Terms Which Have Disappeared

[GHT]

And hang up is still in common parlance.

So is "dial."

 

[vitanola]

Id go with "lower the window" and "raise the window" That way i am covered until we have forcefields

And hang up is still in common parlance. With cellular phones it is tougher to understand but we still put landlines down even the wireless ones


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"Hang up"? How about "Ring off!"

"Roll Down the window"? How about "Put up the side curtains"?

 

[McPeppers]

So is "dial."

Im sure as long as we need to punch digits in dial will survive. Really anything that survived the rotary to touchtone move has some legs.

Even satellite phone users say they have a call on another line, and now with digital hold you have one cellular number but in effect multiple lines.

Tech is one of the few fields that clings to terminology. Case in point, "debugging"


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[McPeppers]

"Hang up"? How about "Ring off!"

"Roll Down the window"? How about "Put up the side curtains"?

Great now you have me thinking back into Demolition Man.

Illuminate.... De-luminate


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[vitanola]

Exactly. Not all unmarried men and women are closet *******uals. Some just aren't the marrying kind, some, like your algebra teacher, perhaps just have trouble attracting the opposite ***.

One must understand the difference between "Batchelor" and "Confirmed Batchlelor".

Now there was the "Boston Marriage", but I do not believe that there was any similarly recognized term for the male variant therof.

 

[Fading Fast]

That's an assumption that really needs to be put to rest. It's still the train of thought around here, especially if you dress well. A well dressed guy with no wife just has to be ***, you know. Give me a break.



I think I'm a little from column A and a little from column B lol lol lol

I also remember "light in the loafers" as being a crypto phrase for ***, but to LizzieMaine's point, while it sounds horrible today, it wasn't (always or, in my experience, mainly) delivered with rancor and anger, just a way of quietly acknowledging it. To be sure, there was much rancor and prejudice, but I also remember many, many people being quietly accepting and polite too. We had a *** English teacher in my high school that was respected by all but a few. Of course he had to be low key about it - but not quite in the closet either - and that was very wrong, but for the times and looking back, it is clear that many people were, again, quietly, supportive. Life and history is always more grey, complex and nuanced than the easy (and, sometimes, smug) narrative of "we are enlightened today and neanderthals then."

 

[Zombie_61]

Interesting. I've heard the term "confirmed bachelor" in movies but, until I read this thread today, had never considered it to be a possible reference to ***ual orientation. I had always assumed it simply referred to someone who, for whatever reason, was disinterested in or against the idea of marriage. I've known men like that (who, as far as I know, are hetero***ual as evidenced by their "string" of relationships with women), so it never occurred to me to think otherwise.

 

[GHT]

Im sure as long as we need to punch digits in dial will survive. Really anything that survived the rotary to touchtone move has some legs.

Who said anything about rotary to touchphone?
What I mean is, when did the dial go away? This my prefered appliance.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I also remember "light in the loafers" as being a crypto phrase for ***, but to LizzieMaine's point, while it sounds horrible today, it wasn't (always or, in my experience, mainly) delivered with rancor and anger, just a way of quietly acknowledging it.

I'll let those who have had to deal with the social aspect of being *** over the last 100 years comment on how good-natured and polite people were to them, and how they were allowed to quietly go about their business with a smile and a wave.

 

[tonyb]

...

Now there was the "Boston Marriage", but I do not believe that there was any similarly recognized term for the male variant therof.

That's a new one on me. Had to look it up. Interesting etymology, according to what I read.

Another one that I had no recollection of ever hearing in conversation is "grass widow." I came upon it some years ago in the writings of one Henry Louis Mencken. By H.L.'s time, it had come to mean a divorced woman, or one separated from her husband, or one whose husband was frequently absent. The implications are clear enough.

It's pure speculation on my part, but I'm thinking that the origins of "grass widow" are shared to some degree with "a roll in the hay."

 

[LizzieMaine]

I also remember "light in the loafers" as being a crypto phrase for ***, but to LizzieMaine's point, while it sounds horrible today, it wasn't (always or, in my experience, mainly) delivered with rancor and anger, just a way of quietly acknowledging it. To be sure, there was much rancor and prejudice, but I also remember many, many people being quietly accepting and polite too.

In our neighborhood, it was just a matter of not having the slightest bit of interest in other people's *** lives. We didn't talk about such things in public, ever, with anyone. It just wasn't done.

 

[tonyb]

In our neighborhood, it was just a matter of not having the slightest bit of interest in other people's *** lives. We didn't talk about such things in public, ever, with anyone. It just wasn't done.

I suspect that in my neighborhood there was plenty of interest in other people's *** lives, but it was a decidedly guilty curiosity, so mention of it was anything but direct. At least that's the sense I got as a youngster, who was left to suss out for himself (with the "guidance," such as it was, of my slightly older but still quite juvenile friends and associates) just what it all meant.

A relative by marriage (a son of my once-widowed grandfather's second wife), a fellow who was in his 20s when I was something like 9 or 10, was called a "confirmed bachelor," even at that young age. So, in retrospect, it's pretty darned clear what it meant in that particular instance. And, in retrospect, it's pretty darned clear that more than a few of our teachers were what we now call "***." The profession was something of a refuge for such folks. As I recall, those teachers of my acquaintance were well regarded professionally and personally.

Indeed, if there was ever an unkind word for any of these folks, I have no recollection of it. This is not to say they weren't oppressed, though. I can only imagine the verbal contortions they would have gone through to honestly answer a young person's inquiry into why they weren't married. "Never found the right girl," I'd guess would be the easiest answer, to get that matter off the table. But that's hardly an honest response. But in such cases, and in those times, such a less-than-forthcoming answer is perfectly understandable.

 

[McPeppers]

Who said anything about rotary to touchphone?
What I mean is, when did the dial go away? This my prefered appliance.

Oh the best phones are still rotary. That said the day it died is probably when the first replica came out with buttons around where the dial would be lol


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[Haversack]

I remember hearing the term Grass Widow still being used in the early 1980s among US Army officers and their wives stationed in Germany. It referred to wives who's husbands were frequently in the field, (e.g. members of the 2nd & 11th ACR). Not too dissimilar to the term Baseball Widow.

 

[Fading Fast]

In our neighborhood, it was just a matter of not having the slightest bit of interest in other people's *** lives. We didn't talk about such things in public, ever, with anyone. It just wasn't done.

In my neighborhood and in my parents' circle, the view, as best I took it in as a kid, was that it was not desirable to be *** (not that even that was said, just something I felt), but also, no one was snarky, negative or angry and, as with my English teacher, the view was (and this was expressed) judge him as an English teacher period (paraphrasing my Mom - I don't care, nor should anyone else about what he does away from school - how is he as a teacher is all that should matter). No one outwardly talked about *** or others' *** lives, it was all kind of spoken around. As said, no one even said being *** was negative, but the impression was it wasn't something you proactively wanted, but if it happened, then let that person live his / her life was the view. Today, of course, we have a more robustly supportive view and no longer have an even covertly negative view - and that is much, much better - but my memory isn't that there was outward or even covert attempts at prejudice in my circle. Of course, I know that went on - and I know it was horrible - but it just wasn't what I saw or experienced as a kid. The first outwardly negative talk about *** people I heard was in college and then stand up comedians.

 

[dh66]

I guess a "grass widow" really isn't a widow but may as well be for all intents and purposes the same way the "straw boss" isn't the same as the big boss man. The implication being, I guess, that a figure made of straw (or grass) isn't really what he/she seems to be.

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[dh66]

Like a scarecrow, y'know.

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[dh66]

And as to the topic of *******uals, I'll agree with Mr.Hawk. Growing up in the deep south, *** people had to get in line for a hard time. I can remember all sorts of colorful terms for all sorts of non-white, hetero, protestant that thankfully are no longer widely in use

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[LizzieMaine]

And as to the topic of *******uals, I'll agree with Mr.Hawk. Growing up in the deep south, *** people had to get in line for a hard time. I can remember all sorts of colorful terms for all sorts of non-white, hetero, protestant that thankfully are no longer widely in use

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Growing up in a place that was 99.99 percent white Protestants of English or Scotch-Irish descent, we saved most of our epithets for tourists. "Summer Complaints" was probably the most polite term used, but there were plenty of others. We could afford to be dismissive of them then because our economy wasn't entirely dependant on them -- but you never hear such phrases spoken out loud now.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I was under the same assumption as you.

Interesting. I've heard the term "confirmed bachelor" in movies but, until I read this thread today, had never considered it to be a possible reference to ***ual orientation. I had always assumed it simply referred to someone who, for whatever reason, was disinterested in or against the idea of marriage. I've known men like that (who, as far as I know, are hetero***ual as evidenced by their "string" of relationships with women), so it never occurred to me to think otherwise.