Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

On the other hand, though, the Less We Forget the better.

 

[skydog757]

When was the last time you heard anyone other than Yosemite Sam use the words "galoot" or "tarnation"? I remember people actually using them, but it's been decades.

 

[Smithy]

"Lest we forget"

This is one of the most well-known phrases in the Commonwealth as it is used extensively on ANZAC Day and Armistice Day. It is everywhere during these times, on the telly, on the radio, in the newspapers and everything else in between.

It is most certainly not a term that has disappeared in the UK or her former Dominions.

 

[Stanley Doble]

varmint = vermin critter = creature. I watched all the Yosemite Sam cartoons as a child but didn't figure this out until 40 years later.

 

[Stearmen]

Having a whale of a time!

 

[Matt Crunk]

When was the last time you heard anyone other than Yosemite Sam use the words "galoot" or "tarnation"? I remember people actually using them, but it's been decades.

Even as a child I got that "What in tarnation" was a contraction of the phrase "What in the entire nation?". As to "Galoot", however, I have no clue.

My grandparents used to use the word 'kyarn" to describe something undesirable or beneath them, not worth their time. Used in the same manner as "baloney" or "hogwash" but with more apparent distain. "That's a bunch of kyarn, pure kyarn", my grandmother would say.

It wasn't until years later I realized "kyarn" was a countrified pronunciation of the word "carrion". Kyarn was roadkill.

 

[dh66]

I passed a guy driving a "hillbilly Cadillac" this morning. Any one ever heard this term to describe a used police car.

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[HudsonHawk]

Even as a child I got that "What in tarnation" was a contraction of the phrase "What in the entire nation?". As to "Galoot", however, I have no clue.

According to the interwebs, which always tells the truth and is never inaccurate or misleading..."galoot" (meaning an oafish or simple person) is a nautical term for a novice or inexperienced sailor, possibly, if not probably, derived from the Italian word "galeotto" meaning a galley slave, most likely a convict.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I always think of a "galoot" as, specifically, a Slim Summerville type -- tall, lanky, gangly, bumbling and rural.

As for misinterpreting words due to dialect, my grandfather referred to anything of superlative value as a "cocker." It wasn't until I was grown up that I realized that he was actually saying "corker," a popular slang word of the 1910s.

 

[dh66]

According to the interwebs, which always tells the truth and is never inaccurate or misleading..."galoot" (meaning an oafish or simple person) is a nautical term for a novice or inexperienced sailor, possibly, if not probably, derived from the Italian word "galeotto" meaning a galley slave, most likely a convict.

Interesting how far ashore that one got.

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[skydog757]

My mother used to use the phrase "built like a shikepoke" to describe a tall, skinny, gangly type of person. I figured that it must be some sort of wading bird, years later I found out that it is another name for a heron.

 

[rjb1]

I have always associated the term "galoot" with the Old West, or at least the version of the Old West as portrayed in movies and novels, especially from the early days of movie making (1920's - 1940's). It was most often applied to strangers, particularly strangers of uncertain origin or suspicious motives. I can hear Gabby Hayes saying to Roy Rogers something like: "I saw a couple of big galoots in the saloon a while ago. I know they're up to no good. Yer dern tootin!" On the other hand, Gene Autry would never refer to Frog Millhouse as a "galoot".
From IMDB:
The Ramblin' Galoot (1926)
Western - 21 November 1926 (USA)
Star: Buddy Roosevelt
Some Buddy Roosevelt trivia (also from IMDB):
Buddy Roosevelt was born on June 25, 1898 in Meeker, Colorado, USA as Kenneth Stanhope Sanderson. He is known for his work on Lightning Range (1934), The Boss Cowboy (1934) and Range Riders (1934). He died on October 6, 1973 in Meeker. (probably bitter and frustrated - see below)
Trivia (2)
Roosevelt was originally cast as The Cisco Kid in In Old Arizona (1928), but he broke his leg shortly before shooting was to start. He was replaced by Warner Baxter, who went on to win an Academy Award. A few years later Roosevelt was approached by producer Paul Malvern about starring in a series of low-budget westerns for Monogram. Apparently, however, Roosevelt's wife went behind his back and demanded more money than Malvern was willing to pay. Angered, Malvern turned instead to a young actor named John Wayne, who snapped up the offer. That string of Monogram "B" westerns started Wayne on the road to superstardom. Roosevelt continued grinding out low-rent westerns with steadily decreasing budgets, and finished up his career doing unbilled bit parts and stuntwork.

From a web site called "Word Detective": (mentions both naval origins and later Western usage)
"Galoot" is a fine old word, meaning, according to the new Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary, "an awkward, eccentric or foolish person," although "galoot" is usually only applied to men. Perhaps it's the influence of movies and books (I seem to vaguely remember John Wayne saying, "Ya big galoot" in some horse opera or another, and the term occurs in the Western novels of Louis L'Amour), but "galoot" has taken on the added connotation of "big dumb fellow" in the popular vernacular, so it's unlikely you'll hear "galoot" applied to a woman.

Unfortunately, no one knows exactly where the word "galoot" came from. Thanks to all those horse operas, most of us associate "galoot" with cowboys, but the term apparently was actually invented by sailors around 1812, and applied to soldiers and marines, most likely those being transported by ship. Although soldiers and marines might well face hardship and danger when they reached their destination, they were not expected to work while aboard ship. Naturally, the sailors resented the soldiers' privileged shipboard status, and the derogatory term "galoot" was probably concocted as a small but satisfying means of revenge. If so, it wasn't the only linguistic jab by the resentful sailors -- the slang term "soldier," meaning to loaf, originated in the Navy at about the same time. On dry land, on the other hand, "to soldier" means "to persevere," most often heard in the phrase "to soldier on." Not surprisingly, this more positive sense of the term is assumed to have originated in the Army.

Personally, I have never heard anyone not in a Western movie use the term galoot.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I passed a guy driving a "hillbilly Cadillac" this morning. Any one ever heard this term to describe a used police car.

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I've heard "Cowboy Cadillac" being used to refer to the now-defunct Chevrolet El Camino. It like the result of "miscegenation" between a sedan and a pick-up truck.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of sailors, when's the last time you heard a Navy enlisted man referred to as a "gob?"

 

[Nobert]

My mother used to use the phrase "built like a shikepoke" to describe a tall, skinny, gangly type of person. I figured that it must be some sort of wading bird, years later I found out that it is another name for a heron.

Good to know. If anyone starts giving me trouble I'll say, "Don't mess with me or poke the shike out of ya."

 

[ChiTownScion]

Speaking of sailors, when's the last time you heard a Navy enlisted man referred to as a "gob?"

Last time? A recording made in the late 1940's by a fine funny lady named Ruth Wallis entitled, "Davy's Dinghy."

"Swab jockey" and "squid" (the latter for both officers and enlisted), I have heard more recently.

 

[Harp]

Speaking of sailors, when's the last time you heard a Navy enlisted man referred to as a "gob?"

Piraeus, Greece 1974. Army-Navy bar brawl.:boxing:

 

[Zombie_61]

..."Swab jockey" and "squid" (the latter for both officers and enlisted), I have heard more recently.

I've always heard the term "squid" used to refer to anyone in the Navy regardless of rank, similar to the way the term "jarhead" refers to anyone in the Marines.

 

[rjb1]

Here's a use of the term "gob" for sailor - a Famous Studios "Screen Song" cartoon "Gobs of Fun" from 1950:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFxfXqMmz6Q

The song for the cartoon is "Strike Up the Band - Here Comes a Sailor"

 

[Mr Oldschool]

Some of the old ways to rudely tell somebody to be quiet are less common now, although I still hear them once in a while. Such as: "put a sock in it" "pipe down" "put a lid on it" or one of my favorites, "shut your yapper!" Harsh humor used to feature this kind of thing prominently back in the days of the Stooges and Looney Tunes. Nowadays, the rudeness is still there, but expressed differently.