cor-blimey hat
Hela Ferjani
Is there someone who could give the meaning of "cor-blimey hat" in the
following sentence?
"Inside was almost the same photo: me in tweed jacket, machine
washable at number five trousers, cor-blimey hat and two-tone shoes."
L Deighton
Many thanks,
HF
MC
helaf...@yahoo.fr (Hela Ferjani) wrote:
I don't suppose this is much help, but "cor blimey trousers" are
mentioned in a Lonnie Donegan song in the same breath as "dustman's hat"
-- maybe Deighton was getting them mixed up. But then that raoises the
question of what cor blimey trousers are. Dunnit?
+++
My Old Man's A Dustman
Lonnie Donegan
-Derived from an old army tune with lyrics written by Donegan
Now here's a little story to tell it is a must
About an unsung hero that moves away your dust
Some people make a fortune other's earn a mint
My old man don't earn much
In fact....he's flippin'.....skint
Oh! my old man's a dustman he wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat
He looks a proper narner in his great big hob nailed boots
He's got such a job to pull em up that he calls them daisy roots
Some folks give tips at Christmas and some of them forget
So when he picks their bins up he spills some on the steps
Now one old man got nasty and to the council wrote
Next time my old man went 'round there he punched him up the throat
Oh! my old man's a dustman he wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat
I say I say Duncan! I 'er...I found a police dog in my dustbin
(How do you know he's a police dog?) He had a policeman with him
Though my old man's a dustman he's got a heart of gold
He got married recently though he's 86 years old
We said 'Ear! Hang on Dad you're getting past your prime'
He said 'Well when you get to my age it helps to pass the time'
Oh! my old man's a dustman he wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat
I say I say I say! My dustbins full of lillies
(Well throw 'em away then) I can't Lilly's wearing them
Now one day while in a hurry he missed a lady's bin
He hadn't gone but a few yards when she chased after him
'What game do you think you're playing' she cried right from the heart
'You've missed me...am I too late?' 'No... jump up on the cart'
Oh! my old man's a dustman he wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat
I say I say I say (What you again!) My dustbin's absolutely full with
toadstools
(How do you know it's full) 'Cos there's not much room inside
He found a tiger's head one day, nailed to a piece of wood
The tiger looked quite miserable but I suppose it should
Just then from out a window, a voice began to wail
He said (Oi! Where's me tiger head) Four foot from it's tail
Oh! my old man's a dustman he wears a dustman's hat
He wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat
Next time you see a dustman looking all pale and sad
Don't kick him in the dustbin it might be my old dad
masakim
"Hela Ferjani" wrote:
gonblimey n. [1910s+] a rakish cap. [orig. milit. use. 'A "Gorblimey' was
the common colloquial term for an unwired, floppy, field-service cap worn by
a certain type of subaltern in defiance of the Dress Regulations. Lines from
a song, popular before the War, ran: "He wears Gorblimey trousers / An a
little Gorblimey 'at".' (Fraser & Gibbons); ultimately f. GORBLIMEY!]
gorblimey! gor blimey! excl. [late 19C+] a mild euphemistic oath, lit. 'God
blind me!'
From _Cassell's Dictionary of Slang_ (1998) by Jonathon Green
gorblimey, gaw-, -blime, blimy (1919)
British, dated; applied to a soft service cap, from the exclamation
_gorblimey_.
From _Oxford Dictionary of Slang_ (1998) by John Ayto
Gorblimey. A rakish hat, as supposedly worn by a Cockney or anyone prone to
exclaiming 'gorblimey', as a slurring of 'God blind me'. ('Blimey' is a
short form of this.) The hat so named evolved in the early years of the 20th
century as a type of unconventional military headgear in the form of a
floppy field-service cap. Gorblimey trousers were in similar style, and both
terms were directly inspired by a ribald Liverpool folk ditty, 'My Old Man's
a Fireman on the Elder-Dempster Line', which had the couplet, 'He wears
Gorblimey trousers / An a little gorblimey 'at'. This same song was adapted
by Lonnie Donegan for his No. 1 hit, 'My Old Man's a Dustman' (1960), which
again popularized the garments.
From _Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable_ (2000) by Adrian Room
Regards,
masakim
Hela Ferjani
Regards,
Hela