Terms Which Have Disappeared

[BlueTrain]

I'm of the generation that says "neat." And when I hear someone say "cool," I think of the language of the late 1950s, beatniks and cool jazz (as opposed to hot jazz). You dig?

 

[2jakes]

I'm of the generation that says "neat." And when I hear someone say "cool," I think of the language of the late 1950s, beatniks and cool jazz (as opposed to hot jazz). You dig?

Had a buddy in the military that added an “o” at the end to some of the words.
Neat was “neato” ,

It was “stabo” when we got our immunization shots prior to departure overseas.

I’ll say “peachy-keen” when I like something.
A friend at work liked it so much that he uses it constantly.
He told me that it’s driving his wife nuts at home.

 

[BlueTrain]

As in, like, "neato mosquito!"

 

[2jakes]

As in, like, "neato mosquito!"

Peachy-keen!

 

[2jakes]

Inside the engine compartment of
my 1940s truck.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Old-fashion "pants rabbits/crab lices", german "Sackratten" (you know "Das Boot").

I think, this was even in the 90s an funny, but already outdated term.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Two-ply" quality ist still alive. I got a german classic brand Jersey-poloshirt in two-ply-quality.

 

[Stearmen]

I'm of the generation that says "neat." And when I hear someone say "cool," I think of the language of the late 1950s, beatniks and cool jazz (as opposed to hot jazz). You dig?

 

[tonyb]

"Snazzy" is the 1937 equivalent of "wow, that's cool." "Snarky" -- which at the time had nothing to do with waspish sarcasm -- was also used occasionally as a synonym for "Snazzy."

Where does "spiffy" fall? I don't hear it used much anymore, but when I do the sense I get is that it is mildly pejorative. To "spiff it up" means to make whatever "it" is superficially more attractive, but only superficially, like putting a fresh coat of whitewash on half-rotted fence pickets.

It's akin to how the connotations of "pretty" have changed over the generations. It once meant something less than entirely favorable or flattering.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Spiffy " has always carried the sense to me of something pleasant and pleasing in a way that's both insubstiantial and flamboyant. A man dressed up in a windowpane-checked suit, a double-breasted vest, and brown-and-white wing tip shoes, wearing a straw boater and fawn-colored gloves, and carrying a cane, with a red carnation in his lapel, may be said to be "spiffy," even though he actually looks like a B-unit silent movie comedian in 1924.

A "spiff," as used as a noun, is an old slang term referring to an under-the-table commission paid to a salesman in a store to push a particular line of merchandise. It probably also is the root of the British "spiv," a shady dealer in black-market goods who was traditionally dressed in a "spiffy" manner.

 

[tonyb]

"Spiffy " has always carried the sense to me of something pleasant and pleasing in a way that's both insubstiantial and flamboyant. A man dressed up in a windowpane-checked suit, a double-breasted vest, and brown-and-white wing tip shoes, wearing a straw boater and fawn-colored gloves, and carrying a cane, with a red carnation in his lapel, may be said to be "spiffy," even though he actually looks like a B-unit silent movie comedian in 1924.

A "spiff," as used as a noun, is an old slang term referring to an under-the-table commission paid to a salesman in a store to push a particular line of merchandise. It probably also is the root of the British "spiv," a shady dealer in black-market goods who was traditionally dressed in a "spiffy" manner.

Yeah, that's the vibe I get, too. A spiffy dresser is one who pays perhaps a bit too much attention to his attire, such that he leaves the impression that there isn't much to him other than his clothing. An empty suit, so to speak.

I can't count the number of times I've advised a person contemplating what to wear to a potentially high-stakes encounter -- a job interview, or a date with a particularly compelling love interest -- not to overdo it. The last thing you wish to do is leave the other party thinking you are inordinately concerned with your attire. A person might come across as superficial, mostly because that's what he is.

 

[BlueTrain]

The way you described using whitewash, painting (with whitewash) a rotting fence, is exactly what is also meant when the word is used: to do something to make something look nicer even though it does nothing to make it last longer. It just looks better, like painting over rust. The army--all armies, for some reason--love to whitewash everything in the barracks: rocks, trees, signposts, and so on. I recall that whoever lived in one house near the grade school I attended would whitewash the trees in their yard up to about five or six feet high.

There is another term, "window dressing," that is generally used in business to mean things done to improve the financial appearance of a company.

Does the word "nice" still mean "nice" and nothing else? I think it's a pity when a word is appropriated for a new meaning (like "gay") which largely destroys the original meaning of the word. Some words, though, can only be used one way as a compliment, if you follow me. One my say a girl is pretty but you probably wouldn't want to say a boy was pretty, although it is done, at least if the boy is actually pretty. Was Pretty Boy Floyd actually pretty? Pretty is also used to mean "fairly," as in "pretty cold." But the word can wind up in odd expressions, like "pretty ugly."

But the word is safe. There's "Pretty Woman," the movie, and "Oh, Pretty Woman," the song.

As regards what to wear, it can be harder than it seems to be well-dressed, that is, for a man. You don't really want to draw attention to yourself, or more correctly, you don't want people to remember the clothes you wear. But you have to take into account what, when, where and with whom. You wouldn't wear a suit on Saturday morning when you go to get your hair cut but for heaven's sake, don't wear sweat pants. People my age probably shouldn't be wearing shorts, either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Nice" nowadays has a distinct edge of withering sarcasm. To say that something is "nice" is actually to say that it's decidedly unpleasant, annoying, and in every way unwanted. "Here's your new work schedule, oh, and you're getting a ten percent pay cut and forget about overtime." "Isn't that nice."

A "pretty boy" in the Era was a good-looking man whose looks were cheap and superficial -- the modern term is "himbo." In movies, the classic pretty boy of the 1930s was Robert Taylor. I suspect that Mr. Floyd did not cheerfully embrace this nickname.

 

[BlueTrain]

As in, "nice girl."

 

[Fading Fast]

...I can't count the number of times I've advised a person contemplating what to wear to a potentially high-stakes encounter -- a job interview, or a date with a particularly compelling love interest -- not to overdo it. The last thing you wish to do is leave the other party thinking you are inordinately concerned with your attire. A person might come across as superficial, mostly because that's what he is.

Your comment reminded me of this Coco Chanel quote (clearly you are in good aesthetic company, not so good if you had been talking about collaborating with the Nazi in WWII ):

The world’s most elegant woman, Coco Chanel, was said to have advised the following when dressing with accessories:

“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”​

 

[ChiTownScion]

"Nice" nowadays has a distinct edge of withering sarcasm. To say that something is "nice" is actually to say that it's decidedly unpleasant, annoying, and in every way unwanted. "Here's your new work schedule, oh, and you're getting a ten percent pay cut and forget about overtime." "Isn't that nice."

Reminds me of when I took a trip to Canada in 1979. Stayed in a youth hostel in Ottawa: neat place, a converted jail that even had its own built in gallows (still functioning trap door). Part of the fun was hooking up with young people from around the world and then taking in the local sights together.


Met up with a very working class Brit college kid who- while quite likeable- was always going on about how bored he was with the locals. At one point, he opined, "I suppose that you could say that Canadians are all VERY NICE PEOPLE." I replied, "Well, would you prefer that they were all NOT very nice?? I wouldn't." That got a laugh... and made my point.

 

[tonyb]

The way you described using whitewash, painting (with whitewash) a rotting fence, is exactly what is also meant when the word is used: to do something to make something look nicer even though it does nothing to make it last longer. It just looks better, like painting over rust. The army--all armies, for some reason--love to whitewash everything in the barracks: rocks, trees, signposts, and so on. I recall that whoever lived in one house near the grade school I attended would whitewash the trees in their yard up to about five or six feet high.

There is another term, "window dressing," that is generally used in business to mean things done to improve the financial appearance of a company.

Does the word "nice" still mean "nice" and nothing else? I think it's a pity when a word is appropriated for a new meaning (like "gay") which largely destroys the original meaning of the word. Some words, though, can only be used one way as a compliment, if you follow me. One my say a girl is pretty but you probably wouldn't want to say a boy was pretty, although it is done, at least if the boy is actually pretty. Was Pretty Boy Floyd actually pretty? Pretty is also used to mean "fairly," as in "pretty cold." But the word can wind up in odd expressions, like "pretty ugly."

But the word is safe. There's "Pretty Woman," the movie, and "Oh, Pretty Woman," the song.

As regards what to wear, it can be harder than it seems to be well-dressed, that is, for a man. You don't really want to draw attention to yourself, or more correctly, you don't want people to remember the clothes you wear. But you have to take into account what, when, where and with whom. You wouldn't wear a suit on Saturday morning when you go to get your hair cut but for heaven's sake, don't wear sweat pants. People my age probably shouldn't be wearing shorts, either.

I don't know that I've ever used actual whitewash, although I do have a dim and somewhat nebulous recollection of asking my mother, when I must have been around 7 years old, just what it was and her responding that it was like a watery paint that cost less and didn't last as long and had pretty much fallen out of use.

As to painting (or whitewashing) rocks and tree trunks and whatnot ... I speculate it is to foster a sense of cleanliness and order. Dirt and debris stand out against a stark white backdrop. Can't say that I've ever much cared for that look.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The classic whitewash was a solution of slaked lime in water, and since my area was once the lime-producing capital of the northeast, it used to be more common here than regular paint. I remember it most as the stuff they used to use to paint over the windows of empty storefronts. We used to stop on the way home from school and try to peek thru the whitewash to see what was going on inside, and would occasionally be rewarded by a glimpse of an empty beer bottle and some cigarette butts on the floor.

 

[Zombie_61]

...One my say a girl is pretty but you probably wouldn't want to say a boy was pretty, although it is done, at least if the boy is actually pretty. Was Pretty Boy Floyd actually pretty?...

...A "pretty boy" in the Era was a good-looking man whose looks were cheap and superficial -- the modern term is "himbo." In movies, the classic pretty boy of the 1930s was Robert Taylor. I suspect that Mr. Floyd did not cheerfully embrace this nickname.

Legend has it that Floyd was given the nickname when he worked in the oil fields in the Kansas City area because he wore a white button-up shirt and slacks to work. The men on the rigs started calling him "Pretty Boy", which later became "Pretty Boy Floyd". That being said, there is allegedly one witness' account of Floyd's participation in a robbery in which he was described as "a mere boy; a pretty boy with apple cheeks," so I suppose some considered him handsome by the standards of the era. And yes, both Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Lester Joseph "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis hated their nicknames.

 

[Haversack]

The whitewashing of the lower 3'-6'tree trunks has a couple of practical reasons. It discourages wood boring insects and also makes detecting their presence easier. The other reason is to prevent sun scalding. This occurs when the sun is bright while a tree is dormant for the winter. The light and heat from the sun 'wakes up' the surface cells of the bark causing them to expand out of relation with the rest of the tree. This causes lesions in the bark which leads to infestation and rot. (Summer job in college working in my godfather's pear orchard).