Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Zombie_61]

Hobo -- a vagrant who works wherever he can find it and then moves on.

Tramp -- a vagrant who travels from place to place and avoids working.

Bum -- someone who stays in one place and avoids working.

It's all about the nuance.

Verification from someone who would know:

"Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don't look for work, and bums are people who don't move and don't work. I've been all three."
"Seasick Steve" Wold

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Hobo -- a vagrant who works wherever he can find it and then moves on.

Tramp -- a vagrant who travels from place to place and avoids working.

Bum -- someone who stays in one place and avoids working.

It's all about the nuance.

The first wouldn't be so bad and I wish the third around here was more like the second.

 

[jamespowers]

Verification from someone who would know:

"Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don't look for work, and bums are people who don't move and don't work. I've been all three."
"Seasick Steve" Wold

Which goes to show you that they are virtually the same just at different points in their bumhood.

 

[jamespowers]

The first wouldn't be so bad and I wish the third around here was more like the second.

The third is all I have around here. I have never seen the others. :doh:

 

[DNO]

Does anyone "blot their copybook" anymore. It seems anytime I use the line I just get mystified looks.

 

[Stearmen]

Hobo -- a vagrant who works wherever he can find it and then moves on.

Tramp -- a vagrant who travels from place to place and avoids working.

Bum -- someone who stays in one place and avoids working.

It's all about the nuance.

Are you calling me a Bum?

 

[Stearmen]

The third is all I have around here. I have never seen the others. :doh:

They are either Hippies or Bums James, make up your mind!

 

[Zombie_61]

They are either Hippies or Bums James, make up your mind!

Oh, come on; you know there's no difference between the two in his mind. :lol:

 

[Matt Crunk]

Came across a term today while reading a short story from the 1930s that you most certainly don't hear anymore: a black female was referred to as a Negress.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Came across a term today while reading a short story from the 1930s that you most certainly don't hear anymore: a black female was referred to as a Negress.

In general, nouns having distinct forms for referring to males and females have fallen out of fashion. For example, you will hear both men and women engaged in writing for a living referred to as "author", when before I was born you would have "author" and "authoress".

Going back to the Dragnet radio shows which started this thread, I have noticed another usage, along the same lines, which has fallen out of favor. If Joe Friday were talking to his partner about a man who was either a suspect or a victim, he would typically refer to him by his surname, e.g., "Johnson". On the other hand, if the person was a woman, he would call her "the Johnson woman".

 

[dh66]

Someone made a post in another thread that put this to mind. When offering someone some "constructive criticism" it is followed by the expression "put that in your pipe and smoke it".

Matt, I've seen that term in old books as well, but I'm pretty sure by the time I first came to Alabama back in the mid 60s it had long been replaced by a less civil one.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[Fading Fast]

In general, with nouns having distinct forms for referring to males and females have fallen out of fashion. For example, you will hear both men and women engaged in writing for a living referred to as "author", when before I was born you would have "author" and "authoress".

Going back to the Dragnet radio shows which started this thread, I have noticed another usage, along the same lines, which has fallen out of favor. If Joe Friday were talking to his partner about a man who was either a suspect or a victim, he would typically refer to him by his surname, e.g., "Johnson". On the other hand, if the person was a woman, he would call her "the Johnson woman".

I get a chuckle out of how everyone is an actor now, which is fine, except when it comes times to get awards and, then, see if anyone actor (male or female) wants to drop the best actress category so that both men and women compete for one best actor award? Money, fame and attention trump ideology again.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Authoress" was rather archaic by the '30s -- it was still around, but it was more an affectation than an everyday word. But Amelia Earhart was still an "aviatrix," a woman executing a will was an "executrix" and a female graduate was an "alumna." If she was still in school, and attending anything but an established women's college, she was a "co-ed."

 

[vitanola]

Came across a term today while reading a short story from the 1930s that you most certainly don't hear anymore: a black female was referred to as a Negress.

Quadroon and Octaroon have also passed from polite converse, along with Pickaninny and Jewess. I do feel that we are none the worse for the obsolesence of these terms.

On a more positive note, what of expressions of the superlative, such as the last word (as in "Its the last word in kitchen appliances.") Then there is the other (New England) meaning of the word "cracker", "It's a real cracker" used as a complement. How about the term "slicker" for a raincoat?

 

[LizzieMaine]

On a more positive note, what of expressions of the superlative, such as the last word (as in "Its the last word in kitchen appliances.") Then there is the other (New England) meaning of the word "cracker", "It's a real cracker" used as a complement. How about the term "slicker" for a raincoat?

"Cracker" is often corrupted to "Corker," pronounced "cockah." "Ain't that a cockah!"

 

[Fading Fast]

Vitanola, "slicker" is a good one, I remember the term "rain slicker" being common and, as you imply, it seems to have disappeared. And since you made me think about rainwear terms, I don't hear anyone say "galoshes" anymore.

Kudos to LizzieMaine for the Hobo, Tramp, Bum definitions, which, I know are spot on because they came from LM, but also, very consistent with how my Depression-Era Father used them without thinking about them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Vitanola, "slicker" is a good one, I remember the term "rain slicker" being common and, as you imply, it seems to have disappeared. And since you made me think about rainwear terms, I don't hear anyone say "galoshes" anymore.

Mothers used to always remind their kids to wear their rubbers, a term with an entirely different connotation today.

 

[scottyrocks]

I still use the term galoshes, even though no one wears them, anymore. When people (usually kids) ask me what they are, I tell them rain boots with buckles. Most of them don't even wear any rain boots. It's all sneakers, all the time.

 

[scottyrocks]

Thongs used to be those rubber sandals with the stem between the big toe and second toe. Now a thong is a sparse, (usually) female undergarment.

Telling people you wear thongs these days gets you some interesting looks if you're a man.

 

[Fading Fast]

I still use the term galoshes, even though no one wears them, anymore. When people (usually kids) ask me what they are, I tell them rain boots with buckles. Most of them don't even wear any rain boots. It's all sneakers, all the time.

I've noticed too that, today, most people just wear sneakers or other non-rain shoes in the rain and they get their shoes (and socks and feet) wet and seem okay with it. I am puzzled by this one as it seems a step backwards for no good reason - aren't they uncomfortable with wet feet and don't their shoes get ruined? I've gone to business meetings where men are wearing $600 Alden shoes that are soaking wet. It just doesn't make sense to me.