Do you remember that word? Would you believe the email spell checker did not recognize the word Mergatroyd?
Heavens to Mergatroyd!
The other day a not so elderly (65) (I say 75) 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 "Don't 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.' We'd 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 couldn't 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 when's 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...AND DON'T FORGET.... Saddle Stitched Pants.
Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.
We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, Well, I'll be 'a monkey's 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 we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone.
Where have all those great phrases gone? (My Favorite)" Let's all go to the beach Saturday"...
Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It's your nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.
It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills. This can be disturbing stuff! ("Carter's Little Liver Pills" are gone too!)
We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable 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. It's one of the greatest advantages of aging.
Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth...
See ya later, alligator!
Okidoki
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Retired Airline Pilot and Electrician..
I'm not old, I've just been young a long time....Ken
Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Mornin BG, yep words and phrases come and go, I suspect the young seek their own identity and feel the need to move on from language and phrases used by parents/grand parents, language like most things evolves over time.
I suspect we don't see the richness or diversity of colloquialisms nowadays because younger people interact via electronic media, face to face conversation is becoming rarer, even see youngsters sitting at the same table texting each other.
Two words, if removed from the English language nowadays would see people struck dumb are (incredible and amazing) news reporters are among the biggest offenders.
incredibleimpossible to believe, difficult to believe, beyond credibility, extraordinary. In most cases what is described may well be of a very high standard but certainly far from incredible.
amazing causing astonishment, great wonder, or surprise an amazing story of personal bravery and survival . As with incredible, very few things are truly amazing.
Then of course we have people who feel the need to link the two and describe something as incredibly amazing.
Mornin BG, yep words and phrases come and go, I suspect the young seek their own identity and feel the need to move on from language and phrases used by parents/grand parents, language like most things evolves over time.
I suspect we don't see the richness or diversity of colloquialisms nowadays because younger people interact via electronic media, face to face conversation is becoming rarer, even see youngsters sitting at the same table texting each other.
Two words, if removed from the English language nowadays would see people struck dumb are (incredible and amazing) news reporters are among the biggest offenders.
incredibleimpossible to believe, difficult to believe, beyond credibility, extraordinary. In most cases what is described may well be of a very high standard but certainly far from incredible.
amazing causing astonishment, great wonder, or surprise an amazing story of personal bravery and survival . As with incredible, very few things are truly amazing.
Then of course we have people who feel the need to link the two and describe something as incredibly amazing.
Or from the younger generation those words may be replaced with "wicked" "cool" "radical" etc
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"Seek the truth or bury you head in the sand, both require some digging"
We get a little fed up with the word catastrophic.
A catastrophe used to describe something that affected lots of people like a cyclone or a landslide.
These days it's a catastrophe if the local bottle shop is closed on Good Friday.
Yep, add to this the Weather Bureau describing conditions as "catastrophic" its bullsh*t, there is the potential for a catastrophic fire, the weather conditions themselves are not catastrophic.
Catastrophic "involving or causing sudden great damage or suffering, guess a closed bottle shop may well qualify for some.
The problem is in the quest for more and more alarming adjectives we leave ourselves nowhere to go in the event of a real catastrophe.
As is the case with the current use of the words incredible and amazing, now we see people linking the two, so, we have "incredibly amazing" where to next?
-- Edited by Santa on Sunday 21st of January 2018 04:04:15 PM
In our lifetime there has been a general ''dumbing down'' of society by the media & social media particularly over the past 10 years.
We're so far above the average young persons level of intelligence now that we're close to being classed as rocket scientists despite our fairly average level of education.
Some of them need to Google how to tie their shoelaces.
Getting back on subject, we loved the word GEAR to describe something that was good, back in the Beatles era.
Come to think of it , that was pretty dumb too!
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Don't take life too seriously, it never ends well.
Trip Reports posted on feathersandphotos.com.au Go to Forums then Trip Reports.
Guess all era's have their moments, in the 90's the word "absolutely" was done to death, guess it had something to do with the show Absolutely Fabulous, don't hear it anywhere as often now.
"Dumbing down" as far as life skills go I agree, youngsters would run rings around us when it comes to technology.
Well strike me pink, I've been flat out like a lizard drinkin' the last couple a days, so haven't had a lot of time to have a squiz at what was goin' on.
Hey BG, thank your mother for the rabbits and ask if she wants the skins back.
Your a bonza lot.
-- Edited by Peterpan on Monday 22nd of January 2018 03:50:12 PM
We get a little fed up with the word catastrophic.
A catastrophe used to describe something that affected lots of people like a cyclone or a landslide.
These days it's a catastrophe if the local bottle shop is closed on Good Friday.
The one that really gets to me. Heroes. Heroes used to be people who risked their lives to help others . Heroes generally were awarded medals for heroism. Now, Largely due to media and social media, anybody can become a hero. Top football players, Jet Pilots. Even the fireman that rescues the cat from a tree. ( The last one is probably the most deserving of this group )The meaning of the word has changed radically .
Thanks for your words BG. Brought back some great childhood memories. I can also remember being told that I would make a better door than a window
But more recently, when a door was left open I asked this person if they were born in a tent. After I had to explain this saying, I was accused of being a racist - go figure...
But there are so many little or simple things in life that can bring back great memories.
-- Edited by Relax-n on Tuesday 23rd of January 2018 08:03:20 AM
Youse blokes ave got me thunkin' 'bout the older days......
When we woz drivin' round in the car, me ole man used to tell us kids to keep our heads inside the windows - "Ya make it look like a bloody cattle truck!" he used to say.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
