Five and Twenty To..

[DUFFEMS 54]

My grandparents born in 1900, my mother and mother-in-law now both in their 80's have said this all their lives, it must be a Victorian thing or to do with the chap who used to walk the streets calling the times.

I've grown up with it, I don't say it but, I know what it means.

It's only ever 5 and 20 to or 5 and 20 past.

My mother says Derbyshire (der) not Darbyshire as we pronounce it, again, so did my grandparents.

[chimay 10]

My grandparents born in 1900, my mother and mother-in-law now both in their 80's have said this all their lives, it must be a Victorian thing or to do with the chap who used to walk the streets calling the times.

I've grown up with it, I don't say it but, I know what it means.

It's only ever 5 and 20 to or 5 and 20 past.

My mother says Derbyshire (der) not Darbyshire as we pronounce it, again, so did my grandparents.

 

That Derby/Darby thing puzzled me for years as everyone seemed to pronounce it in their own way.

[Meaks 11]

Both my Grandmas said it (Derbyshire though, not Yorkshire) and I still carry on the tradition much to annoyance of the OH.

[DUFFEMS 54]

That Derby/Darby thing puzzled me for years as everyone seemed to pronounce it in their own way.

 

I think it's another old Sheffield thing, all the older members of my family talked that way.

[Omar Khatib 10]

Funny this.

 

I was only on about it the other day with the lads at work.

[Organgrinder 1,946]

All our family used to say it, and I considered it was a perfectly normal way of describing the time. It brings to mind a man I used to work with who, for a laugh, would say "five and 28 minutes past" or "five and twenty eight minutes to" and it was amazing how many would thank him and walk away without questioning what he had said. Don't know whether the penny finally dropped some time later but I always thought it was hilarious.

[lazarus 68]

Five & twenty is the way it was said in the sixteenth century and after until the fifties, even though your grandparents & parents said it al their lives, I think it was the B.B.C. that instigated its demise by the news broadcasts and such.

My own parents used the phrase until they died.

[Lostrider 10]

It's a bit like:-

 

"4 & 20 blackbirds, baked in a pie" from the nursery rhyme.

 

My parents used it all the time but I never did.

[OwlsChick 10]

It was the normal way of saying it in the olden days ... ie before 1960 probably But for some reason it only ever applied to 25 past and 25 to the hour Then we got a bit modern and said twenty five to.

 

Thanks to you and Duffems for been in my zone

[DUFFEMS 54]

Thanks to you and Duffems for been in my zone

 

You are not alone, we all have our crazy relatives to thank!

Duffems

[soft ayperth 11]

It was the normal way of saying it in the olden days ... ie before 1960 probably But for some reason it only ever applied to 25 past and 25 to the hour Then we got a bit modern and said twenty five to.

 

It was still in common usage in 1968 Rubydazzler. Like I said in a previous posting, I moved to Canada in Jan 69 and started saying it over here at first, until I noticed I was getting strange looks.

[rubydazzler 11]

It was still in common usage in 1968 Rubydazzler. Like I said in a previous posting, I moved to Canada in Jan 69 and started saying it over here at first, until I noticed I was getting strange looks.

Amongst the older end it was certainly, and they never really stopped saying it, my auntie was nearly 90 when she died in 94. still said it that way. But we started to say 25 past or to in the late 50s iirc. I still say it that way, 5.35 sounds too much like a train timetable

 

How's the weather over there, I hear it's positively tropical for the time of year? Only about -4.