Terms Which Have Disappeared

[dh66]

"tomcatting" is somewhat the same as "birddogging" in this neck of the woods.

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[rue]

Did you lower it too then? Wide white walls?

Of course and blue lights underneath

I don't know how wide they are. All I know, is that I told them to take the car back to as original as it would have been, before the last owner made it a "hot rod".

 

[VintageBee]

Don't forget chippy and strumpet.

My British friend said her father would call her a 'tart' if she dressed less than what he thought was modest, this during WWII.
She says if he saw how women dressed today, he'd die of embarrassment!

 

[2jakes]

On TCM today :

upon seeing the alien one of the guy yells...

" HOLY COW "

 

[GHT]

Did anyone ever have a barber say to them: "Something for the weekend,Sir?"

"Adam's Ale." (water.)

"It's like trying to pull hen's teeth." When something is nigh on impossible.

"Freeze the balls off a brass monkey." When it's bitter cold.
Cannon balls stacked in a pyramid on a brass base (monkey) collapsed due to the differential expansion between brass and cast iron.

Television program recorders are all digital these days, and for the life of me, I can't get my head around them. It's all. menu, menu, menu.
So my wife does all the pre-programming. But digital or not, I still ask if she will "tape" a certain program.

"Set-sail" is self explanetary, but how many ships set their sails when leaving port?

 

[Shangas]

How about "Full steam ahead!"? When's the last time you boarded a ship that was actually steam-powered?

That square frame holding the cannonballs is a 'brass monkey'. In extremely cold weather, the brass shrunk, causing the balls to become unstable, and roll all over the place.

 

[scottyrocks]

After reading through this thread, I realized just how many of these older terms I still use, and purposefully with my kids in school, to make them think, and realize that language is fun, and has roots.

 

[3fingers]

Did anyone ever have a barber say to them: "Something for the weekend,Sir?"

GHT I have heard of this before but I have to ask, how did it happen that the barber got into selling something for the weekend? I've read that some of your chemists did not sell them, so I guess the barbers saw an opportunity to supply a demand?

 

[VintageBee]

"It sounds like a tin lizzy"! My grandpa use to say this about old cars in bad condition.
We are dismantling an old taxidermy shop on our property and filling up the trash totes a little each week. The trash totes are on wheels and we have to push them down our country road about a quarter of a mile. One was rattling from the tin siding that was inside it and the hard wheels were making a crunchy sound on the gravel...I said to my husband, "it sounds like a tin lizzy going down the road!". He looked at me as if I'd said something ridiculous!
It just popped out of my mouth like it was an everyday utterance

 

[jamespowers]

Of course and blue lights underneath

I don't know how wide they are. All I know, is that I told them to take the car back to as original as it would have been, before the last owner made it a "hot rod".

Blue lights? :doh:

 

[GHT]

GHT I have heard of this before but I have to ask, how did it happen that the barber got into selling something for the weekend? I've read that some of your chemists did not sell them, so I guess the barbers saw an opportunity to supply a demand?

My guess is, that pharmacies had female counter assistants, and in an age when coyness and retinance went hand in hand, the barber was the model of discretion. It was not uncommon for the barber to ask the question, the customer would nod an approval and the packet slipped into his top pocket whilst brushing the hair clippings off his shoulders.

 

[Fading Fast]

My British friend said her father would call her a 'tart' if she dressed less than what he thought was modest, this during WWII.
She says if he saw how women dressed today, he'd die of embarrassment!

If my grandmother, who died almost forty years ago, came back, I think her mind would explode if she saw how women (teenage and even pre-teenage girls from "nice" families) dress today, to say nothing of movie and rock stars. Even my Dad, who made it just into the 1990s would be shocked. These were both people who always dressed elegantly and modestly - they simply would have no way to process what has happened having not lived through it.

 

[cw3pa]

My usual response to a convoluted, long winded explanation is "Who's on First?" Which gets puzzled looks from my younger (and not so young) coworkers. This leads to Abbott & Costello and a trip to youtube. Never mind explaining Vaudeville.

One of my pet peeves is the misuse of fulsome. Especially by folks that should know better.
We could probably start a thread on mangled english.

 

[GHT]

Not so much mangled as homogenised. The French loathe adopting foreign words into their language. They don't have a translation for chewing gum, so they adopted, rather reluctantly, the english version, but pronounce it: Shwing-gum. Likewise they say le Weekend, and such others. We have no problem adopting french. WW1 soldiers, on hearing: "Ca ne fair rien." (be that as it may) both pronounced, and spelt it as: San Fairy Ann. That then got abbrieviated to SFA, In turn those initials became known as Sweet F... All. It's a practice we call Franglais. Not unlike the American term Spanglish.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I get the Urge To Kill when I hear someone say "infamous" when they mean "famous." Linguists call this "hypercorrection," the practice of turning a simple, correct word into an overelaborate incorrect word in order to make an impression on the listener. But I say it's spinach, and I say to hell with it.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Oooh! Oooh! I'd like to chime in on the term at the very top of my most-despised list ... "utilize"

I have yet to see a circumstance where "utilize" conveys a meaning different from "use".

Thanks for the new term. I hadn't known of "hypercorrection" before.

 

[tonyb]

May I join this chorus?

Too many people apparently think that adding syllables makes 'em seem smarter. Particularly amusing (when it isn't annoying) is hearing "individual" as a synonym for "person." Cops do this so often I suspect they are trained to do so. You know, they'll say (or write) "the individual appeared intoxicated." But really, an individual what? My left shoe is an individual.

On a related note ...

It grates to hear people use the objective "I" when they ought to be using the subjective "me." Same with "he" or "she" when it ought to be "him" or her."

I don't necessarily take any of this as a sign of stupidity, certainly not any more than I take more elegant use of the language as a sign of superior intellect. Lord knows I've seen many a "smart" person do and say truly stupid things. But I wish our schools spent a little more time going over this stuff -- not because I think the language doesn't (or shouldn't) change, but because understanding grammar, both descriptive and prescriptive, makes for clearer communication and, often, sharper thinkers.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Not so much mangled as homogenised. The French loathe adopting foreign words into their language. They don't have a translation for chewing gum, so they adopted, rather reluctantly, the english version, but pronounce it: Shwing-gum. Likewise they say le Weekend, and such others. We have no problem adopting french. WW1 soldiers, on hearing: "Ca ne fair rien." (be that as it may) both pronounced, and spelt it as: San Fairy Ann. That then got abbrieviated to SFA, In turn those initials became known as Sweet F... All. It's a practice we call Franglais. Not unlike the American term Spanglish.

The English term "loo" for toilet dates back to medieval times when people were required to shout "Gardes L'Eau" (Mind the water) before emptying chamber pots from upstairs windows into the street. In England it became "gardy loo" and then simply "loo."

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Cops do this so often I suspect they are trained to do so.

More cop-speak ...
"subject" instead of "person" or "suspect"
"male" or "female" instead of "man" or "woman"

I can't believe that the police are on the lookout for "a female subject" who is not a woman. Really! Are they looking for a "female subject" who might be a dog? No!

 

[GHT]

The English term "loo" for toilet dates back to medieval times when people were required to shout "Gardes L'Eau" (Mind the water) before emptying chamber pots from upstairs windows into the street. In England it became "gardy loo" and then simply "loo."

Well you live and learn. That explanation is so plausible it just has to be true.

tonyb mentioned American cop speak, whenever we see an international news bulletin that involves the American military, it comes across that they have a language, all of their own, but it's not something that I hear in everyday parlance, in America. But, the military, I tell you, I mean, why say yes when you can say affirmative? Brit cop speak is similar, insomuch that it actually grates on your ears, for example: "At this moment in time, we are not seeking further individuals in this matter."
But the all time grammar faux pas has to be the word unique. If somebody, something or somewhere is unique, that's it, it doesn't need qualifying because it's unique. Therefore, rather unique, quite unique, totally unique, almost unique are not necessary, the superlatives do not enhance the description.
'And,' whilst I am going on and on, dressed in my grammatical police officer's garb, the reason that I highlighted 'and,' with inverted commas is because I started a sentence with a conjunction. And, if, so, but, & because are all conjunctions. At school I was taught that this was unacceptable. Wiki, however, states differently:

Many students are taught that certain conjunctions (such as "and", "but", "because", and "so") should not begin sentences. But authorities such as the Chicago Manual of Style state that this teaching has "no historical or grammatical foundation."

So, (I'm loving this, thank you Chicago Manual of Style,) something else that I was taught in english at school, was to never split the infinitive. That simply means that if you take a verb, for example, the verb to go. You mustn't put anything in between the two words. Wiki, however, has again come to the rescue.

Common English usage misconceptions
"There is no such rule" against splitting an infinitive, according to The Oxford Guide to Plain English and it's "never been wrong to ' ...

So, (told you I was loving this,) it really is ok to say: "To boldy go, where no man has gone before." Well, that's alright then.