Passe' words and phrases

[LaMedicine]

Having lived for the better part of the past 40+ years in a non-English environment after several years of living and going to school in English speaking environments, I don't even have the slightest idea what words and phrases are passe or not, save for what I read in print lol lol lol

 

[Talbot]

Two archaisms in one phrase "While you've a lucifer to light your fag". Lucifer, of course, being a match, fag being short for faggot, the literal meaning of which is a bundle of sticks. My mother always used the term "fag" for cigaret. Where it got the more infamous current meaning I don't know, and don't intend to explore.

I can still remember years back a collegue asking a visiting American if he'd like a fag - priceless!

 

[KY Gentleman]

I wish the question "Workin' hard or hardly workin'" would go away.
I've heard it all my life and I'm tired!

 

[Dr Doran]

I wish the question "Workin' hard or hardly workin'" would go away.
I've heard it all my life and I'm tired!

OOh, that one is bad. I used to hate hearing 'YOU DA MAN!' or the variant 'YOU THE MAN!' until the film Minority Report came out, which has a hilarious scene using that phrase -- so now I like it.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I was born tired and had a relapse.

 

[JimInSoCalif]

Oleo Margerine.
Fake butter.

Some time over the years, the 'Oleo' portion of the name was dropped. When this product was first intoduced, during WW ll, as I recall, it was white and not very appealing and the yellow coloring came in a seperate packet that had to be mixed in. A bit of a bother. I remember doing that chore.

I don't recall when it was first sold with the coloring premixed. I did read that Wisconsin, a State with a large dairy industry, was the last place to allow Margerine to be sold with the yellow coloring already added.

Cheers, Jim.

 

[JimInSoCalif]

Someone mentioned 'dialing the phone', a perfect description of the way we used to do it. I have been wondering when someone will come up with a better description for the way we have placed calls for a couple of generations now.

I can't think of one, and it seems no one else has either.

Remember when long distance calls (trunk calls in the U.K. I believe) were a 'big deal'? Actually, they were a big deal as they were rather costly. In 1962 I called California from England and it cost $25.00 for three minutes and that was fair bit of 'coin' in those days.

Cheers, Jim.

 

[Delthayre]

Sproochen sie Deitsch?

Language has a funny way of constantly changing. Having read a few books about historical linguistics has taught me that very clearly.

I have noticed that my speech is anachronistic by comparison to my contemporaries. For example, I prefer the synthetic construction of the superlative with -er to the analytic construction using more. For example, where some might say, "more cheap," or the like, my instinct, and I do stress the unconsciousness of the act, is to say, "cheaper." American speech is sometimes rather more conservative than English speech, consider that fall is still commonly used in the United States, but has largely been supplanted by autumn abroad and that the subjunctive is slightly livelier in American English as well.

Another curious case is that many people now say, probably as a result of linguistic leveling, "addicting," where I would say, "addictive."

Whilst it is not prevalent in Pennsylvania, where I was born and reared, or Albany, where I presently reside, in many places pen has fallen out of use because there has been a merger of vowels that renders pen and pin phonologically identical, thus giving rise to the compound ink pen as a way to avoid ambiguity.

I have retained the use of some Pennsylvania Dutch words and idioms that I acquired from my father's relatives that were once prevalent in the Lehigh Valley, but are now rare, viz. nixnuts, strubblich, rutsching and even occasionally saying that something, "is all," to mean that it is empty. I'm not sure if I'm being facetious when I say, "it wonders me," or, "outen the lights," and, "it's making down," or not, but neither phrase seems very odd to me, even if they are rare in my speech. In fact, in this part of Pennsylvania, one could say that an entire language has gone out of style.

You should see the looks that are directed at me whenever I for some odd reason use archaic preposition anent, the pronouns whither and whence or anything from the rest of my arsenal of strange, old words.

 

[Lulu-in-Ny]

I consistently call "Shenanigans" on anything that I find unfair or ridiculous.
And my ultimate expression of annoyance or exasperation is definitely "Cripes A'mighty!!" (Often abbreviated to simply "Cripes". My grandmother used both frequently, and it has stayed with me.
I also say "close the lights", but that might be more geographical than old-fashioned.

 

[V-Sweetheart]

I find that my love of vintage books and film protects me from modern slang. I can't tell you just how appalled I was when a co-worker told another co-worker she looked "Phat". Since I had never heard the term before, I assumed he meant "fat." I almost slugged the man right there. The female co-worker quickly explained. Now this 'Phat' word is something that should most definitely be retired.

 

[LaMedicine]

American speech is sometimes rather more conservative than English speech, consider that fall is still commonly used in the United States, but has largely been supplanted by autumn abroad and that the subjunctive is slightly livelier in American English as well.

Hmm....and I thought autumn was the prevalent term in British English rather than fall. I mean, when I attended a British school in the '50s, it was autumn, not fall, and I was rather shocked to find out a few years later when residing in the US that Americans preferred fall to autumn, and would be quite amused when I used the term autumn. [huh]

I guess it's a good example of some things coming back after time.
See what I mean when I say I haven't the slightest idea what's passe and what's not in my case? lol lol lol

 

[eldonkr]

Some of the words I still use are nifty, neato, neato keen, super neato and many other variations, dame, git go, do it before I have to tell you to (thanks dad), cinema, television, damn there were others, I was making a mental list of them as I read through the thread. But now that I'm actually typing I've forgotten them, and I use a lot of them too. Oh well.

One of the odd things I do as I refer to the washer and dryer as 'laundry machines' because I used to get confused and call the dish washer the washer when I was a child. . .

 

[tuppence]

I still go to the video store

We also had a childrens' song about the gay life of a Kookaburra(bird) that is no longer heard in Kindergartens.

 

[patrick1987]

That's correct because a DVD is a video. It's just not a videotape. You never went to the VHS store, didja?
The Flintstones don't have a gay old time anymore in their song either.

 

[just_me]

I know there are other terms I use, but this is all I can think of right now:

I still use tin foil and tin cans and dial the phone.
CDs are records.
Get the skinny or the lowdown.
Oh brother

Someone mentioned ink pen instead of pen. That might be regional. I've never heard anyone use that where I've lived. It's just a pen. Sometimes a ball point if they mean specifically that.

 

[tuppence]

That's correct because a DVD is a video. It's just not a videotape. You never went to the VHS store, didja?
The Flintstones don't have a gay old time anymore in their song either.

Hey well you learn something new every day

So sorry haven't seen Flinstones in years. Did they alter the song?

 

[Mike in Seattle]

RE: dial phones, I believe it was the film In and Out where one of the characters tells his uber-skinny supermodel girlfriend to eat something and tells her to order a pizza and she can't figure out how to do it because the town in Indiana (?) they're visiting has dial phones, not touch-tone. And even that's outdated because she'd have her own cell phone these days, right?

My cousin's daughters, in their mid-teens, have no concept of how a record player works. "Uncle Mikey" just has these weird black CD's with big holes and they're completely out of their element when I pull out some vinyl and put it on that weird thing that spins. The older one (16 yrs old) still comprehends how to use a VCR...at least to play tapes. Her younger sister has not a clue. If it's not a DVD, she's out of her depth.

 

[Vornholt]

Someone mentioned ink pen instead of pen. That might be regional. I've never heard anyone use that where I've lived. It's just a pen. Sometimes a ball point if they mean specifically that.

Personally I detest the "ink pen" line". There's another kind? I'm going to pull a sheep pen out of my coat pocket? :rage:

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Ink Pen" is not uncommon around here -- it's a sort of backwoodsy term for a pen that carries its own ink supply, as opposed to a dip pen. You usually only hear it from people middle-aged or older, though.

As far as "dial the phone" goes, no matter what direction technology takes it still sounds less clumsy than "key the phone" or "press the phone" or whatever else it is you're supposed to say when using a touch-tone. And yes, "long distance" is still a big deal to some folks -- my mother for one, who will always say "SHUT UP, I'M ON LONG DISTANCE!" if you try to interrupt her in the midst of a call.

 

[pplepic]

Dated phrases

Some dated phrases I don't even want to remember still stick:
You better believe it
See ya later alligator, after while crocodile
Sears threatened to take my stainless steel refrigerator with ice station back if I persisted in calling it the icebox.
a dime a dozen. That's really cheap these days.:eusa_clap
Add: the deep freeze, washing machine...