Terms Which Have Disappeared

[AtomicEraTom]

[video=youtube_share;X1vOQ4Ts2tg]http://youtu.be/X1vOQ4Ts2tg[/video]

It has been a long time since I’ve heard someone exclaim, "You ain't just whistling Dixie!" but when I was a child, this term was commonly used by people who wanted to underscore a point that had just been made by someone else. I've never understood why Dixie was the song embraced by this explicative, as opposed to, say, Moon River or Inagaddadavida or The Battle Hymn of The Republic. I guess whoever coined the phrase needed a short, one-word title or maybe he just liked Southern music written by northerners.

AF

I do use that phrase a lot. Not sure why it stuck with me. Maybe because that's my sister's name.

 

[2jakes]

In the movie "Night at the Museum 2, there are some phrases made by Amelia Earhart ( Amy Adams).

1."You've got moxy kid".

2. "Crimey, we've been jimmy-jacked"

3. "You haven't been able to take your cheaters off my chassis since we met"

I sort of have a vague idea but not completely sure.

Anyone know the meaning or origin ?

Also "Kilroy was Here" during ww2 ?

Thanks !

 

[KY Gentleman]

Hand me that musket.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I made many a right of way and speed zone strip map on an old blue line machine up until the early nineties when the machine finally gave up the ghost! Think the bulbs got too expensive. I can still smell the chemicals!! Mmmmm,,, chemicals.......

The old diazo machines. The whole drafting office reeked of ammonia.

I also remember if you wanted a print with color, you had break out the airbrush.

 

[Shangas]

Conversely, the etymology of more recent coinages may well be lost on the now elderly, as well as on the very young or not yet born. "Jump the shark" comes to mind.

"Jump the Shark" has since been joined by its younger brother, "Nuke the Fridge".

 

[Zombie_61]

1."You've got moxy kid"...

Moxie - In this context it means courage, determination. Moxie was the brand name of a soft drink in the 1930s; the name allegedly came from a patented "medicine" from the late 19th century advertised to "build up your nerve".

2. "Crimey, we've been jimmy-jacked"

Jimmy-jacked - In this context it refers to finding oneself in the middle of a bad situation.

3. "You haven't been able to take your cheaters off my chassis since we met"

Cheaters - Technically, a 1920s slang term for eyeglasses; in this context, she was referring to his eyes.

Chassis - A person's body (usually a female); alternately, a specific reference to a person's backside (again, usually a female).

Also "Kilroy was Here" during ww2 ?

Kilroy was here. And here.

 

[Fastuni]

Chassis - A person's body (usually a female); alternately, a specific reference to a person's backside (again, usually a female).

The German equivalent "Fahrgestell" (literally "driving frame") is still quite commonly used in the very same context you described.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Moxie is still very much in existance -- a few years ago it was officially designated the State Beverage of Maine, since the guy who invented it was born here. There is a Moxie Festival, a Moxie Museum, Moxie flavored ice cream, and you can buy Moxie at any store.

It is an acquired taste that many people will choose not to acquire. The best way to describe the flavor is that it's like root beer mixed with Father John's Medicine. It's the best way known to separate the locals from the outastaters.

Moxie was at the peak of its popularity around World War I, when it rivaled Coca-Cola as the most popular soft drink in the world. But the company was badly damaged by sugar speculation in the early twenties, and collapsed into a small regional product by 1930, which it has remained ever since. We take it for granted here, but the rest of you people don't know what you're missing.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Arthur Fields -- The Moxie Song (1921)

[video=youtube;JHX0g7WMK6Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHX0g7WMK6Q[/video]

Moxie, oh Moxie! Me for you.
I don't know how I could do without you
As a drink you're a hummer in winter or summer
There's something so pleasant about you
Though you'll stand the test, you are the best
I'll send all the rest down the line
Let others keep trying, you're so satisfying
So Moxie, like Moxie for mine

 

[Jackanapes]

Fun thread. Here's a few that come to mind...

Brownie - The name for the first cheap and affordable camera widely used by ordinary people (first made by Kodak around 1900). It used to be so common and popular that the name Brownie was synonymous with "my personal camera." “Instamatic” was another popular one from a later era, but probably not as accepted and ubiquitous as the brownie.

Polaroid - Used for both instant camera and the pictures they produced. Most people under 30 don't even know what it means anymore.

Ditto - When's the last time you heard anyone refer to a "ditto?" When's the last time you actually saw one? When the last time you actually smelled one?

Rabbit Ears - Today, most people under 30 think “rabbit ears” are only the listening devices used by furry rodents that hop.

Catch 22 - I think most young people don't know what this means anymore either.

Talkies - A long obsolete term for moving pictures with sound.

Tin Lizzie - Slang for the Ford model T.

Boob Tube - Slang derogatory for television and the loudmouths usually on it. Not sure what the rhyming equivalent today would be for [something] flatscreen?

Crate - What WWI and WWII pilots often referred to their aircraft as. That's often how they were built too, especially during the great war.

S&H Green Stamps – Not really a term per se, but once again, unless you’re over 40, it’s pretty unlikely you’d know what these are anymore.

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Lolly gag". Every baseball coach I ever had used that term. But I never hear it today.

"Gumption". My grandmother used it all the time. Of course, it was usually in conjunction with some other "colorful" description of someone she found to be lacking in a character.

"Jake leg" or just "jake".

 

[Renault]

Geez,,,, still use everyone of them every day!!!!

Know lots of old feed lot/cowboy terms, but I can't repeat em here!

 

[vitanola]

"Lolly gag". Every baseball coach I ever had used that term. But I never hear it today.

"Gumption". My grandmother used it all the time. Of course, it was usually in conjunction with some other "colorful" description of someone she found to be lacking in a character.

"Jake leg" or just "jake".

Yes, but "Jake Leg" passed from currency after the malady disappeared after Repeal.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

S&H Green Stamps – Not really a term per se, but once again, unless you’re over 40, it’s pretty unlikely you’d know what these are anymore.

These stamps were a customer loyalty device. I remember them from the 1950's and 1960's. You would get them for trading a gas stations, grocery stores, etc. S&H was one, perhaps the biggest of these, but there were many others, Plaid Stamps and Top Value were two others. Today you have more focused incentives like grocery customer loyalty cards. The Arab oil embargo and the resultant supply shortages killed the practice of gas station give-aways. We got many things at my house from the stamp catalogues.

And on the subject of catalogues, there is a class of retailer which has disappeared, the "Catalogue Showroom".

 

[tonyb]

"Lolly gag". Every baseball coach I ever had used that term. But I never hear it today.

"Gumption". My grandmother used it all the time. Of course, it was usually in conjunction with some other "colorful" description of someone she found to be lacking in a character.

"Jake leg" or just "jake".

The first two of those were commonly heard in my childhood home. Our lollygagging was taken as a sign we had little gumption. It seemed a constant refrain.

"Gumption" remains in my regular working vocabulary. And "lollygag" still crosses my lips on occasion.

EDIT: Sheesh. I try to spell a word starting with an L followed by an O followed by an L and I get that laughing smilie thing, which I suppose means "laughing out loud."

 

[LizzieMaine]

We used to say "goldbricking" when we meant "lollygagging." Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

A bunch of other expressions that were common here before the outastaters bleached out our culture:

"Puckerbrush" -- those overgrown weeds down in the gully. Kids were told they'd better not play down there or they'd catch hydrophobia.

"Hydrophobia" -- specifically, rabies -- but generally, any loathsome disease caught from playing in filth.

"Gommy" -- clumsy, bumbling, uncoordinated. "He's nothin' but a big gommy kid."

"Gomming around" --- Engaging in pointless, aimless activity to kill time.

"Dillybopping" -- Teenage girls engaging in pointless, aimless activity to kill time. Hence, "dillybopper" -- a teenage girl.

"Puddle Dock" -- the wrong side of the tracks.

"[Backside] over teakettle" -- a spectacular fall or tumble, taken with arms flailing in all directions.

"Colder than a clamdigger's [backside]" -- Self explanatory.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

When was the last time someone was called a silver-tongued devil?

 

[tonyb]

When was the last time someone was called a silver-tongued devil?

I hear that phrase about once in a blue moon.

 

[rjb1]

As a Southerner I have heard almost none of Lizzie's "Maine-isms". I have heard of "goldbricking" from reading WWII-era material but I have never heard anyone actually use the term. The only other one that is close is that around here it's "Cold as a welldigger's ___." (we have no clams)
One that I have heard here from my parent's generation was that they called Coca-Colas "Co-Colas". (long O for both)
Has anyone else ever heard that?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The only one I have heard is it is colder than a witches front chest part in a brass brassiere.