Posted on 01/08/2019 3:57:41 AM PST by sodpoodle
Words gone as fast as the buggy whip! Sad really! The other day a not so elderly (65) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy and he looked at her quizzically and said what the heck is a Jalopy? OMG (new phrase!) he never heard of the word jalopy!! She knew she was old but not that old
Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle..
About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology. These phrases included Dont touch that dial, Carbon copy, You sound like a broken record and Hung out to dry. Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. Wed put on our best bib and tucker to straighten up and fly right.
Heavens to Betsy! Gee whillikers! Jumping Jehoshaphat! Holy moley!
We were in like Flynn and living the life of Riley, and even a regular guy couldnt accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!
Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but whens the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes and pedal pushers.
Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isnt anymore.
We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, well Ill be a monkeys uncle! or This is a fine kettle of fish! We discover that the words we grew up with,- the words that seemed omnipresent as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.
Poof, go the words of our youth, the words weve left behind. We blink, and theyre gone. Where have all those phrases gone?
Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! Its your nickel. Dont forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. Ill see you in the funny papers. Dont take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatroyd! It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills.
This can be disturbing stuff ! We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeful times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remembering there are words that once did not exist and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory. Its one of the greatest advantages of aging.
See ya later, alligator, after a while crocodile!
Yes, you’re right, it’s not really comparable. I really meant that colloquialisms and slang phrases often have more sexual referents than we might realize. That’s different from being graphically obvious, though.
Between the lost prurience of “in like Flynn” and the in-your-face ick of “hot AF,” there are usages such as praising a person by saying that he (or she) “has a pair.” Get a dictionary, people. We have pages of excellent words that clearly describe the qualities you can’t bother to specify!
Yes, I do remember. I always liked James Coburn.
Yes, you’re absolutely right.
Down in the boonies of southern York County where we moved to when i was a kid, the folks were Scotch-Irish. Mostly Presbyterians or Methodist. They still used colloquialisms from the olde country. Something big or impressive was said to be “right smart”. That was a right smart storm we had last night.
That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee.
Put it to music.
Blame it on Ishkabibble.
bfl
A whippersnapper was a young kid with a toy whip that had a cord on the end that snapped or popped or cracked if you flipped the whip correctly. The term “cracker” was coined by black slaves referring to the overseer who usually carried a whip, and frequently “cracked” it to demonstrate his power.
We have been Hornswoggled
An answer my father would sometimes give when I wanted something that was a bit too expensive was “People in hell want snowballs too!”.
The ones I really miss are ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, with ‘sir’ and ‘ma’am’ not far behind.
Balls to the wall (nothing to do with boy parts)
Not worth a tinker's hoot (sometimes a tinker's damn, not sure which was more valuable)
I may have devolved into phrases rather than words.
How about its a Kodak moment?
May I dare say “That’s a bunch of Malarkey”.
So what am I? Chopped liver? (Just heard last week in K-Mart)
I like to use “groovy”.
Rapscallion
Im 150 years old
Cripes, old sod. You gotta be joshing me. Has your noodle gone soft? Shake out the cobwebs, old pal.
The other day I told my young smoking hot personal trainer I was feeling all stove up. She had no idea what I meant.
She’s a dish, though. A real tomato with a set of pins like nobody’s business. Hubba hubba!
The collective noun for whales is a pod.
for sheep, a flock.
for wolves, a pack.
for geese, a gaggle.
for children?
A lollygaggle, of course!
Or “who pulled your string?”
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