Terms Which Have Disappeared

[MisterCairo]

I say variations like 'Jesus wept!' or 'Christ on a bike!' quite a lot. I'm not that bothered about whether it's PC or not.

PC is not the issue. Plain offensive is.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

What's offensive about it?

 

[Stanley Doble]

On a hot rod board, there was some discussion of the term short, as in '2 cool shorts standing side by side' in the old Beach Boys tune. It meant a car, to California hot rodders in the sixties.

I'm sure I recall a taxicab was called a short in New York in the twenties and thirties. Pretty sure I saw the term in a Damon Runyan story and elsewhere but don't recall exactly. Can anyone pin point an example of this usage? Has anyone tracked down the origin of the term?

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Wondering if this is a regional one, but the term "team player" doesn't seem to be used where I live. Where I grew up, it was a very common phrase.

It truly is amazing how dialect can change in such a short distance. I live only a couple hours from the greater Milwaukee area, yet things are so, so, so different.

I have a buddy at work, that when I first met him, we talked for a minute or two and I already had it pegged. I asked if he was from Milwaukee, and of course, he was haha!

 

[PeterB]

Thanks Instained. New someone would have the answer. Dirk, "pardon me" is still in use in my house. Anything else gets a blast from yours truly.

 

[HudsonHawk]

On a hot rod board, there was some discussion of the term short, as in '2 cool shorts standing side by side' in the old Beach Boys tune. It meant a car, to California hot rodders in the sixties.

I'm sure I recall a taxicab was called a short in New York in the twenties and thirties. Pretty sure I saw the term in a Damon Runyan story and elsewhere but don't recall exactly. Can anyone pin point an example of this usage? Has anyone tracked down the origin of the term?

I don't have a link or anything to back this up, but my understanding is that a "short" was just a term for a short wheel-base car, or what we might now call a "sports car".

 

[LizzieMaine]

Malcolm X, in his autobiography, mentions that in early-forties Northeastern African-American street slang, a "short" was any kind of a fast car without regard to size. His friend/sidekick Malcolm Jarvis supposedly earned his nickname of "Shorty" not from his height but because of his preference for fast cars.

 

[Speakeasy]

"Not worth shucks..." to mean "worthless."

"Hit the hay." - go to bed.

"My eye!" - as in "yeah right!"

 

[Thumper15]

My Grandmother always went to the store to trade. She never went shopping. I heard and still hear and say a lot of old mountain phrases and slang. My Grandpa was born in 1900 and my dad in 1954, so even though I'm only 27 I had an old upbringing.

Sent from behind the anvil

 

[MisterCairo]

What's offensive about it?

Nothing at all.

To a non-Christian.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

Well...the world isn't made convenient for touchy subcultures. Which is at it should be.

 

[docneg]

Well...the world isn't made convenient for touchy subcultures. Which is at it should be.

Nicely put.

 

[oak1971]

Davenport.

 

[oak1971]

dirty shirt

 

[oak1971]

Pot licker

 

[MisterCairo]

Nicely put.

Not asking for convenience, but decency and politeness.

Golden era attributes both of them.

 

[tonyb]

I'm confident, Mister Cairo, that we all understand that there remain many who find offensive the casual utterance of the name of their Lord and Savior. But not as many as there once were.

I am equally confident most of us here have no interest in offending other members' sensibilities. Not deliberately, anyway.

Alas, in early 21st century American culture, those who find that utterance offensive will have ample opportunity to take offense. I fear (for those who would rather not hear it) that it has joined "hell" and "damn" on the roster of once-taboo words that are now more generally acceptable in "polite" conversation.

This is not to suggest that you ought to "just get over it," but it might be wise to keep in mind that most people who let J.C.'s name cross their lips in a somewhat less than reverential manner mean no harm (or offense) to you or anyone else.

I'm reminded of Rick Steves (the PBS travel guru) riffing on the Iranian manner of cursing. It was "death to the Shah," and "death to Israel" and "death to the United States." Steves told of riding through snarled traffic in a taxicab in Tehran when the driver shook his fist and said "death to the traffic."

Steves likened it to the American use of "damn." When we say "damn those kids," we don't mean we wish for them to suffer hellfire for all eternity. Indeed, we mean nothing of the sort. After all, who hasn't heard an American cabbie say "damn this traffic," which is every bit as non-literal (or nonsensical, if one allows for only one definition of the word) as wishing "death" to the traffic.

 

[MisterCairo]

Whatever.

Anyhoo....

I heard someone say "pipe down"! the other day, and it brought back fond memories of my father using the same expression. Meaning (for him) anything from "be quiet" to "shut up" to a simple "lower your voice", it's not something one hears much, at least in my neck of the woods (something else I hear less and less often).

 

[tonyb]

Whatever. ...

Oh, for the love of Jesus. Or whatever.

 

[MisterCairo]

Whatever.