Posted on 05/05/2016 5:03:45 AM PDT by harpygoddess
"Hang up the phone." comes from one specific kind of land-line phone that had a kind of hook you'd hang the handset from when you were done. Doing so would pull down the hook that was connected to a switch inside the phone that would disconnect the line.
And lots of nautical stuff:
Groggy - In 1740, British Admiral Vernon (whose nickname was "Old Grogram" for the cloak of grogram which he wore) ordered that the sailors' daily ration of rum be diluted with water. The men called the mixture "grog". A sailor who drank too much grog was "groggy".
Leeway - The weather side of a ship is the side from which the wind is blowing. The Lee side is the side of the ship sheltered from the wind. A lee shore is a shore that is downwind of a ship. If a ship does not have enough "leeway" it is in danger of being driven onto the shore.
Pipe Down - Means stop talking and be quiet. The Pipe Down was the last signal from the Bosun's pipe each day which meant "lights out" and "silence".
Slush Fund - A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff called "slush" was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
I had always thought that the phrase meant "mind your pints and quarts," meaning don't imbibe too much alcohol.
"Flash in the pan" is also shootin' talk.
‘Flash’ in newsrooms going back to early ‘wire’ machines that really did flash.
“Sound like a broken record”.
My earlier posts (26 and 32) made connections to Latin and Biblical phrases, respectively. There is one common term that connects to both Latin and Biblical phrases...the term “hocus pocus”
While the origins may be in dispute by some, the prevalent belief is as follows:
“Some believe it originates from a corruption or parody of the Roman Catholic liturgy of the Eucharist, which contains the phrase “Hoc est corpus meum”, meaning This is my body.[4] This explanation goes back to speculations by the Anglican prelate John Tillotson, who wrote in 1694:
“In all probability those common juggling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus, by way of ridiculous imitation of the priests of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation.[5]
“This claim is substantiated by the fact that in the Netherlands, the words Hocus pocus are usually accompanied by the additional words pilatus pas, and this is said to be based on a post-Reformation parody of the traditional Catholic ritual of transubstantiation during mass, being a Dutch corruption of the Latin words “Hoc est corpus”, meaning this is (my) body, and the credo “sub Pontio Pilato passus et sepultus est”, meaning under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried.[6] In a similar way the phrase is in Scandinavia usually accompanied by filiokus, a corruption of the term filioque, from some versions of the Nicene Creed, meaning “and from the Son” “ (Wikipedia)
LOL, if you have to drive through New Jersey, you can still say that with the original meaning.
They don’t allow customers to pump gas there, which is odd. (at least on the New Jersey Turnpike)
“Tape at 11!”
“Stop the Presses!”
“You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle!”
Can also mean the number of yards of cloth in a Scottish kilt. The best kilts were made from nine yards of cloth.
Radio Buttons on a computer page...
I had a funny story about that. Back around 2000, there were still a lot of people unfamiliar with using personal computers (as hard as that is to believe) and I was giving a class on an application we were introducing.
I was describing all the different elements in the user interface, such as pull-down menus, scroll bars, etc.
When I came to radio buttons, I said “They are like the buttons on a car radio, so you can select only one of them...when you push one in to select it, the one previously selected pops out to deselect it...” and I noticed one young woman was looking vapidly at me with her mouth open, and I realized...she had absolutely no idea what real radio buttons were on a car radio!
I stopped in mid-sentence, then picked up again, but I felt a LOT older.
When I relayed this realization to an older woman who was that young woman’s co-worker, she said snarkily (but good naturedly) “The only part of the inside of a car she knows well is the back seat...”
Everyone liked that young woman, because she was so good-natured, so it wasn’t said with any poison, but it sure did make me laugh!
Strike while the iron is hot.
Successful business leader.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way!
Norman Rockwell’s America.
LOL! That is odd! The only person who comes out to your car in .Houston is the thug who steals your purse off the front seat while your back is turned.
Lock your car while you gas up girls!
Ah, but did you ever use the term “Hit the carriage return” in a computer training course ... And get asked where that button was?
In glass bottles, with little cardboard stoppers and a pleated, heavy paper cap. He'd leave them in an insulated, galvanized sheet metal box.
after you hit rewind.
You can trust your car to the man who wears the star”
The big, bright Texaco star.
I am old enough to remember when ice was delivered to your “ice box” to keep your milk cold. I even remember it delivered by a horse drawn wagon!
Any body remember that?
I am old enough to remember when ice was delivered to your “ice box” to keep your milk cold. I even remember it delivered by a horse drawn wagon!
Any body remember that?
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