Waiting for the kettle to boil
While decanting tea leaves to the tea caddy I found two cards in the bottom of the Brew Tea Co box. One was about recycling, which was helpful, although the information about tea bags seemed redundant as the tea was loose leaf.
The second card was about ‘retro tea vernacular,’ and had on it three phrases I’ve never heard before.
Apparently from the 1800s, the first was ‘Prattle broth’. Prattle is idle chatter or gossip, and broth is a hot infusion, in this case tea. It was exclusively women who were thought to be involved in this pastime. Other terms from the same period included ‘chatter broth’ and scandal broth.’
The second idiom was a 19th century expression to indicate excess or extravagance. ‘Butter upon bacon’ has much the same resonance as ‘gilding the lily’ or ‘over-egging the pudding.’ It can occasionally be heard among older generations in Northern England.
The last phrase is ‘nanty narking.’ It originated in the first half of the 19th century in public house slang, and means having a fantastically enjoyable time, sometimes becoming excessive and riotous.
‘Nanty’ may derive from the Italian ‘niente’ for nothing. ‘Nark’ means to annoy or irritate, though it has a secondary meaning of being a snitch or informer. Spelt slightly differently as narc, it is associated with narcotics.
That was fun and reminds me that I had thought to write a blog about a certain phrase.
ReplyDeleteI haven't bought or drunk tea in sooooo long... if the crisis is that I'm sick then maybe, but I haven't, I don't even remember the last time, thank God not... even in winter I didn't drink it... if I did, then it was rosehip, and maybe a few others too but I've already forgotten... years :)))
ReplyDeleteAs if men never gossip/share tea. That notion of "exclusivity" is a bit "narking" ha.
ReplyDeleteI've been known to prattle in my time!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I don't drink tea but Mr. M. does every night. All of his tea bags have some sort of saying.
ReplyDeleteI think language is a fascinating thing.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! The gossip and tea thing...we say, give me the "tea" (gossip)
ReplyDeleteEven some of my kids from work say 'spill the tea' when they want to know what's going on. Funny how things ripple into everyday speech.
ReplyDeleteI like 'nanty narking' but I can't imagine using it in my daily conversations.
Two Old Ladies on the road in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, USA. We’re having a nanty narking without the excess because we’re boring that way. - CJ
ReplyDeleteThere's also nark it! Meaning stop it. Usually when teasing gets cruel.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of tea being called broth, but I am familiar with the expression "spilling the tea".
ReplyDeleteI definitely remember "She's putting butter on her bacon" as a sign that someone was overdoing it, coming from my Salford grandmother.
ReplyDeleteWell now, this is something I never knew of about tea. And I'm a tea drinker, but being over here, tea is probably not the the same category as in the UK. Less interest in the whats and hows than just sipping, lol.
ReplyDeleteWe don’t drink a whole lot of tea. Sadly we have abandoned loose tea in favour of tea bags, but that seems to be almost universal these days. Even in a restaurant the string from the bag is hanging outside the pot.
ReplyDeleteWe often used to say 'he/she likes toast with her butter' and I have also been accused of too much prattling LOL
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Interesting to know of, even if I won't remember them.
ReplyDeleteI remember my grandparents describing someone as narky, or 'a bit of a nark', which I took on as nasty, spiteful or unpleasant.
Ok...I'll call uncle. I've never heard of any of these.... But it did bring to mind the game "Balderdash" - a favorite one our family played a great deal. (You probably know of it but, if not, players try to bluff and trick their opponents by coming up with definitions to (mostly) obscure words.) "Nanty narking" got my mind whirring with possibilities.... ;-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting old phrases, I have heard of "gilding the lily" and "over-egging the pudding," but none of the others. I am trying to drink more tea and cutting back on coffee because I always add far too much sugar and with tea it's just a bit of honey, but the coffee calls to me...or maybe it's the sugar calling (*~*)
ReplyDeleteI've heard of a narc but the rest of the phrases are all new to me.
ReplyDeleteI think my favourite is “chatter broth.” … and kinda true.
ReplyDeleteTea is my drink of choice on most occasions, so I found this particularly interesting. "Prattle broth" and "chatter broth" seem especially appropriate.
ReplyDeletePrattle broth? I haven't heard that but I have heard, What are you prattling on about? lol
ReplyDeleteThank you, everyone. 😷
ReplyDelete