Divided by a common language.....or do Americans know how to give someone the hairy eyeball?

Forums: Regional Dialects, English, Humor, Language, Humour
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@Foxfyre,

To me, out of pocket refers to expenses that can't be consolidated into a later bill.

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@Foxfyre,

Not no....you guys just have a different meaning for that phrase....so yes, it can mean you lost money on something, just, it would seem, not in the US, or your part of it.

We laso have Patio's meaning, I think...as in "out of pocket expenses"...

Fascinating that the meaning is so different.

I would never in a million years have guessed the meaning it has for you.

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@patiodog,

Hmmmm...so whoever said it comes from an American sitcom was wrong. I thought so.

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@dlowan,

Yes, out of pocket can relate to cash purchases, tis true - even in the South. But it will always be phrases 'out of pocket expenses' or 'out of pocket purchases. The southern colloquialism 'out of pocket' to describe somebody or something not being where it is supposed to be or usually is found is something entirely different as described.

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Do y'all differentiate there in Oz between 'eyeballing' sb or sth and 'giving sb the hairy eyeball'?

I don't think I'd ever heard the latter 'til this thread.

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@JTT,

Giving the hairy eyeball is verra real, but I can only demo in person...

(I do an online sim occasionally...)

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@JTT,

I don't know that we particularly use "eyeballing"......hmmm.....

I think, if we did, that I would take it to mean "getting a look at", it wouldn't have the somewhat threatening sense of "giving the hairy eyeball".

Here's an American type definitions of eyeball used as a verb:

tr.v. eye·balled, eye·ball·ing, eye·balls Informal
1. To look over carefully; scrutinize.
2. To measure or estimate roughly by sight: eyeballed the area of the wall that needed paint

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@dlowan,

Actually, eyeballing here can carry the same sense as "sizing someone up" -- which is to say, weighing your odds in a fight (literal or figurative with them), so there is a threatening sense (sometimes).

But it ain't the same as the hairy eyeball. (Now, why the hell did I know before what the "hairy eyeball" is? I've no memory of encountering it before. Maybe it's a priori knowledge...)

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@patiodog,

Yep, I know eyeballing ain't the same as the hairy eyeball.

I was the same...I had never heard the phrase before, and I was asked to give it to a couple of errant kids.

I gave it all right.

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@dlowan,

How about stink-eye? Have you got stink-eye in Oz?

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@patiodog,

We got snake eye...what's stink eye????

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Don't you give me no dirty looks
Your father's hip, he knows what cooks
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don't go out Friday night

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@dlowan,

Lingering direct look, with eyes slitted, and frequently with the head turned slightly to the right or left.

That's how I do it, anywho. Not as dramatic, I think, as the hairy eyeball.

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@patiodog,

More of a warning shot fired over the bows, then?

I wonder if that is the same as a "narrow look"?

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@dlowan,

My mother used a word...."larrapin," to describe something that tasted fabulous

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@mags314772,

Cocksploders and thunderchickens taste fabulous.

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@dlowan,

Somesstimes, my babies in story hour give me the stink eye if I intrude on their perceived space too much.

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@mags314772,

Hmmmm...I'd tend to perceive that as a spanking!

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@dlowan,

Deb, I was the american sitcom commenter - I wasn't referring to any of the phrases you'd mentioned, I was talking about the phenomenon where a phrase enters strine and people think it's strine, but it's actually borrowed from TV (usually US or UK).

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@hingehead,

Aha...got some examples???

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Divided by a common language.....or do Americans know how to give someone the hairy eyeball?

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