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Friday, March 29, 2019

Lost (for) words


Mergatroyd!
  
Do you remember that word?  Would you believe the spell-checker did not recognize the word Mergatroyd?  Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not so elderly (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?”  He had 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.

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?

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!)



Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth...

See ya later, alligator!   

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great blogspot Joan. And somewhat ironic that the medium you have communicated that message on would mean nothing to the good folks who knew those words and phrases!

Whiskers444 said...

As far as the oldest obsolete term I know, that would have to be "Not worth a Continental", dating back to the late 1700s. That's discounting the ageless terms like "In my day...", "When I was young...", we'll never see their likes again" and others of that ilk.