Terms Which Have Disappeared

[dh66]

That's a legacy of the ginger-jake epidemic of the twenties, where alcoholics poisoned themselves drinking ginger extract. Paralysis was one side effect, and a stumbling, shaky, stiff-legged walk was called "jake leg."

Makes sense. A lot of the jack (jake) legged plumbing I've seen was pretty shaky and crooked. It's been my experience that the plumbing works best when it runs downhill smoothly. You don't want it all shaky, and you sure don't want it paralyzed.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The word "square" is used in a lot of ways with different meanings:

We're square about that, right?

Hey, you're gettin' three squares a day. Don't complain.

Back to square one.

Don't be a square, man. Let's party!!

Sounds like a square deal.

He squared up *that* pitch...

 

[Matt Crunk]

Hi

I had moved to Huntsville Alabama to work with Boeing on a NASA program, I was in a hurry for something and a very attractive girl told me "don't get your panties in a wad." I still like that one.

Later

Yeah, that's still a popular phrase around here in Northern Alabama. I heard it all my life growing up.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

The word "square" is used in a lot of ways with different meanings:

We're square about that, right?

Hey, you're gettin' three squares a day. Don't complain.

Back to square one.

Don't be a square, man. Let's party!!

Sounds like a square deal.

When I was a Cub Scout (Things may have changed, it was more than 50 years ago.), as I recall the Cub Scout Oath, we undertook to "... be square and obey the law of the pack."

 

[up196]

When I was a youngster and I procrastinated on a school project, my mother always said I "waited until the eleventh hour."

 

[1mach1]

In the coldest winter, my mom used to say (and still does), "Its as cold as a witches tit". I never really understood that one.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That goes right along with "bring in the brass monkey."

 

[dh66]

O.K.

Or you could mix your own.

 

[EliasRDA]

Brass monkey...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monkey_(colloquialism)

Look down to the "Supposed etymology" about halfway down, supposed to have to do with old sailing ships. I used to hear that around CT where I grew up, since I lived in an old shipbuilding town & right next to Mystic (Shipyard).

 

[Stearmen]

That is much like the evolving name of the restrooms on ships. Head, it did not have the vulgar definition associated with it today. On sailing ships, the toilet for the common sailors was simply holes they sat on, they were positioned at the bow of the ship, open to the elements, kind of a low tech bidet! The bow was where you could also find the Figure Head, thus, the head!

 

[vitanola]

That goes right along with "bring in the brass monkey."

I've always said "Colder than a Mother-in-law's kiss."

Mr. Allen could certainly coin a phrase.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mr. Allen could certainly coin a phrase.

He once described a man in a tattered pair of pants as "wearing a herringbone portcullis." I swooned with admiration.

 

[skydog757]

I just got back from "Open House Chicago", where businesses and landmarks throw open their doors and invite the public to tour their facilities. During our visit, I went to three architectural design firms. They were all quite impressive and gave extensive walk-throughs of their facilities. At the third, not having seen one, I finally asked our guide (himself a designer) if anyone used drafting boards anymore. He seemed amused by the question and replied that if they had any, they were just catch-alls for whatever was lying around (somewhat like unused exercise equipment).

Having become pretty much obsolete, I'm sure the phrase "Oh well, back to the drawing board" will fade away as well.

 

[rjb1]

I hope that the phrase, "Oh well, back to the drawing board." stays viable for some time to come.

I use it in my annual presentation to first-year engineers as possibly the only phrase that engineers have added to the English language, and that they should take it to mean that things never work right the first time, and that they should look at engineering as an iterative process.
(I do add that even though we don't actually use drawing boards anymore, the bigger idea as expressed still applies to us.)

 

[skydog757]

rjb1 - I know that the tools of engineering and design have changed, for the better I'm sure, it's just that the drafting board is one more thing that was pervasive in my younger days that has disappeared and will now be found primarily in antique shops, storage sheds or landfills. I'm not a luddite; I don't resent progress it's just that so many things have become obselete so quickly in my lifetime that it makes my head spin.

By the way, wouldn't the phrase "From the ground up" also be attributed to engineers? I still hear that often.

 

[rjb1]

"From the ground up" probably is an engineering term. I hadn't thought of that one.
As for "Back to the drawing board", I agree that there are no drawing boards left in this engineering school, and if there were any they would likely be just used as tables of some sort.
The current generation of young engineers is very risk-averse and are reluctant to just go ahead and try something to get the design process started.
By use of the "drawing board" phrase I try to get across the idea that not only is it OK to "fail", but that it's part of the normal engineering-design process. You have to be able to analyze, learn, and adapt from failures to get something to actually work.
A lot of the current-generation people have never done things that way.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I'm sure the phrase "Oh well, back to the drawing board" will fade away as well.

"Back to the drafting software," just doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?

 

[Stearmen]

"Back to the drafting software," just doesn't quite have the same ring, does it?

Back to the monitors men!

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

These may have been common only in urban areas, but they were often in American movies. Social and economic factors have made, or will likely soon make them disappear:

broadsheet
tabloid
above the fold
sob sister
linotype
type setter
bulldog

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^

Alas.