Old words and phrases.. Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist. About a month ago in this space, I illuminated old expressions that have become obsolete because...

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist.

About a month ago in this space, I illuminated 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.' A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers' lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee willikers! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Hole 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. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone, evanesced from the landscape and word-scape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottle of colored sugar water and an organ grinder's monkey.

Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Long time ago: Pshaw! The milkman did it. Think about the starving children in China. Bigger than a breadbox. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's our nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron Curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatryod! And, awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart's deep core. But, just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river.

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 are 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.

We can have archaic and eat it, too!

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

slatten49 wrote:

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist.

About a month ago in this space, I illuminated 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.' A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers' lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee willikers! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Hole 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. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone, evanesced from the landscape and word-scape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottle of colored sugar water and an organ grinder's monkey.

Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Long time ago: Pshaw! The milkman did it. Think about the starving children in China. Bigger than a breadbox. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's our nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron Curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatryod! And, awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart's deep core. But, just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river.

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 are 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.

We can have archaic and eat it, too!

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer..... (show quote)

Grew up with all except 'stars and garters'. Thanks.

debeda

slatten49 wrote:

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist.

About a month ago in this space, I illuminated 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.' A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers' lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee willikers! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Hole 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. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone, evanesced from the landscape and word-scape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottle of colored sugar water and an organ grinder's monkey.

Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Long time ago: Pshaw! The milkman did it. Think about the starving children in China. Bigger than a breadbox. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's our nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron Curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatryod! And, awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart's deep core. But, just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river.

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 are 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.

We can have archaic and eat it, too!

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer..... (show quote)

good ones

And cars were betsys and mules were jennies. Long in the tooth was old

Rose42

slatten49 wrote:

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist.

About a month ago in this space, I illuminated 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.' A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers' lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee willikers! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Hole 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. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone, evanesced from the landscape and word-scape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottle of colored sugar water and an organ grinder's monkey.

Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Long time ago: Pshaw! The milkman did it. Think about the starving children in China. Bigger than a breadbox. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's our nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron Curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatryod! And, awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart's deep core. But, just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river.

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 are 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.

We can have archaic and eat it, too!

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer..... (show quote)

The only one I'm not familiar with is "oh my stars and garters". Good ones!

I love the last line.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

For the enquiring minds of EN Submarine and Rose 42:

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Oh, my stars and garters'?

A jocular exclamation or expression of astonishment.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Oh, my stars and garters'?

'Oh, my stars and garters' is now very much an American expression. I haven't ever come across 'in the wild' here in the UK. That's a little odd as, as we shall see, the phrase's origins are very much English.
'Stars' has been a favorite in British exclamations for many centuries; for example, 'bless my stars', 'thank my lucky stars' - both 17th century coinages. This usage of the word dates back to at least the 16th century, when it was used by Christopher Marlowe in the play The troublesome reign and lamentable death of Edward the second, circa 1593:

O my starres! Why do you lowre [scowl or look angry or sullen] unkindly on a king?

The stars in question are the astrological bodies and one's stars were one's position in life, or disposition.
Moving on to 'garters' and the connection isn't with astrology, or even hosiery, but with chivalry. The Noble Order of the Garter is the highest heraldic order that the British monarch can bestow. Queen Elizabeth is seen here with the emblem of the order which is worn by the monarch when the members of the order assemble. The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the emblem is in the form of a star - like several other of the honors and decorations bestowed on British notables. 'Stars and garters' was used as a generic name for the trappings of high office and, by extension, the people who occupied such; for example, this piece from Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, circa 1712:

While Peers, and Dukes, and all their sweeping train, And Garters, Stars, and Coronets appear.

'Oh, my stars and garters', when used as a humorous exclamation, appears to be a merging of the previous 'star' exclamations and the 'stars and garters' associated with the honors given to the great and the good.

The earliest example that I can find of it used in that figurative way comes from The London Magazine, Volume 34, 1765, in a comic verse titled 'A Journey to Oxford':

"Supper at such an hour!
My stars and garters! who would be,
To have such guests, a landlady"

Stars and garters are still linked with landladies, as that is the name of many public houses in the UK.

Now, ya' know...perhaps more than you needed.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Rose42 wrote:

The only one I'm not familiar with is "oh my stars and garters". Good ones!

I love the last line.

I did too, Rose, as that also caught my attention.

debeda

slatten49 wrote:

For the enquiring minds of EN Submarine and Rose 4... (show quote)

Good info

Rose42

slatten49 wrote:

For the enquiring minds of EN Submarine and Rose 4... (show quote)

I didn’t imagine there was that much behind it.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Rose42 wrote:

I didn’t imagine there was that much behind it.

Yeah, a bit much, wasn't it

bahmer

slatten49 wrote:

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer...a linguist.

About a month ago in this space, I illuminated 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.' A bevy of readers have asked me to shine light on more faded words and expressions, and I am happy to oblige:

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie. We'd put on our best bib and tucker and straighten up and fly right. Hubba-hubba! We'd cut a rug in some juke joint and then go necking and petting and smooching and spooning and billing and cooing and pitching woo in hot rods and jalopies in some passion pit or lovers' lane. Heavens to Betsy! Gee willikers! Jumpin' Jehosaphat! Hole 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. Oh, my aching back. Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

Like Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle and Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim, we have become unstuck in time. We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "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, poof, poof go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind. We blink, and they're gone, evanesced from the landscape and word-scape of our perception, like Mickey Mouse wristwatches, hula hoops, skate keys, candy cigarettes, little wax bottle of colored sugar water and an organ grinder's monkey.

Where have all those phrases gone? Long time passing. Long time ago: Pshaw! The milkman did it. Think about the starving children in China. Bigger than a breadbox. Banned in Boston. The very idea! It's our nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper. Turn-of-the-century. Iron Curtain. Domino theory. Fail safe. Civil defense. Fiddlesticks! You look like the wreck of the Hesperus. Cooties. Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Heavens to Murgatryod! And, awa-a-ay we go! Oh, my stars and garters. It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter had liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff, this winking out of the words of our youth, these words that lodge in our heart's deep core. But, just as one never steps into the same river twice, one cannot step into the same language twice. Even as one enters, words are swept downstream into the past, forever making a different river.

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 are 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.

We can have archaic and eat it, too!

Taken from an article written by Richard Lederer..... (show quote)

Very good there Slatten and I remember all of those words as well and U am sure badbobby will remember them as well.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

bahmer wrote:

Very good there Slatten and I remember all of those words as well and U am sure badbobby will remember them as well.

That depends upon BB's reading skills. At the moment, he is showing signs of dyslexia.

badbobby Loc: texas

bahmer wrote:

Very good there Slatten and I remember all of those words as well and U am sure badbobby will remember them as well.

what words? huh? where? Did Slatten post something?

\\Oh well,
if it was his usual drivel
I didn't miss anything

bahmer

badbobby wrote:

what words? huh? where? Did Slatten post something?

\\Oh well,
if it was his usual drivel
I didn't miss anything

Is it still raining down in Humble Texas?

You are up and about quite early this morning aren't you?

badbobby Loc: texas

bahmer wrote:

Is it still raining down in Humble Texas?

You are up and about quite early this morning aren't you?

got to go get spare for trailor
so will be off for a while
yes still raining

bahmer

badbobby wrote:

got to go get spare for trailor
so will be off for a while
yes still raining

Stay dry.