Say What?

By Tom Nowak and Julie Nowak

Most people would agree, no matter what language they speak, that familiar proverbs and sayings emerge. These are readily spoken and understood within that particular culture without regard to how or when they began.

Unique among these is the language spoken by Americans since it has developed from many languages, dialects, and regional cultures, each contributing to it, if only a little.

No attempt is made here to explain the origins of these sayings. Weve tried to entitle groups of sayings by category, such as verbs, animals, birds, people, etc. Thus far, weve collected about 400 with more coming to light every day from various sources. In the meantime, we hope these will amuse and entertain you and stir up your pure minds.

We made very little attempt toward grammatical correctness. In many cases, this would render the saying much less effective. Also, the use of slang and non words often helps paint word pictures, where this would be absent when applying correct grammar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466932425

Tom Nowak

Tom Nowak, director of advertising for a national manufacturer, transferred with his wife and five children from New York to Pompano Beach, Florida, in January 1969. After retiring from the company in 1982, he became an ordained Christian minister together with his wife Margaret and ministered to children and parents. Julie became involved in the music and teaching aspects until her death in 2006 from hepatitis. Still in Christian ministry, Tom and wife Marge live in Margate, Florida.

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Copyright 2012 Tom and Julie Nowak.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4669-3241-8 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-3240-1 (hc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-3242-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012907370

Trafford rev. 06/12/2012

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Introduction

Most people would agree, no matter what language they speak, that familiar proverbs and sayings emerge. These are readily spoken and understood within that particular culture without regard to how or when they began.

Unique among these is the language spoken by Americans, since it has developed from many languages, dialects and regional cultures, each contributing to it, if only a little.

No attempt is made here to explain the origins of these sayings. WE’ve tried to entitle groups of sayings by category, such as—verbs, animals, birds, people, etc.(see contents page no.4 ) Thus far we’ve collected about 500 with more coming to light every day from various sources. Meantime we hope these following will amuse and entertain you and stir up your pure minds.

We made very little attempt toward grammatical correctness. In many cases, this would render the saying much less effective. Also, the use of slang and non words often helps paint word pictures, where this would be absent when applying correct grammar.

Dedication

This work is dedicated to the memory of my daughter, Julie, who went to be with the Lord in March of 2006. In former years we began collecting and keeping sayings which we came across, some silly, some serious or profound, and shared many laughs and talk sessions about them. It was a rare week passing when we hadn’t come across and noted one or two to add to our collection.

Often Julie would say, Dad, we gotta publish these someday.Well, the day has arrived and now it’s time to do so, while remembering her, quoting her favorite saying, "Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin about #100, Pg.16

Julie had shared with me, on many occasions conversations with certain individuals. They had given her many sayings which she passed over to me to record for future use. Some of them are the following:

Pvt. Kilroy, U.S.Army—Arnold Klingon, Federation of Legislators of the Universe—John Smith, U.S. Citizen—Ben Gay, Specialist of Pain Mgmt.—Will Power—John Outhouse Charles-(Charlie) Horse—Arthur Itis_A.B.) CEEDEE—Cockamayme X. Cuse—Dareal McCoy Bunch O. Malarkey—No. SHENANIGAnS—John.E.Onda spot_Scott Free—Venus, Solar Universe Enterprises and many others

Contents

A collection of preposterous and common proverbs and sayings, rediculous expressions, senseless, slang, colloqialisms and familiar folk wisdom, oftenspoken, but not always understood in our everyday conversation and communication.

Introduction

Dedication

Contents

Verbs

All About Elephants And Things

Animals, Birds, Insects

All About The Body

People, Places Things, Odd Words

Comparisons, Similies, Metaphors

More Misc. Sayings

Conundrums And Dilemmas

It Happened One Night

Whitey The Pigeon

Tanstafl (Say What?)

The Payoff. Say What?

SAY WHAT?

Semantics—(Websters Dictionary) The branch of linguistics concerned with the changes and development