Who is Soft Mick?

[Arfur Million]

Does anyone know the origin of "Soft Mick" as used in phrases like "... more
x than Soft Mick"?

For eample, a wealthy person may be described as "having more money than
Soft Mick", or a spoilt child as "having more toys than Soft Mick", or a
good striker as "scoring more goals than Soft Mick".

I associate the phrase with the Manchester area, since I have heard it most
often when visiting that part of England and from my mother who was brought
up there. I am not saying that it is not used elewhere, but my impression is
that it is a Northern expression.

I've done a Google search or two, and I can't find anything definitive
although this question has often been asked before.

Regards,
Arfur

[ray o'hara]

Post by Arfur Million
Does anyone know the origin of "Soft Mick" as used in phrases like "... more
x than Soft Mick"?
For eample, a wealthy person may be described as "having more money than
Soft Mick", or a spoilt child as "having more toys than Soft Mick", or a
good striker as "scoring more goals than Soft Mick".
I associate the phrase with the Manchester area, since I have heard it most
often when visiting that part of England and from my mother who was brought
up there. I am not saying that it is not used elewhere, but my impression is
that it is a Northern expression.
I've done a Google search or two, and I can't find anything definitive
although this question has often been asked before.
Regards,
Arfur

Must be a limey thing.

[patrana]

but my impression is that it is a Northern expression.
I've done a Google search or two, and I can't find anything definitive
although this question has often been asked before.

It sounds "Irish" because of "Mick", the Irish being supposed to be the
stupid ones, like Polacks in America and my Galego's in Spain (how dare
they!); and it also said to originate in North West of England...but
many Irish came to Liverpool, I think? and I have asked my friends in
Yorkshire and they say "soft mick" (not about me!)...There is a story
about Galegos:
When the Guggenheim come to Bilbao, one man says to another, "What do
you think of Guggenheim coming to Bilbao?", and the other answer, "I
don´t care who the hell he is or where he comes from just so he scores a
lot of goals!"

But according to the Drunktionary

http://freaky_freya.tripod.com/Drunktionary/C-D.html

Drunk as soft mick - Very drunk. "Soft mick" is British army intensive.

So...What does "British army intensive" mean, assuming it means anything
at all?

Pati

[patrana]

I meant to say vascos, of course, who are also supposed to be stupid,
but nobody noticed anyway!

pati

[CDB]

Post by Arfur Million
Does anyone know the origin of "Soft Mick" as used in phrases like
"... more x than Soft Mick"?
For eample, a wealthy person may be described as "having more money
than Soft Mick", or a spoilt child as "having more toys than Soft
Mick", or a good striker as "scoring more goals than Soft Mick".
I associate the phrase with the Manchester area, since I have heard
it most often when visiting that part of England and from my mother
who was brought up there. I am not saying that it is not used
elewhere, but my impression is that it is a Northern expression.
I've done a Google search or two, and I can't find anything
definitive although this question has often been asked before.

Way out there: "drunk as soft mick" is an expression found by Patrana
downthread, labelled a "British army intensive" form of "drunk". It
makes me think of "drunk as shit". Any chance that "mick", here, is a
variation of "muck"? That would explain the intensive effect of
"soft".

There is an interesting, very unfocussed discussion of the question
here, in which I see some hints of that possibility (the word "mard"
comes up several times, too):
http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/printthread.php?t=8434&pp=15
or http://tinyurl.com/9aw9y .