Terms Which Have Disappeared

[hatguy1]

No, I mean "It", the "quality in a young woman or man of absolute attraction". As in "She's got "it"'.

"I still got it!"
- Ralph Malph on Happy Days



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[LizzieMaine]

You mean "sex appeal"?

"IT" in the Glyn sense of the word went beyond crude sexuality. It was closer to what people call "charisma" today.

 

[DNO]

I used the tern "the sun's over the yard arm" at an event yesterday and few people knew what I meant. Sometimes I despair.

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

My grandparents used many of these phrases:

"the cats meow"

"to the nines"

"the cock's walk"

"A lick and a promise"

"tit for tat"

"hustle your bustle"

"turn-a-bout is fair play"

"not jeans or Levi's they were Dungaree's"

"you paid the piper"

hot breakfast cereal was "farina"

socks were "stock'in's or stockings"

"zooty"

 

[LizzieMaine]

My mother, a repository of classic working-class New Englandisms, calls anything that's superlative "the cat's arse."

 

[hatguy1]

I used the tern "the sun's over the yard arm" at an event yesterday and few people knew what I meant. Sometimes I despair.

"The sun's over the yard arm somewhere in the world mate." Cheers.



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[Stearmen]

Ship shape and Bristol fashion.

 

[dh66]

My mother, a repository of classic working-class New Englandisms, calls anything that's superlative "the cat's arse."

I hear (and use) that phrase quite frequently down this way.

Interesting to note, I've also heard that particular part of a dog in reference to something that's much less than superlative.

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[sheeplady]

No, I mean "It", the "quality in a young woman or man of absolute attraction". As in "She's got "it"'. Kipling first used the term but it was widely popularized by Elinor Glyn in her noveland subsequent screenplay It. As Mrs Glyn said, "With 'It,' you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. 'It' can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction."

See Clara Bow, widely promoted as "The "IT" Girl".

I don't know, I still hear the phrase "Use it if you've got it" by a lot of young women, but perhaps that isn't the same thing?

I'm glad to hear it. I haven't heard it used here for many years, and never by anyone outside of my grandparents generation.

It could be regional. I noticed in the supermarket the other day that one of the aisles is labeled "Breakfast food" and contains cold cereal, hot cereal, and breakfast bars.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Use it if you've got it sounds a lot like smoke em if you got em, a WW2 catch phrase.

 

[dh66]

I think it's more similar in meaning to "if you got it, flaunt it"



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[sheeplady]

Use it if you've got it sounds a lot like smoke em if you got em, a WW2 catch phrase.

I think it's more similar in meaning to "if you got it, flaunt it"


o
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Yes, the second is the meaning I meant. Use it if you've got it means using your "feminine wiles" to get your way, whatever that may be (get into a club, better tickets, help at the store, etc.). It is typically a mix of outright sexual provocation of the body but is also using the mind too, being flirtatious, etc.

Do people not say that anywhere else? I had a woman say that in a conversation to me last Thursday.

 

[vitanola]

Yes, the second is the meaning I meant. Use it if you've got it means using your "feminine wiles" to get your way, whatever that may be (get into a club, better tickets, help at the store, etc.). It is typically a mix of outright sexual provocation of the body but is also using the mind too, being flirtatious, etc.

Do people not say that anywhere else? I had a woman say that in a conversation to me last Thursday.

Well, I cannot say as I recall anyone ever saying that to me.

 

[Zombie_61]

I hear (and use) that phrase quite frequently down this way.

Interesting to note, I've also heard that particular part of a dog in reference to something that's much less than superlative.

Unless, of course, the sun is shining on it.

 

[dh66]

Unless, of course, the sun is shining on it.

On it? .....or out of it?

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[HudsonHawk]

Use it if you've got it sounds a lot like smoke em if you got em, a WW2 catch phrase.

"Smoke em if you got em" means something completely different. It means "relax" or "take a break", or in military terms, "at ease".

 

[jamespowers]

I have heard Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em used it two ways generally. The first being that this is going to take a while so smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. The second was this is it and you might not get another chance so smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

 

[1mach1]

My Mom always used to say "It's colder than a witch's tit." Haven't heard that in years.

 

[Stearmen]

Hey Dollface.

 

[skydog757]

I haven't heard any of these in a month of Sundays.