Terms Which Have Disappeared

[vitanola]

More nervous than a long-tailed paperhanger in a room full of one-armed cats in rocking chairs.

 

[Shangas]

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

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.

I'm under 30. I grew up with Rabbit Ears, knowing what Catch 22 meant, and using Polaroids. I remember having to constantly tweak the Ears to get the best reception.

 

[Renault]

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?

Yessir on The co-cola!! Heard it hear. As well as "colder than a well diggers _ _ _ in the Klondike.

Lizzie! Hydrophobia as well as the eppizootus used here. One of my dogs tangled with a wild hog down in the bottom several years ago and got "hog cut". When I call the vet , I told the tech this by phone and she didn't know what hog cut was. I says Girl! Ain't you ever seen Ol' Yeller!! She said no?????

 

[HudsonHawk]

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?

Of course. That's actually the correct way to say it.

I never heard "cold as a welldigger's...", but I've heard "colder than a witch's [breast]". It may or may not have been "in a brass bra".

If you did something dumb, Grandma would say "you couldn't pour [urine] out if a boot." If it was particularly boneheaded, you couldn't do it "with directions on the heel."

 

[Highway Patrol]

I see "The Moxie Song" is playing on the victrola.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Shaking like a dog sh*tting tacks. That's one my dad uses a lot.

More nervous than a long-tailed paperhanger in a room full of one-armed cats in rocking chairs.

My parents use that one and a$$ over appetite to mean doing something in an overzealous way.

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

Besides on 'Smokey and the Bandit', I haven't heard it in a coon's age.

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

 

[Stanley Doble]

This thread sure went down hill fast.

 

[tonyb]

Ya think? I figure it'll take at least a month of Sundays.

 

[vitanola]

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

1896?

 

[LizzieMaine]

1896?

"Sixteen to one!"

 

[Atticus Finch]

This thread sure went down hill fast.

Since the thread is sliding down hill…please let me apply more grease.

When I was a teenager, I used to hear men folks refer to people or things being “more (messed) up than Hogan’s goat.” In fact, I heard it so much that I assumed the goat belonged to a guy named Hogan who had a potato farm about ten miles from Beaufort. I remember puzzling as to how the goat had become so severely (messed) up that his condition was a local legend…and why old man Hogan didn’t do the right thing and put the poor (messed) up goat out of its misery.

Well, as it turns out, the men folk who used this term (my father, my uncles, their friends) were almost all WWII vets who had picked up the term in the service. Farmer Hogan didn’t own any goats, (messed) up or otherwise. And as my father’s generation of veterans has passed into history…seemingly, so has usage of this term.

AF

 

[Renault]

Coal oil! There's a good one for you!

When we stepped on a rusty nail, we got coal oil on it. If you had the croup, grandma put several drops of coal oil on a spoon of sugar. You got well FAST!!!

 

[hatguy1]

When I was a teenager, I used to hear men folks refer to people or things being “more (messed) up than Hogan’s goat.”AF

I heard a good variation on this one; "This is so [messed] up it makes Hogan's goat look like precision equipment."

 

[rjb1]

Another WWII-vet term that has almost completely disappeared (as far as I know) is the term "chicken----", as applied to unfair or demeaning treatment of one group by another. In the Army case it was privates being mistreated by sergeants and officers. Bill Mauldin refers to it to some extent (he was told to "Lie at attention." by a medical officer when he was in the hospital), but Paul Fussell in his book "Wartime" devotes a whole chapter to it.
My dad would get angry about it ("chicken---"), if the subject came up, for decades after the war was over. I have not heard it from anyone in along time, since the WWII vets are unfortunately leaving us in large numbers.

 

[tonyb]

That's interesting, rjb1. Out here, that term ("chickens#@t") is heard regularly. And yes, it means what it meant to those WWII vets you cite -- an example of petty behavior on the part of a person (or institution) in a superior position. Traffic citations issued in what are blatant "speed traps" generally qualify as chickens#@t. You know, authority imposed just because it can be imposed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Around here a clogged drain, an obstructed pipe, a congested nose -- anything in which a free flow has become less free than it should be -- is "stopped up tighter than Sip's [aliementary canal.]"

I have never been able to figure out who Sip is, or what happened to constipate him so, but he has long been a legendary figure in our regional folklore.

 

[tonyb]

It occurs to me that many of use terms and phrases of agricultural origins, and know what those terms mean, even if relatively few of us these days have any direct experience with farming of any sort.

Madder than a wet hen? Can't recall when I last saw a wet hen.

A pig in a poke? I had to look up that one many years ago. A poke is a bag, so buying a pig in a poke has come to mean taking something on faith, or buying sight unseen, although I've read that its origins date back a long, long time, when dishonorable sorts were known to put commonly available dogs or cats in pokes and offer them to unwitting buyers as suckling pigs.

Silly as a goose? About all I know about geese is that they can have nasty dispositions.

Stubborn as a mule? When did I last see a mule? Decades and decades ago, I suppose. Horses? Sure. Even a donkey every now and then. But if there are mules around here, I surely don't know where that would be.

 

[Atticus Finch]

When did I last see a mule? Decades and decades ago, I suppose. Horses? Sure. Even a donkey every now and then. But if there are mules around here, I surely don't know where that would be.

Its funny, but mules have made resurgence around here...not as beasts of burden, but as pets. One lives about a half mile from my house. Most mornings, just at daylight, he's outside braying like crazy, I guess asking for his breakfast. Even a half mile away, he's so blasted loud I can hear him from inside my kitchen.

AF

 

[JonnyO]

Not sure if its been mentioned yet, but Sears House or Catalog House.

 

[Shangas]

How about...

SNAFU

FUBAR

TARFU

I don't think anyone's used those since the Vietnam War at least.

Bonus-points if you know what they mean.