Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Zombie_61]

...I knew of a roller skating rink called the Rollerdrome. That was nearly half a century ago, so I suspect it is since defunct, as are most roller rinks. Great name, though.

EDIT: A cursory search indicates that "rollerdrome" is an almost generic term for roller skating rink. It appears there's a handful of rinks identified as such extant in the English speaking world.

I met my wife at a local rollerdrome. It was closed 10 years ago after 51 years of operation and the building was demolished soon after, both due to contamination by the chemical company next door. Whittier Skateland is long gone, but I'm grateful my wife is still here.

 

[BlueTrain]

Canadian--or rather, French Canadian French sounds to me almost like the French that one would learn in high school. No offence to either Canada, France or Senegal!

German is one language I'd like to learn, although at this stage, it's hopeless. Even though word order is pretty much the same, and a surprising amount of the vocabulary isn't too far apart, I have no knowledge of the grammar, especially when it comes to High German. But easily most of my music CDs came from one of the German-speaking countries. And this is all in spite of living in Germany (in the army) for two years. The problem was, I simply didn't associate with many Germans and the only radio station I listened to was Radio Caroline. All the German I brought home was GI German: words that really weren't German, like Mox nix. Most managed to learn Grüß Gott, at least, because most of us were in Bavaria. But I'm starting to see "Bitte ein Bitt" decals on cars now and then, so there's hope yet. Of course, I haven't mastered English yet.

I imagine the closest we, in America at least, have come to having an academy of language was Noah Webster. He was the one who taught us to spell before there was spell check. If only spell check knew what we were thinking!

 

[BlueTrain]

On a slightly different topic, I suspect there are words from, say, the 1970s and 1980s that are already obsolete. They may have been on everyone's lips (to put it one way) at the time but today they would seem terribly dated. As dated as tie-dyed.

And speaking of dyed, does anyone say "dyed in the wool," or "the whole nine yards?" Or "all wool and a yard wide?" What about "pegged," as in pants. In the 1950s boys had their jeans "pegged," meaning they leg was altered to be narrower, even tight. Jeans only came one way at the time: new. They weren't washed, stoned, faded, destructed or otherwise molested. You had to do all of that yourself. Supposedly young, well-off boys going off to an exclusive school (where jeans weren't even worn) would go to great lengths to fray the collars on their oxford cloth button-down shirts. I never did that but then, I didn't exactly go to an exclusive school. It couldn't have been if I went there!

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

"Pegging," has come to have a different meaning. Don't look it up if you're at work.

 

[skydog757]

[QUOTE="BlueTrain, post: 2187549, member: 38073"And speaking of dyed, does anyone say "dyed in the wool,"?" [/QUOTE]

My Mother. And me when I talk with her.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I say the whole 9 yards at least once a week.

 

[tonyb]

"Pegging," has come to have a different meaning. Don't look it up if you're at work.

I believe you can thank (or blame) Dan Savage for that, if not for coining it, at least for popularizing it. Credit Mr. Savage also for that new definition for "Santorum."

 

[tonyb]

[QUOTE="BlueTrain, post: 2187549, member: 38073"And speaking of dyed, does anyone say "dyed in the wool,"?"

My Mother. And me when I talk with her.[/QUOTE]

I do too, although I suspect the usage may die out with my contemporaries. But maybe not. It doesn't take much imagination to deduce its meaning.

"Unreconstructed" has a similar meaning and remains in use, in some circles, although some knowledge of U.S. history is necessary to know what it means. Gotta wonder how many learned about Reconstruction by first hearing reference made to the unreconstructed.

 

[tonyb]

I met my wife at a local rollerdrome. It was closed 10 years ago after 51 years of operation and the building was demolished soon after, both due to contamination by the chemical company next door. Whittier Skateland is long gone, but I'm grateful my wife is still here.

My then-widowed young mother met the guy who would become my stepfather at Mom and Pop's Roller Skating Rink in Madison, Wisconsin. It's where young people from working-class backgrounds went to socialize. My siblings and I spent the occasional Saturday afternoon there when we were little.

I haven't lived in Madison since 1968. Friends and relatives still there inform me that the rink is long gone. I believe I recall a cousin saying that the structure remained for some years after the rink went out of business, but that it, too, has since gone the way of all things.

 

[Stearmen]

"Pegging," has come to have a different meaning. Don't look it up if you're at work.

Pegging some one, to put them on a certain peg, a stereo type. Bob Dylan and acoustic Folk Music, after being pegged, he went electric. Which reminds me, are their still square pegs?

 

[Stearmen]

When I was a boy, people my age who broke the law were "juvenile delinquents". I imagine this was a softened term to replace whatever came before. In recent decades such people have become "youthful offenders".

Miscreant!

 

[Upgrade]

English and French have managed to retain the etymological spelling of words such that you can trace the history of the word even if the spelling doesn't always conform to the sound. (Hence why asking for the "country of origin" helps in spelling bees) Arabic and Spanish use phonetic spelling by contrast.

Though while French is always closely associated with the mother country of France, English has a peculiar property amongst European languages; English has famously escaped its country of origin with language development occurring far from its aegis, oversight, and regulation.

Because of this, outside of the occasional online grammarian, there can never be an officially sanctioned organization dedicated to preserving English language "correctness" on the scale of the French Academy.

However, all this probably encourages slang and colorful words on a massive level.

 

[Stearmen]

What's the dope Mac?

 

[2jakes]

..... I believe I recall a cousin saying that the structure remained for some years after the rink went out of business, but that it, too, has since gone the way of all things.

Makes me wonder what today's generation will have to fall back on in their senior
years when they reflect on things, places that have gone the way of all things.

 

[Zombie_61]

Makes me wonder what today's generation will have to fall back on in their senior years when they reflect on things, places that have gone the way of all things...

"Hey, remember that Nintendo 64 we had in the living room? Boy, those were the days..."

 

[BlueTrain]

Our patronage of this forum notwithstanding, are we not still today's generation?

 

[2jakes]

Our patronage of this forum notwithstanding, are we not still today's generation?

That depends on your perception
of the world around you.

 

[BlueTrain]

No, it doesn't. And another thing; men are not from Mars and women are not from Venus. They're both from Earth.

 

[2jakes]

No, it doesn't. And another thing; men are not from Mars and women are not from Venus. They're both from Earth.

Yes, you are absolutely right.

 

[Bigger Don]

Our patronage of this forum notwithstanding, are we not still today's generation?

Are we not multiple generations?