topic Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard.... in Community Chat

Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:32:24 GMT

or used much or at all today. We are of German heritage. My maternal great grandmother was born in Germany. Both sides surnames are German. My materal grandmother used to say red up a room,meaning straighten or clean up. She also made an egg dish that sounded like batch. Both my sister and I remember her making it. To me now it was a frittata. I have, looked high and low can't find a reference to a recipe or cooking term other than a batch of cookies.

Paternal grandfather called the attic a garret.

Did your GPs have any words or phrases like that?

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

deepwaterdotter — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:42:08 GMT

My English grandfather referred to cookies as 'biscuits', and to the trunk of a car as the 'boot'.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

Ms tyrion2 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:45:13 GMT

I had several aunts of grandmother age.

They said Davenport for sofa or couch and pocketbook for purse.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

CRAZYCATLADY — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:48:09 GMT

The livingroom was the parlor. Both my mother and grandmother said pocketbook and the front porch was the stoop.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

lovesrecess — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:50:01 GMT

divan= sofa
afghan=any blanket
beau=boyfriend

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:50:09 GMT

@Ms tyrion2 Davenport was another one my paternal GF used.

Both my Mom and both GMs called green peppers mangoes. I read the reason that was done had something to do with pickling or such. Imagine my surprise when seeing an actual mango for the first time.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

sunshine45 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:52:21 GMT

i STILL use the word pocketbook.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

sandy53 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:52:48 GMT

The first time my DS made a recipe that came from his grandmother, he called me on the phone and said, "Mom, what's oleo?"

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

IamMrsG — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 18:55:50 GMT

My maternal grandparents were country farmers, i.e., "country" as in walk-behind-the-mule to plow the fields. My grandmother used terms like "out yonder" for somewhere distant outside and "ice box" for the refrigerator. Grandpa was a man of very few words.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

Maltichonmom17 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:01:29 GMT

When I was little, my grandfather called me Schnickelfritz, which I later found out was a German term of endearment for a child who a bit of a rascal or a little chatterbox. (I confess, it was probably all true 😄)

All we knew of his family background was the Irish side and I always wondered how I ended up with a German term of endearment as a nickname. A few years back, I started working on our family tree, and discovered that almost all of his maternal side were from Germany, who had emigrated here and settled in Pennsylvania. Mystery solved.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

shortbreadlover — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:01:53 GMT

my grandmother called fried scones grease cakes. but what ever she called them, we all sure gobbled them up when she made them

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

shoptilyadropagain — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:03:04 GMT

My mom used to tell me to red the table. This was after we were done eating and we were putting things away and getting ready to wash/dry the dishes. My parents also referred to Green Peppers as mangoes. They didn't believe me when I said a mango was a fruit (long before the days of the internet). I still hear people referring to davenports and pocketbooks.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

candys mine — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:05:05 GMT

When my mother was going out somewhere she was ging "Overstreet." my Grandmother didn't have recipies she had "Reciepts."

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

Peaches McPhee — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:06:12 GMT

"Puttering". The act of busily doing nothing at all.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:06:20 GMT

While I haven't done a family tree I do know that in 1920 there were only 3 families in Pa with my great grandparents surname. Only others with that name were in Iowa I believe.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

Lucky Charm — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:11:52 GMT

My mother's side was all from New England, so the *r's* just weren't 'they-ah' (there).

Sofa was a divan.

Living room was the *pah-lah* (parlor) or front room.

The porch was the piazza.

I still say pocketbook, but have been trying to force myself to say handbag. It just feels weird! Although I do agree, pocketbooks sounds like what Queen Elizabeth carries on her forearm and it clasps shut real loud!

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

beckyb1012 — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:12:07 GMT

My grandmother never used the word chicken, it was always hen. Even if she fried one for dinner it was hen.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

songbird — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:18:35 GMT

I never had grandparents. When my parents wanted privacy, my parents would speak in English when I was small, so I would not understand. Both my parents, though Italian were very fluent in English. My mom worked as a translator. She was a Polyglot. She was fluent in 4 languages, speaking, reading & writing. Not that difficult. If you know Italian, you can pick up Spanish easily, little harder for French. German through your English. But in English they would say bathe instead of swim. Closet for a toilet and cupboard for clothes. & Holiday instead of vacation. Lift, etc. British words.

I gradually learned English through these private conversations LOL! At age 8 was in the U.S. learning English, so my parents quite speaking English. By the time I was in middle school, they would speak Italian to me, and I would answer in English.

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

chlema — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:26:56 GMT

So if I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing, my grandmother would say, "no, you dasent do that young lady".

Re: Did your Grandparents Use Words Not Heard....

hennypenny — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 19:41:01 GMT

In grandmothereeze---

An avacodo was an aligator pear.

A car was a machine. When she wanted us to phone her she would tell us to "ring me up"

Ice box was used, as well as tin foil. I still say tin foil.

Once she wanted me to send my sister a chair I had. She told me to put it on the wagon. I had no clue. She wanted me to put it on a grey hound bus.

Fun to remember these things.

German and Yiddish were spoken when we weren't supposed to be part of the conversation.