Passe' words and phrases

[dhermann1]

Speechifying

Speechifyin' is what a lot of candidates do around this time of the year. A very old sort of Mark Twainey sort of word.

 

[dhermann1]

I'll bet a cookie

I'll bet a cookie you haven't hears the phrase "I'll bet a cookie" in a long time.
Eisenhower used it frequently, according to the bios I read of him.

 

[Kassia]

Well, in betrayal of both my age and where I grew up:

"That was a real E-ticket ride!"

Haversack

What's that mean?

 

[Kassia]

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.

Our truck has a cassette tape player in it..It's only 10 years old ...

 

[Kassia]

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. . .

Washer and dryer... They live downstairs in the laundery room..
Dish washer lives upstairs in the kitchen.. LOl.. Dishwashing soap and dish soap... Hand soap or bar soap?

Theater is where you go see a play and the movie theatre is where you see a film or movie...

Alot of these words are very regional and national too.. We don't use some of the same words, and never did in Canada has you do in the USA or the UK..

A rubber in Canada is a condom but in the UK it is an eraser for a pencil..
Ring somebody up means to call them on the phone.
Soda and pop are the same thing..
We have touques to wear on our heads when we have cold weather but in the USA you wear a knit or stocking cap to keep your head warm..

Oh geeshhh sorry that's so long and a litt6le bit off topic.. But i really think it has alot to do with where you live too...
We still have pay phones... I still have a phone that plugs into the wall because the cordless phone in my house doesn't work when the power goes out.. And in Canada we call it a Cell phone but pay the mobility bill every month.. I think in the UK it's a mobile phone... Judging by the name of the company called Virgin Mobile anyway..

I still tape shows off the tv to watch later.. But i do have a dvr with a hard drive in it so i never actually have to make an actually tape or disk unless i want to keep it to watch over and over ...

The one phrase that my dh says it Peachy... He's peachy Mike..
Peachy is non discript and can be used when you have either a good day or a bad day..

 

[Kassia]

I'll bet a cookie you haven't hears the phrase "I'll bet a cookie" in a long time.
Eisenhower used it frequently, according to the bios I read of him.

Anyone else use the phrase, I'll be you dollars to donuts?

 

[just_me]

What's that mean?

Disney Land and Disney World rides used to be on a ticket system instead of the current pass system. You'd get a book with tickets A-E. E ticket rides being the best (Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mt., Haunted Mansion, etc.), A tickets being the least desirable (Main St. Cinema, etc.).

So, if you term something an E-ticket ride, it's really good.

 

[just_me]

Anyone else use the phrase, I'll be you dollars to donuts?

I don't use it, but I've heard of it. Never heard of bet you a cookie, though.

 

[IndigoFanatic]

The one phrase that my dh says it Peachy... He's peachy Mike..
Peachy is non discript and can be used when you have either a good day or a bad day..

I'll actually use that every once in a while, though sometimes I get odd looks when I do.

Rather off-topic, but I was in a building at my school that I'd never been in before, and was shocked to see an actual phone booth inside. Not a payphone, but an actual booth with a door and a seat inside and everything. Being only in my mid-20's, I honestly can't recall the last time I saw one of those.

 

[KilroyCD]

Anyone else use the phrase, I'll be you dollars to donuts?

Yes, I use it quite regularly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't use it, but I've heard of it. Never heard of bet you a cookie, though.

Around here it was always "I'll bet a hat!" And that was decades before anyone ever heard of the Fedora Lounge.

 

[miss_elise]

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

we still sing this one every time on brownie camp...or occasionally at other times... even the mothers enjoy this one...

incidentally the song was written by a guide leader in 1934

 

[St.Ignatz]

Dial a phone to give someone a ring? Does anyone under 25 even suspect the origins? How about vice squad? Blouse ones trousers. Just the other day we used them all.

 

[Adelaide]

When my son came traipsing into the kitchen this morning barefoot, I heard my mother say, "Barefoot as a pet coon". Never heard her use that expression before and she uses a lot of them from her 30's farmstead childhood.

Edited to add: Cigarettes : Gaspers, Coffin Nails
Cut the light on/off is a very southern term
For the longest time a sign at the North Carolina boarder read: Burn Lights When Raining
You Crank the car here too, you don't turn it over

A.

 

[Brinybay]

And, I also forgot about "davenport" which is a 1920's term for a cushioned sofa. My children loll all over my great grandmother's davenport every day - never with a thought of its earlier name.

We used to call it that when I was a kid in the 60s. When I went to visit my cousins in Canada during that same time period, they called the same piece of furniture a "chesterfield".

Not sure if it's vintage, but I use "hankerin" and "yonder" at times, also "spell" when refering to distance. But no, I'm not a country boy.

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

I still use "peachy" - sometimes sarcastically. I've also heard the variant "peachy keen". And of course Marilyn Monroe's "creamy" in How to Marry a Millionaire.

Anyone else find that they use unique phrases/words in writing more so than in regular speech? For instance, I'd readily write or even think "I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts", but I doubt I'd actually say it.

Me, I'd actually like to add more vintage words and phrases to my vocabulary! Well, if I wouldn't be laughed at. lol There's something quaint about using old terms, like saying you'll ring up your friend. But then they'd wonder where the cash register was.

 

[rumblefish]

When I tell my kids to "Pipe down" I often get reminded by friends and family how old fashioned I sound. That may be passe' but how about calling a police officer a "flat foot" or a detective a "dick" and my favorite "Don't crack wise with me". These three I remember from the movie The Sting.


Kramer from Seinfeld: "He tried to lamb but they cheesed him", try fitting that into a conversation.

And one from our gang: "Aaand how".

 

[Dr Doran]

I don't feel like rereading this whole thread now, so this may have been said, but using the word "cross" instead of "angry" has gone out. I had a girlfriend who used it, but she told me that she always incurred startled looks.

 

[Adelaide]

My Parents

My mother would refer to a woman that in today's lingo would be a twit, as a Dumb Bunny.

My father who became exasperated at his children .05 seconds after getting in the car with them would say, "I don't want to hear another peep out of you!" To which my sister and I would say, peep peep peep, very quietly under our breaths.

Let's see: Cute as a bugs ear

Oh yeah: Pot Liquor - Which is the juice left in the pot after cooking something. My mother, a farm-child would call her sister this totally lacking the vocabulary to come up with anything stronger. Oh yeah? You're a Pot Licker! I find it charming that a child would have no connection to vulgar language at all. How nice.

 

[St.Ignatz]

On the railroad some of us still refer to a shift as a trick, as in first trick, middle trick and third trick. The term trick came from the brothels that sprang up near the rail yards. Then there's a full head of steam and "stop on a dime" the latter from the contact the wheel made with the rail head. Engines are hogs which makes engineers "Hog Heads" or "Hoggers". Conductors are baby lifters, car inspectors are "car knockers". When you throw a switch you "bend iron" run out of allowed work time and you "blow up" or "ring the bell".