Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

Yes, but I usually heard it in the context of, "That guy has more [fill in the blank] than Carter has liver pills."

That was typically how I heard it used, too. Couldn't tell you when I last heard it uttered, though. Decades back, probably. A few of 'em.

As to the "all the tea in China" ... That also meant an almost unfathomable amount, used in phrases such as "I wouldn't [fill in the blank] for all the tea in China."

And then there was the phrase "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?" which of course has an altogether different meaning.

 

[Shangas]

Anyone here use "as screwed up as a Chinese fire-drill", or "like a Chinese fire-drill"? That one still makes me laugh!

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

My husband's favorite: That guy don't know s!@# from Shinola.

 

[skydog757]

I used the phrase "That sounds like a bunch of malarkey" the other day and got some puzzeled looks from the younger guys until I explained its meaning. Once they understood, they asked "Why didn't you just say 'A load of bullsh*t?'" Which, sadly, may expain why certain phrases or words have disappeared: There don't seem to be very many words that are considered to be too crude for polite conversation anymore. If you can use off-color language in just about any context then people will use f-bombs and such as catch-alls. And polite euphemisms will just fade away.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I've always been fond of "codswallop," a lovely word widely used by the New England Irish to refer to "a load of bullyouknowhat."

 

[tonyb]

I used the phrase "That sounds like a bunch of malarkey" the other day and got some puzzeled looks from the younger guys until I explained its meaning. Once they understood, they asked "Why didn't you just say 'A load of bullsh*t?'" Which, sadly, may expain why certain phrases or words have disappeared: There don't seem to be very many words that are considered to be too crude for polite conversation anymore. If you can use off-color language in just about any context then people will use f-bombs and such as catch-alls. And polite euphemisms will just fade away.

There have always been taboo words. In the upper Midwest of my early years, "hell" was a curse word. Not so anymore, not even there, even among those people who came of age in a place populated with pre-Vatican II Catholics and similarly straitlaced sorts.

I'll admit to using the F word myself, probably more often that I should, although I am mindful of context. When I hear it tossed about freely, in contexts where just about anyone might overhear, I am reminded to watch my own ways.

It seems that the taboo words today are mostly the ethnic and racial slurs we once thought innocent. For those, we now have milder euphemisms.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the Era, most swearing consisted of blasphemies and speculation on the nature of the recipient's ancestry. Sexual or scatological terms, with a few exceptions, carried the greater taboo. A sitting president of the United States once publicly called a music critic a "son of a bitch," and while there was a little bit of tut-tutting from the opposition press, most people got a chuckle out of it. "That's our give-em-hell-Harry." Nowadays, if a sitting president were to use that exact term in public, every blogger in the country would explode. A few years earlier, a sitting justice of the Supreme Court publicly called the previous president "that crippled son of a bitch," and there was little outcry.

Ethnic slurs were also common on the floor of Congress. One congressman in particular, Mr. Rankin of Mississippi, would go on and on at length about how much he hated Jews, using essentially Hitlerian language, and the only journalist to take up the fight against him was Walter Winchell.

Of course, before we congratualte ourselves on how far we've come, read a few Internet comment sections. All these sorts of slurs and lots more are alive and well and widely used on the Internet, used invariably by the kinds of frauds and cowards who lack the spine to use them to the faces of their victims. The thin veneer of social acceptability barely conceals the inner rot of bigotry.

 

[HudsonHawk]

In the Era, most swearing consisted of blasphemies and speculation on the nature of the recipient's ancestry. Sexual or scatological terms, with a few exceptions, carried the greater taboo. A sitting president of the United States once publicly called a music critic a "son of a bitch," and while there was a little bit of tut-tutting from the opposition press, most people got a chuckle out of it. "That's our give-em-hell-Harry." Nowadays, if a sitting president were to use that exact term in public, every blogger in the country would explode. A few years earlier, a sitting justice of the Supreme Court publicly called the previous president "that crippled son of a bitch," and there was little outcry.

What about calling a reporter a "major league @sshole"?

 

[tonyb]

What about calling a reporter a "major league @sshole"?

No day is complete without being called that at least once.

 

[tonyb]

...

Of course, before we congratualte ourselves on how far we've come, read a few Internet comment sections. All these sorts of slurs and lots more are alive and well and widely used on the Internet, used invariably by the kinds of frauds and cowards who lack the spine to use them to the faces of their victims. The thin veneer of social acceptability barely conceals the inner rot of bigotry.

No foolin'. But still, I'd rather deal with some ignorant bigot who knows he doesn't like people of other colors or people of other religions or people who prefer the company of their own gender or whatever other sorts of "other" he might identify than a bigot who would never utter slurs but who is plenty bigoted nonetheless.

There's a whole lot more to being truly fair-minded than eschewing derogatory language. Indeed, that's the easy part. That's just lacing up the skates.

 

[tonyb]

My husband's favorite: That guy don't know s!@# from Shinola.

I use that expression myself, perhaps a bit too frequently.

It's one of those phrases that simply must be used with the ungrammatical verb tense. On hearing "That guy DOESN'T know **** from Shinola" I'd be left thinking the speaker was something of a poseur.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Anyone here use "as screwed up as a Chinese fire-drill", or "like a Chinese fire-drill"? That one still makes me laugh!

"It's all Greek to me."
Once I had a conversation with a lady from Greece who said that their equivalent expression was "It's all Chinese to me."

 

[Shangas]

I used the phrase "That sounds like a bunch of malarkey" the other day and got some puzzeled looks from the younger guys until I explained its meaning. Once they understood, they asked "Why didn't you just say 'A load of bullsh*t?'" Which, sadly, may expain why certain phrases or words have disappeared: There don't seem to be very many words that are considered to be too crude for polite conversation anymore. If you can use off-color language in just about any context then people will use f-bombs and such as catch-alls. And polite euphemisms will just fade away.

"NAME!?"
"MALARKEY! PRIVATE DONALD G.!"
"Malarkey. That's slang for bull****, isn't it?"
"Sir, Yes sir!"
"Rust on the butt-plate hinge-spring, Private Bull****! Pass revoked!"

- Band of Brothers

 

[Zombie_61]

My husband's favorite: That guy don't know s!@# from Shinola.

"Always wondered how the Shinola people feel about that."
George Carlin

 

[skydog757]

Anyone heard "store bought princess" lately?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"It's all Greek to me."
Once I had a conversation with a lady from Greece who said that their equivalent expression was "It's all Chinese to me."

"The Greeks have a word for it."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Has anyone mentioned "kid in a candy store" in any of it's usage forms?

Do kids today know what a candy store is?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Do kids even care about candy anymore? "Like a kid in an Apple store" would be more like it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Grew up with "kid in a candy store," or "had his nosed pressed up against it like a kid looking in a candy store," and other variations and use it, probably, at least once a week.

There is a candy store "Dylans" right down the street from me that has all of the old-fashion candies (some really obscure, regional brands that I didn't even know existed as a kid) that is packed - packed - almost all the time (and the prices are silly expensive). At some point, much younger than when we were kids, as Lizzie points out, kids care more about electronics than candy, but up to a certain age (my guess from walking by the store - seven or eight) they still love candy.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I'm not even sure about seven or eight because kids are now getting into video games at a much younger age. Before it was mainly older kids and teens.