Ten outdated expressions we still use.

[gozer]

They put cute stuff on that last page of the AARP Bulletin -- here's a list of some of the outdated expressions that most people (not just the elderly) use today. Some of them date from out grandparents' and great-grandparents' time! From a list compiled by Betsy Towner; she got her phrases from www.phrases.org.uk:

1. Asleep at the switch -- old railroad term; today automated switches do the job as opposed to a bored railroad worker.

2. Close, but no cigar -- a reference to a fairground booth prize; it's been illegal to give out tobacco (or booze) as a prize for a long time.

3. Full steam ahead! -- refers to the steam engine on a steamboat.

4. Catch you on the flip side -- refers to 45s and LPs. Also "sounds like a broken record." Couldn't we sound like a broken CD or MP3?

5. Telegraph your punches -- how would we update this? "Email your punches"?

6. I've got an E ticket! -- Disneyland stopped using these, their most expensive and exclusive coupons, in 1982 (they started issuing them in the 50s.)

7. A Rube Goldberg machine -- I've been hearing this expression a lot on the news recently re: the BP catastrophe; OkGo may have currently re-popularized it. Rube Goldberg drew his wacky cartoons starting in 1915 and, in 1931, the Merriam–Webster dictionary adopted the word "Rube Goldberg", defined as "accomplishing something simple through complex means." (Thanks Wikipedia!)

8. The kid looks like the milkman -- "Daddy, what's a 'milkman'?" "Ask your mother!"

9. Put through the wringer -- before the washer and dryer, we had the wash tub, washboard, and the wringer: two cylinders with a crank that the worn-down lady of the house would use to squeeze water out of the family's just-washed clothing... and they did it every single week on "Wash Day." Funny how women were considered weak, frail little things right up until the moment they were called upon to do gargantuan, physically onerous tasks!

10. Dial her up -- the telephone has buttons now, but we still use this expression. Even on Stargate, where people "dial the gate" by pushing buttons (okay, SG-1's gate does the spinny-thing, but Pegasus galaxy gates do not.) Other outdated phone expressions include "drop a dime" (yeah, try just finding a payphone first, then see how much it costs to call someone) and "off the hook".

Bonus phrase: "Carbon copy" or "CC" on a letter or email. How long has it been since anyone's used carbon paper? I remember finding a few boxes of the nasty stuff in my grandparents' basement when we cleared out their house for sale many years ago.

I wonder which of today's catch phrases will still be in use a hundred years from now!

Comments

[sabinetzin]

Oh! I've got another one. "I'll be there with bells on" comes from when mining operations out west still used horse-drawn wagons to carry freight. Wagons returning from the mines had to make way for wagons going, so wagons going had bells. If you got stuck, you had to give up your bells to the wagon that helped you out- so getting there with bells on meant getting there as fast as possible, unassisted.

[pocketmouse]

You can't sound like a broken CD or mp3, they don't break in the same way. Digital technology doesn't create the loop effect because the reading mechanism is fixed.