Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

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!

Yes, my point exactly. The more highfalutin diction is indeed less clear, less descriptive, and less precise than the plainer, five-cent words.

 

[cw3pa]

We've sort of gotten off track, but word play can be fun.

The misuse of epidemic is another bete noire of mine. A disease spread from man to man is epidemic, not villainous behavior perpetrated by one man on another.

Along these lines are malapropisms. Leo Gorcey of the "Dead End Kids" was a master at mangling english.

 

[scottyrocks]

Norm Crosby was famous for it, too.

 

[Zombie_61]

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.

Or as Winston Churchill might say, "This is the type of tedious nonsense up with which I will not put."

 

[cw3pa]

Prepositions can be so tiresome.

More on cop-speak. DOA at the scene. Unless the victim died enroute to the floor they can hardly have died on arrival.

 

[Matt Crunk]

Prepositions can be so tiresome.

More on cop-speak. DOA at the scene. Unless the victim died enroute to the floor they can hardly have died on arrival.

I think that has always meant dead on arrival - as in dead when the cops arrived at the scene.

 

[Matt Crunk]

One term I've only heard used once, in film (The Maltese Falcon), but the term "crackin' foxy" has always stuck with me. Was it ever a commonly used phrase, or just Hollywood word-play?

 

[cw3pa]

(I think that has always meant dead on arrival - as in dead when the cops arrived at the scene.)

It's a term used by the ER staff meaning: Dead on arrival at the emergency room.

 

[Matt Crunk]

A few terms I always heard my grandparents use:

Funny Books (comic books)
Play Pretties (toys)
Kyarn (a southern corruption of the word carrion)

 

[HudsonHawk]

It's a term used by the ER staff meaning: Dead on arrival at the emergency room.

It's also a term used by police or paramedics or any first responder to indicate the person was dead upon their arrival at the scene.

 

[Matt Crunk]

It's also the title of a Van Halen song, a Punk Rock documentary, and at least two Hollywood movies.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

... and at least two Hollywood movies.

Only the first was worth watching, a classic. The remake with Dennis Quaid was ho-hum.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"crackin' foxy"

The meaning isn't to hard to unpack, but I don't even remember it from The Maltese Falcon, much less having heard it elsewhere.

 

[HudsonHawk]

The meaning isn't to hard to unpack, but I don't even remember it from The Maltese Falcon, much less having heard it elsewhere.

Spade says it in the scene where he receives the late night visit from Polhaus and the Lt. after Miles Archer is killed.

"Sorry I got up on my hind legs boys, but you fellas tryin to rope me made me nervous. Miles gettin bumped and you birds crackin foxy. But it's all right now..."

 

[Matt Crunk]

Spade says it in the scene where he receives the late night visit from Polhaus and the Lt. after Miles Archer is killed.

"Sorry I got up on my hind legs boys, but you fellas tryin to rope me made me nervous. Miles gettin bumped and you birds crackin foxy. But it's all right now..."

There is such a wealth of old terms in that one line.

 

[Stearmen]

A hoot and a half!

 

[tonyb]

A few terms I always heard my grandparents use:

Funny Books (comic books)

...

Among my people, the newspaper comics pages were called the "funny pages" or the "funny papers." Some newspapers even titled them such. Perhaps some of the remaining newspapers still do.

 

[cw3pa]

gal·lus·es
noun
1.suspenders for trousers.
My wife's grandfather used the term for the suspenders on his overalls.

 

[Fading Fast]

One term I've only heard used once, in film (The Maltese Falcon), but the term "crackin' foxy" has always stuck with me. Was it ever a commonly used phrase, or just Hollywood word-play?

In "The Lost Weekend," one of the female characters says "natch" for "naturally" and I have always wondered if that abbreviation was in common use at the time or just something that was specific to that character.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

In "The Lost Weekend," one of the female characters says "natch" for "naturally" and I have always wondered if that abbreviation was in common use at the time or just something that was specific to that character.

I've heard it in any number of old movies. Usually it was said by some young person. It must have been an instance of youth culture language. Imagine Jimmy Olsen saying it to Superman in the old TV series.