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