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"Sweet San Fairy Ann"
April 11, 2004, 07:28
wordnerd"Sweet San Fairy Ann"
The last stanza of
shufitz's link has a phrase I've never heard of. It reads, "How the
sweet san fairy ann do I know who you are?"
Does anyone know this one? Is this some Briticism?
April 12, 2004, 18:17
KallehWell, wordnerd, since you didn't get any replies, I tried googling the phrase. However, I only found it in the poem that was posted. Perhaps no one has seen it before?
April 13, 2004, 00:25
arnieIt's often seen as "sweet FA", where the letter A stands for "all".
The phrase means, in essence, "nothing".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
April 13, 2004, 01:06
Richard EnglishThe problem here is that two phrases have been combined. As Bob says, the less polite one is "Sweet F*** All" (or with other euphemistic subsititions like "Sweet Fanny Adams"). It is common enough in the UK.
The other phrase is said to be a corruption of the French "Ce n'est fait rien" which colloquially means "It doesn't matter". This phrase is also common enough in England
So the two similar-sounding phrases actually have slightly different meanings. The first means "nothing at all" and the second, "It doesn't matter" or sometimes "I don't really care".
Nobody would ever use "sweet san fairy anne" in England.
Richard English
April 13, 2004, 01:13
BobHaleI could be wrong but...
I believe that the phrase "San Fairy Ann" or "San Ferry Ann" (which is also the title of a 1965 English Film about a family on a day trip to France) originally comes from a humourous mishearing of "Sans faire rien" meaning "without doing anything". I suspect that "Sweet FA" connection suggested by arnie was added later as "Sweet FA" is generally believed to derive from "Sweet Fanny Adams" once again with the "f*** all" meaning being a later change.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 13, 2004, 01:14
BobHaleDamn those simulposts !
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 13, 2004, 01:36
arniequote:
Ce n'est fait rien
To be pedantic, I believe the French expression is "Ça ne fait rien" -- literally, "that does nothing".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
April 15, 2004, 06:18
arnieA poem about the tragic original Sweet Fanny Adams is
here.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
May 01, 2004, 21:02
Hic et ubiqueRichard says,
Nobody would ever use "sweet san fairy anne" in England.Perhaps not now. But two 1934 songwriters put that that phrase at the end of the song shufitz linked to. That song,
Anne Boleyn, seems quite British, and so does another song by the same songwriters, suggesting that they were British gents.
Richard, you'll enjoy that latter song, called
Lloyd George's Beer. It bemoans the poor quality of beer during WWI.
quote:
It's a substitute, and a pubstitute,
And it's known as Government Ale
Dip your bread in it, Shove your head in it
From January to October,
And I'll bet a penny that you"ll still be sober.