And now for something different: words that are fading from usage?

[Julie Smith]

Were I grew up everyone would sit on the front stoop. It was just a cement slab about one minute square that was one step high infront of the front door of the house. 

[Melissa in Australia]

 

Agreed. The only people I know who use the word 'frock' are historical re-enactors. They only wear dresses in their mundane lives.

My grandmother uses frock.

as in

 "that is a very pretty frock you have on"

 

I have only ever met one other person who used the word frock and that was an Indian National traveling around Australia trying to improve his English. He came up to me and asked if what I was wearing was called a frock or a dress. :laugh:  ( I think he spoke a better class of English than most English speakers.

[Melissa in Australia]

DH says "bumbershoot" (umbrella).

 

Wellies for rubber boots.  Shoot, when I was a kid we had rubber boots, overshoes (rubber boots that fit over one's shoes), or galoshes (overshoes).

they are called GUMBOOTS here in Australia

[Melissa in Australia]

And for some reason  my last post triggered a software alarm and I had to prove my identity!  Was it the word retro?  or cake?  

I just started having the same problem. I think this forum is having some technical  problems.

[MamaJeanne]

Pocketbook reminded me of what my grandma says. She always has a billfold. I have never known anyone else to have one (although AAS uses the word in one of the levels). She also refers to the commode in the bathroom. I never understood why she didn't just call it a toilet like everyone else.

[Serenade]

I say pocketbook! Am I the only one? Yikes, I never noticed.

 

 

I say pocketbook, too.  I guess I'm getting old...

[Laura Corin]

Wellies for rubber boots.  Shoot, when I was a kid we had rubber boots, overshoes (rubber boots that fit over one's shoes), or galoshes (overshoes).

 

It's okay - wellies is the most common word for them in the UK, so that's being preserved.  

 

Dungarees to me are not jeans but bib overalls.

 

I still 'hoover' with the 'hoover', even though I own a Dyson.

 

I like 'whence', but people tend to add in a 'from', which is acceptable according to the dictionary I checked but not actually necessary - 'whence' already means 'from where'.  I blame the KJV, as in 'from whence cometh my help'.  I prefer 'whence' unadorned.

 

I also miss 'daps': it's the word for plimsolls (basic sneakers) in my home town.  I don't know if it's still used there and I stopped using it after I moved away.

 

L

[Rosie_0801]

Sorry, Rosie,  A stoop isn't at all the same thing as a porch or veranda.  It's stairs, usually leading up to a raised main floor.  And usually made of some kind of stone.  We have lots of stoops in Boston; they are also common in NYC

Nup. Stairs are called stairs so I still don't have to believe in marble stoops.

 

 

 

 

 

I'd still call these frocks: :D

 

They are frocks alright!

[Rosie_0801]

Dungarees to me are not jeans but bib overalls.

See! That's what I always thought they were. Crimson Wife is leading me astray... :glare:

[Excelsior! Academy]

Wow, I say a lot of those. My mom had a divan. We make pallets and wear tennis shoes. We actually have real tennis shoes for a tennis court, but all other sneaker-like shoes are referred to as tennis shoes. I say hence and foyer. We have a buffet ( pronounced buff-ay) and a secretary (the fold down type of writing desk).

 

I have never heard of a stoop and only have vague memories of pocketbooks.

 

I never hear anyone say catty corner anymore or kitty corner for that matter. ;)

[Incognito]

All these words are like sitting down to a conversation with my mom.  I should thank her for expanding my vocabulary. :)

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

It gives me the heebie jeebies to hear of these wondrous words disappearing from our vocabulary!  Henceforth therefore I will endeavor to use as many as I can!  

[Tap]

I don't know about down south, but up here you don't hear kin or folk and especially not together, any more.  As in "are you going to the kin folk for the pot luck?"

[Rebecca VA]

Here's a southern term:  "Give me some sugar (hugs and kisses)."  

 

My stepmother always says "picture show" for movies.

 

I love old words and phrases and just relish using them.  They're so descriptive!  

 

My current pet peeve is the dearth of verbs in recent years.  People use the word "do" in place of verbs.  For example:  They're going to "do" a wall (paint).  I'm going to "do" this bed (make it up).  We're going to "do" dinner (eat).  I'm going to "do" downtown (go shopping).  The decorator "did" the sofa in leather (matched colors and ordered upholstery).  EEEK!!  The word reminds me of (please excuse this) kids saying "doo doo" or "dog doo."  You can figure out what they mean, but their speech is absolutely lacking in charm.

 

 

 

[Laura Corin]

Here's a southern term:  "Give me some sugar (hugs and kisses)."  

 

My FIL used to say this - Dallas, born around 1920.

 

L

[Parrothead]

Gosh, this thread is making me feel old.

I have a credenza in my dining room. I suppose most people would call it a buffet.

Sneakers are sneakers. Not trainers, running shoes, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, tennies, etc.

Thongs-it took me awhile before I knew that referred to something other then what are now called flip flops.

I still refer to aluminum foil as tin foil on occasion.

Brownstones in the city all have stoops.

I remember xeroxing and I remember making dittos because I am that old.

I don't ask for cellophane tape anymore but I know what it is.

Sometimes I do carry a pocketbook but I usually say purse or bag.

I have worn my fair share of dungarees.

I have drunk water from the spigot outside. Inside it is a faucet.

Weren't ditto s made on mimeographs?

 

EYA: never mind. I see we covered that. LOL.

[mom@shiloh]

I like the word 'umbrage', but no one uses it.  

 

Speaking of shrinking vocabularies, (that is what we were talking about, right?)  reminds me of this:  

[kewb]

You people have got to stop.  I use almost all of these words daily. 

I wear blouses and the occasional frock. 

I also wear trousers and slacks.

Sometimes I mention the kin folk (although as a yankee it is said infrequently)

I do ask my kids to give me some sugar.

Just the other day I referred to my neighbors who live catty corner to me.

My current home does not have a foyer but it does have a vestibule.

At the end of this past winter I had to buy the boy more jeans because he looked like he was wearing floods.

I do not currently have a secretary or a drop leaf desk but my mom does. Now I am wondering what happened to my grandpa's roll top desk.

My dh says my family is the only one he ever heard referring to private areas as "your business".  For example, when someone is in the hospital in that lovely gown you may rearrange the covers for them so no one can see "their business".

I do remember the end table my parents had for holding all their albums.  It even had a special slot for the 8 tracks. 

 

If I wasn't so sad at the demise of so many words that I still use I would certainly bust up laughing.

 

[KarenNC]

I'm curious about pronunciation of "divan" ---in our family, it is "die-van."

 

For some of the others, IME a chesterfield is a sofa (couch, divan, davenport) or possibly a coat or a rifle, depending on context. The thing with drawers to hold your clothes is a chest of drawers or dresser, less commonly a bureau or chifforobe (though that usually has drawers on one side and a taller compartment with a door--sometimes a mirror-- on the other).

 

Overalls were bib overalls, bib overall shorts were "hogwashers" when I was in school in the Dark Ages ;). I actually saw some for sale the other day.

 

Stuffing is only stuffing if it is cooked in the bird. We had dressing, baked in a separate casserole.

 

I use a lot of the terms listed in conversation, but will freely admit that my vocabulary is often considered "old-fashioned." I got a funny look when I used "egregious" the other day. :)

[DawnM]

You have made me remember what my dad called goulashes. He had those boot things made out of rubber that you pull on over your shoes (we lived in a very rainy area of Kenya). He called them his "rubbers" and would say he needed to go find his rubbers or put on his rubbers. UGH!

 

In Kenya we also called erasers rubbers......being in a former British colony as an American was difficult! hahahaha!!!!!

 

My dh always calls flip-flops thongs. As in kids go put on your thongs and I go :eek: :lol:, there called flip-flops hun.

[AMJ]

Wow, I say a lot of those. My mom had a divan. We make pallets and wear tennis shoes. We actually have real tennis shoes for a tennis court, but all other sneaker-like shoes are referred to as tennis shoes. I say hence and foyer. We have a buffet ( pronounced buff-ay) and a secretary (the fold down type of writing desk).

 

I have never heard of a stoop and only have vague memories of pocketbooks.

 

I never hear anyone say catty corner anymore or kitty corner for that matter. ;)

 

I say kitty corner all the time!

[Julie Smith]

Thank you to whoever posted the pig video. I had seen it before but didn't have it bookmarked.

 

Out of curiosity it had me googling things and I found this:

 

http://testyourvocab.com/

 

 

[AMJ]

All these words are like sitting down to a conversation with my mom.  I should thank her for expanding my vocabulary. :)

 

Absolutely!

 

We are asked periodically if our kids are homeschooled due to the vocabulary they use -- even happened at a school gathering once!  (Granted, the person asking was from out of town and didn't know all of the classmates of their niece.)  While we officially have only just started homeschool lite (still gathering curricula for full-on hs'ing and figuring out how we are going to do this) I guess we have been educating our kids more than anyone realized during their brick & mortar school years.

[Cinder]

I'm curious about pronunciation of "divan" ---in our family, it is "die-van."

 

I have never heard that pronunciation. I've only heard it with a short i with emphasis on van. di-VAN

 

I just looked it up here and both pronunciations are acceptable.

[littlebug42]

Hence

 

No one in my area uses it in normal conversation. Ds and I are out to change that. I used it in a meeting this week, on purpose.

 

My 11 year old uses "hence" in conversation all of the time. Dh and I don't so she had to get it from reading.

[DawnM]

I use hence. I also use words like ergo and thereto for.

 

My 11 year old uses "hence" in conversation all of the time. Dh and I don't so she had to get it from reading.

[AMJ]

You people have got to stop.  I use almost all of these words daily. 

I wear blouses and the occasional frock. 

I also wear trousers and slacks.

Sometimes I mention the kin folk (although as a yankee it is said infrequently)

I do ask my kids to give me some sugar.

Just the other day I referred to my neighbors who live catty corner to me.

My current home does not have a foyer but it does have a vestibule.

At the end of this past winter I had to buy the boy more jeans because he looked like he was wearing floods.

I do not currently have a secretary or a drop leaf desk but my mom does. Now I am wondering what happened to my grandpa's roll top desk.

My dh says my family is the only one he ever heard referring to private areas as "your business".  For example, when someone is in the hospital in that lovely gown you may rearrange the covers for them so no one can see "their business".

I do remember the end table my parents had for holding all their albums.  It even had a special slot for the 8 tracks. 

 

If I wasn't so sad at the demise of so many words that I still use I would certainly bust up laughing.

 

Ah, Kewb taketh umbrage at the lackadaisical approach to verbal expression that findeth favor in these contemporaneous times!  Chortle on, dear Kewb, lest ye expire from thy distress!

[ChristusG]

These words bring back memories!

 

I used to laugh when my nana would call my shorts either britches or dungarees. She would also use pocketbook.

 

My mom called capris clam diggers. I never understood that one.

 

My dad uses spigot and hence.

 

I've never heard of davenport or divan! Ever!

 

My grandmother would also say "down yonder." And if she meant that something was occurring next Tuesdsy, she'd say "Tuesday week."

[AMJ]

I'm curious about pronunciation of "divan" ---in our family, it is "die-van."

 

For some of the others, IME a chesterfield is a sofa (couch, divan, davenport) or possibly a coat or a rifle, depending on context. The thing with drawers to hold your clothes is a chest of drawers or dresser, less commonly a bureau or chifforobe (though that usually has drawers on one side and a taller compartment with a door--sometimes a mirror-- on the other).

 

Overalls were bib overalls, bib overall shorts were "hogwashers" when I was in school in the Dark Ages ;). I actually saw some for sale the other day.

 

Stuffing is only stuffing if it is cooked in the bird. We had dressing, baked in a separate casserole.

 

I use a lot of the terms listed in conversation, but will freely admit that my vocabulary is often considered "old-fashioned." I got a funny look when I used "egregious" the other day. :)

 

Back when I still had my paycheck job (working in geodetics & cartography!) a co-worker coined a term most priceless for the horrendous misuse or misapplication of locational data technology -- egregeodesy!

 

[AMJ]

You have made me remember what my dad called goulashes. He had those boot things made out of rubber that you pull on over your shoes (we lived in a very rainy area of Kenya). He called them his "rubbers" and would say he needed to go find his rubbers or put on his rubbers. UGH!

 

In Kenya we also called erasers rubbers......being in a former British colony as an American was difficult! hahahaha!!!!!

 

 

*winces*

Those would be galoshes.  Goulash is either a Hungarian soup (though that spelling is Americanized from Gulyas with an accent mark over they y, I think) most tasty; or a hamburger, tomato, and macaroni hotdish served in American school hot lunch lines from time immemorial.

[Halftime Hope]

 

I use a lot of the terms listed in conversation, but will freely admit that my vocabulary is often considered "old-fashioned." I got a funny look when I used "egregious" the other day. :)

 

Egregious is a very useful word, as well!  : )    Di-van is pronounced with a short i and stressed on the second syllable.

[AMJ]

Thank you to whoever posted the pig video. I had seen it before but didn't have it bookmarked.

 

Out of curiosity it had me googling things and I found this:

 

http://testyourvocab.com/

 

Wow, that was fun!  Lots of words I didn't know definitions for, and I still got an estimate of 32,400 for my vocabulary!  I wonder how much that will increase after we start Latin....

[kewb]

 

My mom called capris clam diggers. I never understood that one.

 

 

 

I see you have never gone digging for clams by rolling up your pants and digging your toes into the sand at the edge of the surf.

[Halftime Hope]

^{OK, you all check me on this one, okay?}

 

^{Bespoke.    (Don't look it up until you read the whole post.)}

 

^{How many of you grew up (as opposed to hearing it in recent usage) hearing that term?    I think I've only read it in the far distant past past in fantasy stories, and it meant (roughly) foretold.} 

 

^{The odd thing is that I've seen it written a handful of times recently, and its meaning is apparently "one of a kind", custom made.} 

 

^{Honestly, to me that's pretty dumb.   Every dress I owned from the time I was 15 to 25 was "bespoke."   Whatever.}  

[momofkhm]

I never hear the word pallet anymore. All I hear is "We will make up a bed on the floor". I always liked the word pallet.

 

Move south.  I knew what it was from books and someone said it to me "Make up a pallet."  And then I asked my neighbor who is more southern than I am and he said his wife says it all the time!

[Laura Corin]

Thank you to whoever posted the pig video. I had seen it before but didn't have it bookmarked.

 

Out of curiosity it had me googling things and I found this:

 

http://testyourvocab.com/

 

Fun.  I got 39,400.

 

L

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

^{OK, you all check me on this one, okay?}

 

^{Bespoke.    (Don't look it up until you read the whole post.)}

 

^{How many of you grew up (as opposed to hearing it in recent usage) hearing that term?    I think I've only read it in the far distant past past in fantasy stories, and it meant (roughly) foretold.} 

 

^{The odd thing is that I've seen it written a handful of times recently, and its meaning is apparently "one of a kind", custom made.} 

 

^{Honestly, to me that's pretty dumb.   Every dress I owned from the time I was 15 to 25 was "bespoke."   Whatever.}  

 

Huh. I thought bespoke meant claimed, or spoken for. Now I have to look it up!

 

ETA: Fascinating! It does mean both, but the "custom-made" or "one-of-a-kind" definition is primary. I don't remember ever seeing it used that way. However, "bespoke" is the past participle of "bespeak," and bespeak has different definitions.

 

 

be·speak transitive verb \bi-ˈspÄ“k, bÄ“-\

be·spoke be·spo·ken be·speak·ing

 

Definition of BESPEAK

1

: to hire, engage, or claim beforehand

2

: to speak to especially with formality : address

3

: request <bespeak a favor>

4

a : indicate, signify <her performance bespeaks considerable practice>

 

b : to show beforehand : foretell

 

 

[Rebecca VA]

Here's one of my faves:  fire house (meaning fire station).

[Cinder]

Thought of another: market and marketing. As in grocery store and the shopping done there.

[Sandragood1]

Speaking of iceboxes, when I was in high school in Texas the local convenience store was always, "The Ice House." That was the 1980's.

 

We might say, "I'm going to the Ice House to get some pop. Want anything?"

[Crimson Wife]

See! That's what I always thought they were. Crimson Wife is leading me astray... :glare:

Apparently there is a difference between American and British English usage of the word according to MacMillan: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/dungarees

[Jeannie in NJ]

I use cattycorner all the time.  My dc know what it means.

 

My mom used to say "fixin" all the time as in "I am fixin to go to the store".  I guess instead of the word "about"

 

my family is from Texas, I am the only one that has moved from there so my mom lived her entire life there.

[AndyJoy]

Thong in reference to the footwear commonly called "flip flops" today.  I lived in Okinawa as a child so they were thongs to me.  Then I taught a 6th grade girls' Bible study group in CA when I was in college.  You should have seen the poor girls' faces when I made a reference to my thongs...

[Maus]

Filmstrips! I was just thinking about these the other day--how happy we all were when the teacher wheeled those old players into the room, how relaxing it was to sit in the darkened room, the weird little silhouettes of what always looked like giant bug legs in the image :lol: My kids love watching movies instead of doing school, but it's just not the same, really.

 

 

The sound of the projector always carried anticipation, and I loved the old thwackthwackthwack when the film ended.

Now I'm totally laughing at how old I am.  What the two of you are describing are film projectors, and those were awesome!  Even then, just like today, the teacher could never get them to work and some kid would always step up to show him/her how to run that "new-fangled" gadet!   :lol:

 

A filmstrip was even more low tech, though.  It was a small strip of still images, usually stored in a small canister about an inch across.  It came with a record, or sometimes one of those "new-fangled" cassettes.  You put it in a small projector with a knob and twisted it until the first picture showed on the screen and turned on the record or cassette, which had narration to go with the still pictures.  There would be a "bing" sound and a brief pause in the narration, and that was the signal to use the knob to advance to the next still picture. The projector didn't move the film on it's own.

 

It was more sophisticated than a slide projector, though, because you could count on the next image showing up with getting jammed.  But not customizable.  (I have a slide projector floating around my house somewhere....  for the younger people, we used those in the olden days before power-point presentations came along!  :D )

[myfunnybunch]

 

My mom called capris clam diggers. I never understood that one.

 

 

When you dig for clams, you roll up your pants to keep them out of the water and wet sand. :)

[Maus]

Thank you to whoever posted the pig video. I had seen it before but didn't have it bookmarked.

 

Out of curiosity it had me googling things and I found this:

 

http://testyourvocab.com/

 

 

Wow, that was fun!  Lots of words I didn't know definitions for, and I still got an estimate of 32,400 for my vocabulary!  I wonder how much that will increase after we start Latin....

 

 

Fun.  I got 39,400.

 

L

I am ashamed.  I only got 31,100.  I must hang my head.  And forward the link to my mother, who will undoubtedly outscore me.

 

ETA:  Okay, I feel a little better.  I tried it again and was given a slightly different group of words.  That time I got 34,800. That puts me at the upper end of average....

[LibraryLover]

Regionalisms.

[LaughingCat]

Some of these words are not out of style IMO as much as the actual thing itself is currently out of style.  For example,  (the way I learned the words LOL!)  :    

Parlor is a formal room used only for when guests come over - the "living room" is a whole different room of the house.   

Credenza is office furniture usually seen in a formal office 

Buffet is a piece of formal dining room furniture.   Note: I see actual definition wise that a credenza and a buffet are interchangeable terms - but in my personal lexicon one is for the office to hold binders and such and the other for the dining room to store linens or tableware.

Divan- I've seen quite a few divans lately - but they are usually in oversized master suites, where you only see them on a "house tour" so have very little need to actually say the word. 

 

 

[Belacqua]

Funny how many of these words refer to furniture. I got a funny look when I referred to a "breakfront" the other day.

[anneinco]

My father in law asked for thongs in Wal-Mart recently. :lol:

My dad admitted to doing this just over a year ago at a couple different shopping venues and we had to explain why he was getting strange looks. So for Christmas I bought and wrapped a pair of flip flops, along with the definition of flip-flops... Under them, in the same present, was a Christmas thong, with the definition of thong... Lol, however, that definition still includes 'sandal held on the foot by a strip that fits between the first and second toes..." (We have a tendency to throw gag gifts in at Christmas time, and this was just one of them.)