"'Ello guvna!"

[Phlegmak]

Has anyone, anywhere, at any point in human history, actually said this? Of course I'm referring to "hello, governor," but I spelled it phonetically. I say that particular expression when I want to sound like an ass. And that's about the only times I hear it. That and old cartoons.

 

[joycem10]

Yangus in Dragon Quest VIII. Says it quite often in fact.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I've always associated it with 17-18th Century Aristocracy.

 

[RedRalph]

My wifes a cockney, and she literally says nothing else

 

[really]

I've heard Evening Standard sellers and cab drivers say it, or variations on it. like evenin' guv. I think it has been replaced by Aw right mate. Innit.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

My wifes a cockney, and she literally says nothing else

That's the best use of the word "literally" ever.

 

[Gilder]

Pygmalion comes to mind.

 

[Leonel]

I heard it in the Black Adder Christmas Special

 

[sysyphus]

I've heard "Cheers guv" when being handed a pint.

 

[malclave]

I think the expression appeared in one or more dream sequences in Gilligan's Island... maybe the one where Gilligan thought he was turning into a monster like in The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde?

 

[A1CBOZ]

My father said it to his father just being a smartass. His father got pissed and said "I'm not the governor of this F-ing state." ahh... i love my family....

 

[Perfection]

I said it to Jesse Ventura while he was guvna.

 

[LightFang]

I've said it, but only online.

 

[RedRalph]

That's the best use of the word "literally" ever.

cheers man ever notice some people seem to think "literally" means the exact opposite of what it does (I was being sarcastic)? Like when somone says "I was literally as high as a kite" and they think literally means metaphorically?

 

[brennan]

London Cab drivers.

 

[aaglo]

Alfred P. Doolittle (Eliza Doolittle's father) said it a couple of times in My Fair Lady

 

[Sofista]

One of Wodehouse's Lord Emsworth's sons addresses his father like that - can't remember whichone, or indeed if all of them do (I haven't read that many of those books in English).

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

cheers man ever notice some people seem to think "literally" means the exact opposite of what it does (I was being sarcastic)? Like when somone says "I was literally as high as a kite" and they think literally means metaphorically?

Oh yeah, or "my head literally exploded".

I just figured if what you said was literally true . . . then I have met parrots with a more extensive vocabulary than your wife.