Housey Slang.....

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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graham
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Post by graham »

it was reported that some folks were messin around in Mab after lights, and shouted 'KV' when they heard kemp approaching, who dutifully told them: "Come on now chaps, you know it's pronounced cave"
I can confirm that this certainly occured during my days in MaB! CHK would probably have reminded anyone who dared get this wrong though.
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DavebytheSea
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slang

Post by DavebytheSea »

going back to late 40s/50s (!!!!) "kiff, crug, flab, squit, quis, ego", all used. Also: "skiffage pie" (delicious!), and another name given to a heavy duff that came looking like it had been squeezed out of a toothpaste tube ( i can't now recall the name. "Swabs" (fags) were paid and privileged. "Flip-flaps" - an exercise performed during compulsory "PT" in house groups half naked on the asphalt during break time. "Nose blowing" and "prayers" hardly slang but with a unique meaning to generations of blues who sprang out of bed each morning to perform these rituals.
David Eastburn (Prep B and Mid A 1947-55)
menace
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Slang

Post by menace »

Now I remember most of that - I was there in that period. There was also a lot of bullying when I first went there, with a delightful technique known as "fotching". This involved a very unhealthy whack round the back of the head. At home I have a dictionary of "housey slang" and much of it goes back a very long way.

Nicknames for masters/mistresses and matrons were always cruel and imaginative - it's nice to know that the tradition carries on. I might add that the school has always had a fair share of "eccentrics" or loony toons.
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marty
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Re: Slang

Post by marty »

menace wrote: At home I have a dictionary of "housey slang" and much of it goes back a very long way.
let's hear some then !!
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menace
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Old slang

Post by menace »

Beam = backside c1905
black jimmy = a foul medicine around 1885
broadie = the buckle for reaching middle school
bogs = the bogs at the back of the House during my day (1905 style hygiene)
chalks = milk at Hertford
gag = stew beef, slang is referrred to by Lamb in one of his essays
tightassed = a caning
skiffage = leftovers
sicker = the Infirmary
scraps = a scratch rugger XV from the West end Houses
hedgehogs = the name the boys in London used to refer to the Hertford crowd

Plenty more where they came from - my favourite is the last one
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DavebytheSea
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Fotching

Post by DavebytheSea »

Yes Finney was a great and much feared fotcher when I moved from the Prep into Middleton A. Also thrashed juniors with a platted girdle - a truly terrifying presence!
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Housey slang and malpractice

Post by menace »

Fotching was always a despicable act of legalized brutality. Same for beatings - the guy should have been expelled. On some fronts the place has improved beyond belief - I am sure we would have had Tom Brown "burnings" if there had been open fires big enough to do it. Strapping someone on a radiator was more pleasant/comfortable than anything. Ah the dire threats from Matron of chilblains and hemorrhoids.....
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Swabs

Post by Lamma looker »

I recall "swab" as the term for the personal "body servant" to a house monitor. A paid appointment, no less. I think I was paid ten shillings (50p) a term .
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Swabs

Post by menace »

Exactly right - I had forgotten all about that sideline. It also got you out of the worst trades because you were busy doing whatever the monitor needed done.
Lamma looker
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Trades

Post by Lamma looker »

Yes, but I don't think it got you out of the mealtime trades. I'm not sure if all houses used the same naming system but in LaA we had (I think):

Plates 1 - pre-meal set-up - always a good skive because it got you off parade
Plates 2 - serving the main course
Plates 3 - serving second course
Plates 4 - clearing up, especially revolting mopping tables with grotty wet cloths.
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Re: Swabs

Post by Hendrik »

Lamma looker wrote:I recall "swab" as the term for the personal "body servant" to a house monitor. A paid appointment, no less. I think I was paid ten shillings (50p) a term .
?????????

i thought that whole 'act' was illegal in the UK until the 60s/70s? :shock: or am i misunderstanding something here?
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Post by Lamma looker »

Cleaning shoes, making beds, lighting study fires, general dogsbody - Illegal?

Of course, as a hanging offence, the other alternative was an unpaid option I guess though I can't recall any specific cases.

That has triggered the memory of another bit of slang - "small boy" and "big boy" for those relationships.
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Hendrik
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Post by Hendrik »

misunderstood completely! :oops:

i assumed it meant something in the region of 'rent boy'! i was going to praise you for your openness and honesty about what would have been a sensitive area. :?

general dogsbody not so bad. i suppose whichever grecian it was was probably quite lenient towards you about other stuff. kinda like a big bruv. :)
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Post by Richard Ruck »

Hendrik wrote:misunderstood completely! :oops:

i assumed it meant something in the region of 'rent boy'! i was going to praise you for your openness and honesty about what would have been a sensitive area. :?
A very sensitive area by the end of term, one would imagine!
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Lamma looker
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Misunderstood

Post by Lamma looker »

I see how you could misunderstand! I think that any "rent boy" activity was entirely on a voluntary and unpaid basis - lurv, dontcha know.

I was lucky and had a swab-master who was pretty lenient though I came in for my fair share of bollockings. However, I think that just like real life, some swab-masters could be real ******** to work for and consequently tended to change their swabs frequently.
A healthy mind is a sign of a mis-spent youth
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