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When was the first time you noticed someone say "Bless" instead of "Bless him/her"?

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

i.e. is this usage quite recent, quite ancient, or quite wot? And where did it start?

And what TV prog canonised it (as if I didn't know, you plonkers...)

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Apparently in the new series Del Boy will be saying "BlessXoR"

― Tom, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

When I first met Clare F.(who used it all the time) at university, so that would have been 1993.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Mine was a Claire too - Claire B (now O'S) who equally used it a college all the time in 1993. I am RickyT.

― Pete, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

When I was rehearsing a play called 'Vinegar Tom' for the Edinburgh Fringe, a girl called Emma used it lots. She played a witch who I burned nightly. Maybe it was a voodoo thing.

Like RickyT, this would have been about 1993. I still use it LOADS. But I think its quite a nice thing to say. Better than 'a thousand curses rain upon you, pig dog' for example.

― Will McKenzie, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I don't know where it came from, possibly hell.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

My earliest memory of "bless" must have been the divine Kirsti or the divine Vicky, probably sometime in 1992, also at college.

I have used it a lot too, but over the last year or so have become bored of plain, unadorned "bless" and now prefer to use "bless your heart".

― Tim, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Yeah, I got it from the same Claire as Pete. But I don't use it much.

― Tom, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Surely it has to be prefixed with "Awww"?

― DG, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Nothing to do w/ the expression "bless his/her/their little cotton socks" then?

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I don't have the foggiest what programme originated it, but the first person I ever heard use it was Paul. Paul has enriched my vocabulary in lots of strange contractions, such as "Mare" meaning horrifying experience. I wondered for ages if he was sexist towards horses until I realised it was a contraction of "nightmare".

― kate, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

It's been a while since I heard "mare".

Another great expression which needs revival is "pony".

― Tom, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

there was a most excellent adding-up quiz in the metro the other day that required you to add up ponies and monkeys and tons. a pony is 25 quid isn't it? i prefer monkeys but that's £500 (i think) so i don't think i'll see many of those :(

― katie, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Tom, do you mean 'pony' as in Katie's £25 or pony as in they rhyming slang for 'not very good'? I rather like the latter ("that's a bit pony" while I've simply never understood the former.

― Tim, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

"Not very good", Tim. It was the term-of-choice for undesirable stock in my bookshop days, and a very good term it is too.

― Tom, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

There's also "pony up": as in, gimme. Often said by scrotes after a blag. You fucking muppet.

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Pony & Trap = crap.

― Pete, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Yes, but why does pony = £25?

― Tim, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Because that is what ponies used to cost in the old days when the slang was invented, innit?

― Emma, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Pony + pears = stairs
Pony + flute = suit
Pony + twunt = punt
etc

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

The Irish Pony and Twunt currently has a shitty rate against Sterling therefore I am costing myself an arm and a leg for a weekend with my bruv in London.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

arm + leg = poached egg

― mark s, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I knew you'd use that

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

It may only be costing you a poached egg for a trip to London but I bet you spend a Ton of Monkeys when you get here.

― Tim, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Only a poached egg? I dont think you realise how many pony and twunts we're dealing with here, getting to London on a shoestring budget is no mean plate of meat.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Bless.

― Tim, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

is this a pomie thing?

― Geoff, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I don't know, I just played along with those two older kids.

― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I've never heard it. And what on earth does pony + twunt = punt mean?

― maria, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Um, anyone who gives 25 pounds ("pony") to a smugly disagreeable nimrod (" + twunt") deserves a kicking ("= punt")?

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Pony, pony, pony. I like that word.

― rainy, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

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