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

[MrsMommy]

Davenport...I haven't heard that word since my grandma died, and that was 25-ish years ago! That was what she had in her living room, though...not a couch or anything else, just a davenport. Covered in plastic. It was very slippery!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I don't know what people call athletic shoes anymore. I've not heard anyone say a word for them in a long time. I just call them trainers.

 

I like "mayhap". I use it frequently instead of maybe. I also use "tis" fairly often. I don't know of anyone else who uses those words regularly.

I have a friend who uses those all the time! But he's very old fashioned, and was born in Romania (he's 30, I think?) He always addresses me as "madame" since I got married. He stands out but refuses to change to "fit in" (and good for him, I say!) Unfortunately, he's lonely, and has difficulty finding a woman who appreciates him. (If I wasn't already engaged when I met him, I would have dated him.)

[PrairieSong]

We had a divan AND a credenza when I was growing up. The credenza was in the living room near the front door, and had doors on the front, shelves inside, and a large mirror hanging above it. My mother was the only one I remember who used that word, but other people I knew also said divan. My mother called our Suburban our Carry All.

[Maus]

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. 

I use 'hence' in conversation all the time.  In sentences like, "The sun is really hot today, hence the need to shop for sunscreen.

.

.

.

Ohhhhh, would that be why my "friends" look at me funny?  :blush:

 

(I really do, though.  My mother and brother do, too.)

[Cinder]

I always confuse it with "cadenza."

 

Or did you mean "gredunza"? As in the moss-covered, three-handled, family version?  :D

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've asked store clerks for the "cellophane tape" and gotten blank looks.  And for "tin foil" - which of course is no longer made of tin.

 

My kids think it is hilarious when I tell them that they should "dial up" something on the internet, meaning to pull it up.  

 

A store clerk the other day told me that kids nowadays "conversate".  He thought that was awful but when I said "what happened to just conversing" he didn't know what I meant because all he knew was that we "have a conversation".  But that might not have as much to do with words going out of style as people just not knowing words.

[Cinder]

Remember when we used to xerox things? Now we just photocopy them.

[kewb]

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. 

 

[myfunnybunch]

behoove

transitive verb

: to be necessary, proper, or advantageous for <it behooves us to go>

 

I use "behoove" often, usually with my children as in "It would behoove you to listen to your mother," and had no idea it was falling into disuse until I read so in an article.

 

 I love the word "hence." I will add "hence" and "henceforth" to my daily conversations. As in, "You did not take down the hamper--hence, you have no clean clothes. It would behoove you to listen to your mother henceforth."

 

Cat

 

[Kalmia]

Interestingly enough my mom and aunts carry purses and I carry a pocketbook. So I am retro in comparison to my elders. Now their purses are giant and squishy with long straps and look like they should be called purses while my pocketbook is stiff and tiny and neat and cannot be carried over the shoulder. They are two different animals. (Plus, my pocketbook usually contains everything I could otherwise put in my pockets plus a book--my moleskine journal). I am constantly receiving amazed comments from women about the size of my pocketbook: "How can you SURVIVE with that?!??!" I tell them I do just fine since I don't wear makeup and I never brush my hair when out and about and I don't really find myself needing any random stuff throughout the day. I tell them my pocketbook holds my keys, my phone, my wallet, my journal and when I had a baby it was my diaper bag too. It fits a travel packet of wipes, one  diaper and one disposable changing pad. When they hear that they clutch their suitcase sized bags with love and look like they might fall over in a dead faint. All I know is that my mom and aunts' purses are so full of stuff they "might" need that they get backaches from carrying them, and I have never seen them use any of their extra items (except Advil). So I posit that pocketbooks and purses are very different things and that it isn't the word that is out of fashion but the size of the bag! People (other than me) have a lot of stuff to truck around these days.

[Cinder]

How about pronunciations that are fading? I am hearing much less frequently the word "the" pronounced with a long e when it comes before a word starting with a vowel sound.

[merry gardens]

Remember when we used to xerox things? Now we just photocopy them.

I remember when teachers "mimeographed" tests using that blue smelly ink.  And I remember when "cc" meant  "carbon copy" with real carbon sheets typed underneath the original to make the second copy.  I feel old.

[Laurie4b]

 My dad's mother always said "parlor" for a room we would now call the living room. And she used "rouge" on her cheeks not blush. She also used the word "commode" for toilet.

[Melissa in Australia]

blouse for a shirt and frock for a dress

[AMJ]

I should put in a disclaimer:  I don't know if these two words are fading from usage in other areas of the country or just that I never hear them in the South, but it makes me sad that no one in my generation, much less in younger ones, seems to use or have heard of these words and many others like them. 

 

stoop:  n. Chiefly Northeastern U.S.

A small porch, platform, or staircase leading to the entrance of a house or building.

 

 

Divan:  a large couch usually without back or arms often designed for use as a bed  (Interestingly, my grandmother who spoke very proper English used to refer to the loveseat that pulled out into a nearly-full bed as a "divan." Apparently the common usage was broader than the definition.)

 

There's nothing particularly winsome about either of those two words, I just felt the need to dust them off and take them for a spin.

 

 

 

Other words that are long lost friends in your world?

 

Both are familiar to me, but you are right, usage for the definitions you give seems to be dropping off.  (Stoop can also be a verb meaning to slouch or scrunch over in posture.)  My parents usually used the word "daybed" instead of "divan".  BTW, I grew up in the north (parents raised in SD and MN, me in IL and MN).

 

Several years back when I was searching for a good doctor my FIL told me of one highly spoken of by several people he knew.  When I couldn't find said doctor anywhere I asked him to get contact information for this Dr. Davenport.  He did, and let me know he had gotten the name wrong -- it was Dr. Couch.  :laugh: Really great doctor, as I've been pleased to discover.

 

Chesterfield -- a chest of drawers.  Not in common usage in my family, but Canadian friends still use it.

 

I grew up calling soft drinks "pop" (in IL), then "soda pop" or "soda" (in MN).  On vacation in FL I heard it called "coke", even non-colas.

 

I've been told in no uncertain terms by one Southern gentleman that stuffing is ALWAYS cornbread based.  If it's bread based then it might be delicious, but it's not stuffing.

 

I'm drooling over the memory of the massive dictionary my high school library had on a stand -- an immense thing with tiny print, in which the entries included the definition and pronunciation, but also synonyms, antonyms, word origins, notes on language development -- anything the budding wordologist would like to know.  I used to read that thing all free period long, just for fun.  Instead of spelling and vocabulary I plan to teach my kids word study, so that we, too, can dive into the gleeful discovery of the treasures in a really good dictionary.  And I think it will help their spelling, to know how/where the words developed.

 

And we can recover, at least for ourselves, such gems as "stoop" and "divan".

 

Lovely thread, OP!  Thanks for starting it!

 

 

[HelenNotOfTroy]

I had a stoop on the shared front of my townhome. I think of a credenza as office furniture and would call the same piece a buffet in a living room. I never hear people refer to townhouses as row houses anymore.

[Matryoshka]

Crimson Wife, I remember the words pedal pushers and pocketbook, but I have never understood how pocketbook means purse or handbag. I mean handbag makes sense but "pocketbook" how does that make sense?

 

Well, here where we use it we don't think about the sense of the word, it just is what it is.  Especially since we'd never actually pronounce it "pocketbook" - it's pronounced "pockabook". :D

 

 

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.

 

 

I hear 'pallet' all the time, but it's referring to that wooden thing that big deliveries off of trucks are saran-wrapped to. 

[AMJ]

 My dad's mother always said "parlor" for a room we would now call the living room. And she used "rouge" on her cheeks not blush. She also used the word "commode" for toilet.

 

Foyer (pronounced "foi-yer") in IL for the small entry room just inside the front door, containing a durable washable floor, room for a bench (for putting on or taking off boots), and a good-sized coat closet.

[Maus]

I remember when teachers "mimeographed" tests using that blue smelly ink.  And I remember when "cc" meant  "carbon copy" with real carbon sheets typed underneath the original to make the second copy.  I feel old.

I must be old, too.

 

If we were really good in class, the teacher sometimes let us turn the handle!  And then we'd get the blue ink all over our hands.

 

I remember watching my mom, who is/was a typist extraordinaire (135 wpm), use a razor blade to scrap the carbon off the copy when she made a mistake.  She typed term papers to put my dad through grad school.

 

Here's an old word that's never used anymore:  "filmstrip".  Or "reel-to-reel."  Yes, I remember both of these things, too!

[AMJ]

I had a stoop on the shared front of my townhome. I think of a credenza as office furniture and would call the same piece a buffet in a living room. I never hear people refer to townhouses as row houses anymore.

 

That would be because row houses are lower status and not as trendy, unless you are in a major re-gentrification neighborhood.  Just like corn meal mush is still much shuddered over, but polenta is quite the popular dish (except by my aunts, uncles, and Mom, who only saw corn meal mush on my polenta plate).

 

edited to correct a typo -- saw corn meal mush, not "say" corn meal mush.

[Maus]

I grew up calling soft drinks "pop" (in IL), then "soda pop" or "soda" (in MN).  On vacation in FL I heard it called "coke", even non-colas.

We said "pop," too!  (I grew up in Utah, but my parents were Oregonians.)

[AMJ]

I remember when teachers "mimeographed" tests using that blue smelly ink.  And I remember when "cc" meant  "carbon copy" with real carbon sheets typed underneath the original to make the second copy.  I feel old.

 

In my school those blue sheets were called "dittos".  We students loved to receive and sniff the fresh ones -- the smell only lasted until they were written on, or had sat for more than 1/2 hour.

[AMJ]

I must be old, too.

 

If we were really good in class, the teacher sometimes let us turn the handle!  And then we'd get the blue ink all over our hands.

 

I remember watching my mom, who is/was a typist extraordinaire (135 wpm), use a razor blade to scrap the carbon off the copy when she made a mistake.  She typed term papers to put my dad through grad school.

 

Here's an old word that's never used anymore:  "filmstrip".  Or "reel-to-reel."  Yes, I remember both of these things, too!

 

Old LPs and 45's were called "records" (now called "vinyl"), and were played on a record player.  If you had an especially good one you had 3 speeds instead of 2, adding 72 rpm (revolutions per minute) to 33 1/3 rpm and 45 rpm.  My parents' hi-fi (high fidelity, a cabinet containing 2 stereo speakers, a record player (or turntable, for those too young to know my meaning), a bin for albums (LPs, or long-playing records), an amp/radio receiver, and maybe other components if you were really lucky) had both a short spindle of 2 diameters (one for 45's and one for LPs) and a tall LP spindle -- the tall one had a catch in it, and was called a "record dropper".  You could load it up with several LPs and it would drop one, play all of that side, then drop another.  While you could load it up with more it was best not to load more than 3 LPs at a time, or they would slip a bit while playing as they stacked up, which would affect the sound and scratch the records.

 

I miss that old hi-fi.  My Dad still has our couch-side end tables, which had doors that opened on to LP storage.  He's got them chock-full (another term I don't hear much anymore) of Gilbert & Sullivan, Mitch Miller, The Firehouse 5 (alone and Plus 2), Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Carmel Quinn, barbershop quartets AND choirs, and various musicals (South Pacific and the like).

 

 

Yesterday I texted to my friend that one of the dogs we are dog-sitting up-chucked on the carpet.  She said the only person she ever knew who used "upchuck" was her grandmother.

[AMJ]

 

behoove

transitive verb

: to be necessary, proper, or advantageous for <it behooves us to go>

 

I use "behoove" often, usually with my children as in "It would behoove you to listen to your mother," and had no idea it was falling into disuse until I read so in an article.

 

 I love the word "hence." I will add "hence" and "henceforth" to my daily conversations. As in, "You did not take down the hamper--hence, you have no clean clothes. It would behoove you to listen to your mother henceforth."

 

Cat

 

 

Two of my favorites!  And I love your examples!

 

I don't know how many times I had to explain "hence" to my supposedly more educated coworkers over the years....

 

[AMJ]

How about pronunciations that are fading? I am hearing much less frequently the word "the" pronounced with a long e when it comes before a word starting with a vowel sound.

 

I never consciously thought about which pronunciation to use and when before, but you are right!  We still use both (and our kids also), without ever thinking about when or why.  Thanks!

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I must be old, too.

 

If we were really good in class, the teacher sometimes let us turn the handle!  And then we'd get the blue ink all over our hands.

 

I remember watching my mom, who is/was a typist extraordinaire (135 wpm), use a razor blade to scrap the carbon off the copy when she made a mistake.  She typed term papers to put my dad through grad school.

 

Here's an old word that's never used anymore:  "filmstrip".  Or "reel-to-reel."  Yes, I remember both of these things, too!

 

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.

[AMJ]

Interestingly enough my mom and aunts carry purses and I carry a pocketbook. So I am retro in comparison to my elders. Now their purses are giant and squishy with long straps and look like they should be called purses while my pocketbook is stiff and tiny and neat and cannot be carried over the shoulder. They are two different animals. (Plus, my pocketbook usually contains everything I could otherwise put in my pockets plus a book--my moleskine journal). I am constantly receiving amazed comments from women about the size of my pocketbook: "How can you SURVIVE with that?!??!" I tell them I do just fine since I don't wear makeup and I never brush my hair when out and about and I don't really find myself needing any random stuff throughout the day. I tell them my pocketbook holds my keys, my phone, my wallet, my journal and when I had a baby it was my diaper bag too. It fits a travel packet of wipes, one  diaper and one disposable changing pad. When they hear that they clutch their suitcase sized bags with love and look like they might fall over in a dead faint. All I know is that my mom and aunts' purses are so full of stuff they "might" need that they get backaches from carrying them, and I have never seen them use any of their extra items (except Advil). So I posit that pocketbooks and purses are very different things and that it isn't the word that is out of fashion but the size of the bag! People (other than me) have a lot of stuff to truck around these days.

 

I used to detest carrying daily luggage of any sort, and only used my pockets.  (This was back in the day before cell phones would fit in pockets, and few people had them.  Want an idea what they were like?  Check out the early X Files episodes -- Mulder carried one.)

 

Then in college my schedule got so busy I needed a backpack (always used 2 shoulder straps, the waist strap, and when available the breast strap) to carry my books (sometimes two packs, one on my back and one on my front).  I used that as "purse" as well, which worked out since I never went anywhere without at least 1 book and a notebook.

 

Once a friend of mine showed me hers I started sticking my keys, money, and checkbook into a traveler's wallet -- the long strap let me wear it cross-body, keeping my hands free, but letting me have easier access to it than digging through the front of my backpack.

 

When working I carried a backpack for a while, but that crumpled my work clothes.  I tried bigger purses, but they hurt my shoulders.  I had a backpack-style diaper bag when the kids were small (with a top handle for "normal" carrying) and used that with my travel wallet as my purse.  I have now transitioned back to a small-ish purse, though not as small as I used to carry, since I sometimes must corral the kids' small items while out, or sometimes I want to carry a paperback (to this day I still seldom go anywhere without a book in tow, even when I don't think I'll have a chance to read it). 

 

All of my purses are long-strapped so I can wear them across my body -- I insist on keeping my hands and arms free, and NOT constantly shrugging one shoulder up to keep the bag from falling.  My aunts and cousins (all except one who insisted on carrying her pocketbook on her arm) all have permanent posture problems from carrying a bag on one shoulder all these years.

 

 

As for usage of "pocketbook" -- I always figured it was because many popular styles of handbags over the years opened in the middle like books and had pockets.  Pocket book.

[AMJ]

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.

[Rosie_0801]

dungarees (jeans)

That's what they are!!!!! Well, that's one of my life long mysteries solved. Much obliged!

 

 

I like "ought" and I like "oughtn't" even more. I think "vex" is a good word and watching the BBC P&P Mrs Bennet say that such and such vexes her greatly never gets old.

 

 

 In Baltimore (early 1970's) the front porch was definitely a front stoop *especially if it was marble.*

No way! In my imagination, they've always been bowed, wooden verandahs or porches, worn by time and use. I don't believe in marble stoops. I refuse to!

 

blouse for a shirt and frock for a dress

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

[AMJ]

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).

 

 

[AMJ]

My late grandma used to say divan, dungarees (jeans), pedal pushers (capri pants), pocketbook (purse/handbag), parlor (living room), icebox (fridge), and there were probably others that I've forgotten. I don't think my kids would know what any of those are except perhaps icebox & pocketbook.

 

My grandparents had a real icebox on their farm, and I had one in a pop-up camper my Dad and I once had.  They required blocks of ice for their cooling -- something that in and of itself is becoming hard to come by.  Amazingly, I recently saw block ice for sale at one stop on our road trip.  Yay!

[Pawz4me]

I remember when teachers "mimeographed" tests using that blue smelly ink.  And I remember when "cc" meant  "carbon copy" with real carbon sheets typed underneath the original to make the second copy.  I feel old.

 

 

If we were really good in class, the teacher sometimes let us turn the handle!  And then we'd get the blue ink all over our hands.

 

I remember watching my mom, who is/was a typist extraordinaire (135 wpm), use a razor blade to scrap the carbon off the copy when she made a mistake.  She typed term papers to put my dad through grad school.

 

I'm old enough that I not only remember mimeographed papers, I typed and ran them (we said "ran" instead of copy/copied).  I was an office assistant in high school, and part of my job was operating the mimeograph machine, running tests or worksheets or whatever the teachers needed.  And I typed out the absentee list every day and ran it to make copies for all the teachers.  I think I spent most of my high school years with blue smudges all over me!

 

And I say pocketbook, too.

[Jean in Newcastle]

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).

 

We didn't have overshoes - they were called rubbers.  But of course we can't call them that now.  

[AMJ]

My late grandma used to say divan, dungarees (jeans), pedal pushers (capri pants), pocketbook (purse/handbag), parlor (living room), icebox (fridge), and there were probably others that I've forgotten. I don't think my kids would know what any of those are except perhaps icebox & pocketbook.

 

When I was a kid jeans (also called "Levi's") were most prized in their new condition.  It was with amazement that my Dad and I watched first stone-washing, then other forms of fake distressing, become fads, then the norm.  The first time we saw stone-washed denim in the stores my Dad remarked to the sales clerk that he has many pair of old jeans that should fetch quite the price!

 

Knickers came to just below the knees.  Bicycle pants were bell-bottoms (a.k.a. "flares") that had a strap to wrap the pant leg around the ankle and secure it so it wouldn't catch in the chain or gears of a bicycle.

 

"Floods" was the term for pants that didn't cover your ankles (were too short, often from shrinkage from washing).  Nowadays they are sometimes called "high waters", though with all of the different leg lengths to select from that is also dropping off.  If a growing kid outgrows his/her long pants they can just claim they are ankle-length now, and intended to be that way.  I wish I had that option when I was a kid.

 

Ponchos were cool.

 

Sneakers or tennis shoes (for those too hoity-toity to wear sneaks).  Also known as gym shoes.  Leather shoes were church shoes or school shoes.  Thongs were worn on the feet, not the derriere.  Windbreakers were light jackets with a close weave to cut the wind.  Rain coats were jackets or coats that kept the rain off (usually plastic, for us kids, or oil cloth for adults).

 

hoity-toity

gosh

hotchachachacha

letter (meaning a communication you would write to someone and send through the actual mail)

post mark (the cancellation stamp the post office would put on a letter to indicate the receiving post office and date of receipt)

 

People used to call all overhead wires "phone lines".  Now they are all called "power lines".  Both regardless of what the actual line carried.

 

"Wash & Dry" was what all wet wipes were called.  "7-Up" was all lemon-lime flavored soft drinks.  Joe, java, mud were all words for coffee.  "Charmin" (for a while) was a polite euphemism for toilet paper. 

[AMJ]

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).

 

And there's another one -- "shoot" as an exclamation.

[Matryoshka]

No way! In my imagination, they've always been bowed, wooden verandahs or porches, worn by time and use. I don't believe in marble stoops. I refuse to!

 

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:

 

 

Although there can be wooden stoops.

 

 

 

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

 

 

I'd still call these frocks: :D

 

[AMJ]

Oooh, yes, "credenza" is one of the words that my grandma used. I'd forgotten about that one. She used it to refer to any kind of buffet piece, bookcase with doors, or a writing desk with one of those roll-up doors on top.

 

Ah, the old roll-yop desk -- I have my Dad's.

 

My Mom's drop-leaf desk was just that to me -- a drop-leaf desk.  I didn't know what my uncle meant when he said he wanted her secretary.  He bullied it out of me at her funeral, the old rat fink (there's another old term). 

[AMJ]

Yep, I like "winsome."    It is such a useful and memorable word, although I didn't use it intentionally in that first post.  : )

 

win·some  /ˈwinsÉ™m/ 

Adjective

Attractive or appealing in appearance or character.

 

In fact, it has come in very handy on an occasion or two providing feedback on behavior for my young adults who are in that last stage (under my roof) of refining subtleties in the way they think about their own behavior and those of others that they choose to spend a lot of time with.

 

The other word I really like for its descriptive value is

 

gauche

adjective

Definition: lacking manners and proper social behavior

Synonyms: unsophisticated, uncouth, tactless, awkward, graceless, ill-mannered, uncultured, boorish

 

In my family, gauche has been a concise word that is a blessed alternative to a full-blown lecture. 

 

Both VERY good words.

 

[AMJ]

We used to say icebox when I was a kid. I remember my grandmother saying pedal pushers, Keds, dungarees, britches, and "mad money." Mad money was, if I understood as a child, for if you were out somewhere and got mad at the driver, you could get yourself home, although I think it had a secondary meaning of if you were out somewhere and saw something you wanted that you didn't plan for that you could go a little "mad" and buy something not in the budget . My grandmother might have been "pulling my leg"---another one of her sayings.

 

I still say spigot  (faucet)

 

On our farm the spigot was attached directly to the well.  In town it was any outdoor faucet.

 

Hose and hosiery (to wear on legs) were often called nylons.

 

I like "mad money".  I'll have to resurrect that.

[AMJ]

We used to have a credenza. And that was back in the 70's-80's.

 

We also used bolsters--special cushions for our punees. I haven't heard "bolster" used that way in at least 30 years.

 

I never heard of punees before, but the bolsters were slanted cushions my Mom and her sister used to put on their twin-sized beds to turn them into an equivalent of sofas in the efficiency apartment they shared when they first left home.

[AMJ]

Sorry, they're a bit different.  I never hear sneakers in usage anymore.   I do hear the word th*ng, but the meaning has changed from "flip-flops" to "underwear offering marginal coverage of the wearer's backside."   : )

 

Hmm.  "Backside"....

[AMJ]

I've asked store clerks for the "cellophane tape" and gotten blank looks.  And for "tin foil" - which of course is no longer made of tin.

 

My kids think it is hilarious when I tell them that they should "dial up" something on the internet, meaning to pull it up.  

 

A store clerk the other day told me that kids nowadays "conversate".  He thought that was awful but when I said "what happened to just conversing" he didn't know what I meant because all he knew was that we "have a conversation".  But that might not have as much to do with words going out of style as people just not knowing words.

 

Scotch tape!  Now it's just "tape".

 

People I encounter often think "converse" is a brand of shoes.

 

When I was a kid I got so mad at my brother one day I couldn't think straight, and told him he had no consideracy.  He busted up.

 

Does anyone "bust up" anymore?

[AMJ]

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.

 

Yup, feeling quite dated.

 

My grandmother, now that I recall, called it a buffet (pronounced "buff-et").

[QueenCat]

I grew up outside of Baltimore, and we used the word stoop, especially if it was on a row house. In fact, I still do. I think my neighbor from New Orleans called it the front step the other night.

 

We used stoop....... but I grew up in the same town as this poster :) I do still hear it used where I live now.

[QueenCat]

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. 

 

I hear "hence" on a regular basis.............. and I use the word "hence" in conversation.

[Crimson Wife]

Remember when we used to xerox things? Now we just photocopy them.

My 1st grade teacher (who was on the older side) used to use the term "mimeo" rather than photocopy/xerox. I'd forgotten about that. I don't think my kids (or even my younger brothers for that matter) would have a clue what "mimeo" referred to.

[JennyD]

My 1st grade teacher (who was on the older side) used to use the term "mimeo" rather than photocopy/xerox. I'd forgotten about that. I don't think my kids (or even my younger brothers for that matter) would have a clue what "mimeo" referred to.

 

Don't forget "ditto" and "carbon copy."  

 

My dad says "dungarees" and " my mom says "pedal pushers."  I use "stoop," "pocketbook," and "sneakers" all the time.  

 

"Icebox" may be gone, but we'll always have icebox cake.

[Jean in Newcastle]

 

"Icebox" may be gone, but we'll always have icebox cake.

 

Just the other day I saw a recipe with a picture of an icebox cake.  It was titled 'Retro Cake'!!  I thought, what?  That's not retro, that's an icebox cake!

[Jean in Newcastle]

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?  

[Kalmia]

Jean in Newcastle, it was the use of the word "cake" without the requisite "cup" in front of it. Definitely alarming.