Ooo, you're a caution !!

[curvybird]

Has anyone else heard of this saying ? My sister thinks I've made it up. It reminds me of Nellie Pledge for some reason :o)

[Buenchico]

A simple Google search finds the phrase used by such well known authors as Jack London
http://www.literature...ok-01/chapter-12.html
and Enid Blyton
http://www.enidblyton...hp?f=4&t=1724&start=0
together with questions about it's meaning
http://wiki.answers.c...se_you%27re_a_caution

Chris

[carrot99]

It reminded me of Nellie Pledge too - must be the Oooo! She always said "Oooo, I must get a little hand put on this watch" amongst other things of course!

[curvybird]

What an amazing answer Buenchico, thankyou SO much !!!!

[curvybird]

That's another on Carrot ! And when anyone was going anywhere she would say ' Be sooon ' in the broad Lancashire accent !

[bibblebub]

It sounds like the sort of phrase that Al Read would have popularised, but I can't find any mention of him using it.

[Buenchico]

Thanks your reply, Curvybird.

I've just taken a look in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. One definition of 'caution' is this:
"(colloquial) surprising or amusing person or thing".

Chris

[Quizmonster]

Caution, in this sense, started life as slang in America in the early 19th century.

[juandelacruz]

It's probably gone out now, since everyone in England uses American English. It was an old saying in the Midlands and the North, meaning "you're bold in what you say" or "you do the strangest - riskiest - naughtiest - things.

[Aquagility]

I think in Merseyside it just means "don't hang about, be quick".

[jno]

so where does it derive from? Something along the lines of 'You ought to speak/act with more caution'?

[maskeddude]

Old fashioned term referring to someone thought to be funny.

[maskeddude]

It is an old fashioned term referring to someone cosidered to have said something funny.