Euphemisms

[poliphilo]

My mother says, "I want to spend a penny"- a locution that goes back to the now far-off days when you had to put a penny (an old pre-decimal penny) in a slot to unlock the cubicle in a public toilet.

My grandmother went with, "I need to see a man about a dog," which as a child I took literally. I had a mental picture of that man: he wore a flat cap and a hunting jacket and drove one of those shooting brakes with a half-timbered rear end, while the dog was a pointer or some such- a large working dog- and a far cry from the sealyhams and dachshunds my grandmother actually favoured. So what did dhe want with him and it? Who knew? Grown-ups were weird...

Comments

[basefinder]

My grandfather would say "I need to go make a long-distance phone call" back in my younger days.

[poliphilo]

That's one I haven't heard before.