Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

“For the birds,” meaning of little practical value or credibility.

I’ve read that the phrase originated with U.S. servicemen during WWII, in reference to certain birds who pecked for seeds and such in horse droppings.

As with most such etymologies, I take it with a grain of salt, wouldn’t take it to the bank, wouldn’t bet the farm on it, etc. But I have no good reason to doubt it, either.

 

[tonyb]

“Bubbles in his blood,” which means about the same thing as “ants in his pants,” which was/is as often as not abbreviated to “antsy,” meaning nervous, anxious, transparently ill at ease.

 

[Todd Harrington]

Some years ago, I was painting a ceiling in my Grandmother's house with a roller brush. It was spitting paint so I wrapped an old t-shirt around my head. My grandmother came in to inspect my work and exclaimed; "Why you look like an ol' Sheik of Arabee"

My Grandmother was born in March of 1912 and lived to be 102.

Todd H
Winchester, VA

 

[Trenchfriend]

Chemisette.

I only know the term from Comedians of the old days.

 

[tonyb]

Some years ago, I was painting a ceiling in my Grandmother's house with a roller brush. It was spitting paint so I wrapped an old t-shirt around my head. My grandmother came in to inspect my work and exclaimed; "Why you look like an ol' Sheik of Arabee"

My Grandmother was born in March of 1912 and lived to be 102.

Todd H
Winchester, VA

“Sheik of Araby” is a Tin Pan Alley hit dating from 1921 which became a standard. More recently, in the 1950s, Louis Prima’s take on it, a medley with “When You’re Smiling,” gained some popularity.

I’m confident you’ve heard the melody, and it’s all but certain your grandmother did.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Inspired by the popularity of Rudolph Valentino in his film role as "The Shiek." The term also immediately became inescapable 1920s slang for a suave, romantic loverboy, and was also applied with much sarcasm to the sort of man who was, shall we say, overconfident when it came to the matter of his personal sex appeal.

The female equivlaent of a "shiek" was a "sheba," as in the Queen Of.

 

[tonyb]

“Run ragged,” which I said to a Ukrainian woman (who speaks four languages, English among them), who was telling of her hectic day. She looked a little mystified, so another native-born American and I explained the colloquialism.

And then we riffed on …

“Rode hard and put away wet,” which has a similar meaning. It originated as a reference to riding a horse to exhaustion and then stabling it covered in sweat without a proper cooling off period. It came to mean overworked and under-appreciated.

That other native-born American said she’d more often heard it used derogatorily in reference to women who allowed themselves to be treated less than respectfully by the men in their lives. These days we might call it “slut shaming.”

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Have fun in summer camp, we will see in four weeks, bye!"

 

[Bugguy]

A conversation about the genesis of, and proliferation of "dollar stores" led to recalling the 5 & 10 cent stores, a.k.a "dime stores", like the Woolworths and Ben Franklin chain stores. I guess the "Ben Franklin" label is more appropriate now, i.e. one hundred dollar stores.

 

[Edward]

“Sheik of Araby” is a Tin Pan Alley hit dating from 1921 which became a standard. More recently, in the 1950s, Louis Prima’s take on it, a medley with “When You’re Smiling,” gained some popularity.

I’m confident you’ve heard the melody, and it’s all but certain your grandmother did.

I remember an ex-girlfriend of years ago's dad's jazz band playing that one. It is, of course, referenced in The Great Gatsby, which is set in 1922; written in 24, published in 25... the song obviously made a big enough impression on Fitzgerald that he both included it and believed his audience would readily pick up the reference point. Of course, coming to the novel at school some seven decades later, I first encountered the song through the book, rather than the other way around.

Inspired by the popularity of Rudolph Valentino in his film role as "The Shiek." The term also immediately became inescapable 1920s slang for a suave, romantic loverboy, and was also applied with much sarcasm to the sort of man who was, shall we say, overconfident when it came to the matter of his personal sex appeal.

The female equivlaent of a "shiek" was a "sheba," as in the Queen Of.

Queen of Sheba is still a reference point over here, but in a different sense. You hear it used with some sarcasm, either "And who are you, the Queen of Sheba? (indicating that the speaker considers the individual to whom the question is addressed to be behaving ridiculously / ridiculously dressed / unreasonably demanding) or "Queen of Sheba, inni?", (indicating that the speaker considers a request as to their identity ridiculous, either because they consider it to be more than obvious who they are, or because they consider the matter of their identity to be of no concern to the questioner).

“Rode hard and put away wet,” which has a similar meaning. It originated as a reference to riding a horse to exhaustion and then stabling it covered in sweat without a proper cooling off period. It came to mean overworked and under-appreciated.

That other native-born American said she’d more often heard it used derogatorily in reference to women who allowed themselves to be treated less than respectfully by the men in their lives. These days we might call it “slut shaming.”

I've certainly heard it used to refer to both a means of transport and a lady. Notably, never in relation to horse, always motorcycles in the first context, though doubtless a(n unconcious) employment of extended metaphor of the motorcycle as steed variety. Interestingly, though, when I do hear it applied to a lady over here, it seems more about the objectification (to be treated like a possession such as a motorcycle or a horse) than a more directly sexual context. It is fascinating how the intended meaning in use of such terms subtly shifts with time and geography.

A conversation about the genesis of, and proliferation of "dollar stores" led to recalling the 5 & 10 cent stores, a.k.a "dime stores", like the Woolworths and Ben Franklin chain stores. I guess the "Ben Franklin" label is more appropriate now, i.e. one hundred dollar stores.

Round my way, until not long pre-pandemic we had a local, independent shop that for years had a sign across the top of the shopfront (where you'd normally expect to see a brand name or business title) that read "Everything in this shop £1" in neatly cut, three-dimensional red letters on a white background. Somewhere around when the 2008 crash permeated down to our level, around 2009/10, this sign gained the addition of a crudely painted "plus" at the end - clearly done by hand, with red paint. The frustration of the painter was clear in its appearance.

 

[p51]

I was giving a lecture on the 8th Air Force bomber crews for schoolkids last week and I didn't realize the use of "Flak" as a normal word meaning to someone giving you grief over something was no longer in use in any context.
When I was young, people used it all the time, with so many kids not realizing it originally meant German anti-aircraft artillery in WW2

 

[Trenchfriend]

I was giving a lecture on the 8th Air Force bomber crews for schoolkids last week and I didn't realize the use of "Flak" as a normal word meaning to someone giving you grief over something was no longer in use in any context.
When I was young, people used it all the time, with so many kids not realizing it originally meant German anti-aircraft artillery in WW2

Not only WW II, still standard term here. And FlaRak.

 

[Ingramite]

My ancestors were "Pennsylvania Dutch" or German immigrants. They had a lot of regional slang.

"RED UP" was what I heard when it was time to clean up or straighten up a room or an area.
"Let's red up the front room"....was my signal.

 

[Edward]

I was giving a lecture on the 8th Air Force bomber crews for schoolkids last week and I didn't realize the use of "Flak" as a normal word meaning to someone giving you grief over something was no longer in use in any context.
When I was young, people used it all the time, with so many kids not realizing it originally meant German anti-aircraft artillery in WW2

Still commonly used here, t least by those of us in our forties.... I do often forget, with most of our friends being people who chose not to have kids and otherwise not being around kids with any real regularity that they live in a very different world than I do.

Interesting, though, how language can evolve like that and have real contemporary meaning away from the origins. I suppose that's probably a thing nearly as old as language itself, etymology not being often common knowledge. I see it happening now with the visual language of symbology. The kids today all know this:

means 'save', but very many of them have never even seen a floppy diskette in person. I don't think I've used one myself for maybe twenty years. I often look back with amusement at myself being confused by the first iMacs, those Fischer-Price looking ones with only a CD Rom drive, no floppy disk drive, and wondering how on earth anyone could ever seriously use one of those, with no apparent way of transferring or backing-up files.... I now type this on a Dell laptop that has no form of drive for inserting a disk, and haven't missed it either in the several years I've been using such a machine... Fascinating how even when you think everything has been done, you still realise the pace of change.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The disappearance of audio jacks is also taking its toll. I was setting up the stage for an event recently and asked the young person working with me for an "eighth-to-quarter plug adapter." They were confused on multiple levels. I then asked for a "mini to phone plug adapter." Still nothing. Then I asked for a "3 point 5 mm to instrument plug adapter." Finally I just went and got the damn thing myself.

 

[Edward]

The disappearance of audio jacks is also taking its toll. I was setting up the stage for an event recently and asked the young person working with me for an "eighth-to-quarter plug adapter." They were confused on multiple levels. I then asked for a "mini to phone plug adapter." Still nothing. Then I asked for a "3 point 5 mm to instrument plug adapter." Finally I just went and got the damn thing myself.

Yes, that's a big negative trend I've resisted myself. I do have to buy new, wired headphones every so often, but it's so much easier to negotiate than fiddly around with blutooth connections that might jump in and out at any time, and so much better for battery life... And that's before you get to these issues that occur with things that used to be commonplace being turned into specialist items. I remember not that many decades ago when everyone had drawers full of those things because they came with every set of walkman headphones, long after most hifi equipment had gone over to 3.5mm jacks...

 

[BobHufford]

floppy diskette

And the icon above is of a diskette that was no longer floppy at that point. I still have a 8" floppy (we'll just let that hang ) that I used to back up my source code at work (as I didn't trust the automated backups).

 

[p51]

Still commonly used here, t least by those of us in our forties.... I do often forget, with most of our friends being people who chose not to have kids and otherwise not being around kids with any real regularity that they live in a very different world than I do.

Interesting, though, how language can evolve like that and have real contemporary meaning away from the origins. I suppose that's probably a thing nearly as old as language itself, etymology not being often common knowledge. I see it happening now with the visual language of symbology. The kids today all know this:

View attachment 465612

means 'save', but very many of them have never even seen a floppy diskette in person. I don't think I've used one myself for maybe twenty years. I often look back with amusement at myself being confused by the first iMacs, those Fischer-Price looking ones with only a CD Rom drive, no floppy disk drive, and wondering how on earth anyone could ever seriously use one of those, with no apparent way of transferring or backing-up files.... I now type this on a Dell laptop that has no form of drive for inserting a disk, and haven't missed it either in the several years I've been using such a machine... Fascinating how even when you think everything has been done, you still realise the pace of change.

I'll be 53 at the end of the month and anyone my age knows the word "Flak" but none of the teachers at the school in their 30s and none of the kids had ever heard it in any context.
As for the floppy icon, kids are shocked to find that their keyboards still have a 'shift' and 'tab' buttons once they find out what each originally referred to on manual typewriters...

 

[LizzieMaine]

And along the same lines of tech, the phrase "We need a cable/plug/adapter/whatsit? Let me run over to Radio Shack" has gone the way of the dodo.

 

[Fading Fast]

And along the same lines of tech, the phrase "We need a cable/plug/adapter/whatsit? Let me run over to Radio Shack" has gone the way of the dodo.

In its day, Radio Shack carried all the odd, weird, small, often, not-even-expensive electronic stuff you couldn't get anywhere else. It was an essential store, again, in its day.