Corks a lumme

Posted by Victoria S Dennis June 02, 2011 at 10:05In reply to Corks a lumme posted by Jo Exon on May 23, 2011 at 21:28:

Corks a lumme? My mother said it all the time... she used it to express surprise. Would love to know the origin.

It's a cockney corruption (or possibly bowdlerisation) of "God love me!" Your mother's form of it is unusual, but "Coo lummy!" and "Cor lummy!" are - or used to be - quite common. So were "Cor blimey!" and "Gorblimey!" which are corruptions of "God blind me!" Your mother's version may have been affected by "Lawks-a-mussy!" - a corruption of "Lord have mercy!" All these phrases date from the end of the 19th century. (VSD)