# Anachronisms in everyday speech **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 19, 2007, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315 "2007-10-19T18:00:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/21 "2007-10-20T03:27:38Z")
Take another tack. Flash in the pan. The Devil to Pay ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/22 "2007-10-20T03:52:28Z")
I was reading something the other day, and one character was making fun of another character because he called him at home, and asked, “Where are you?” Not really a stupid question any more. [QUOTE=RealityChuck] Take another tack. Flash in the pan. The Devil to Pay [/QUOTE] “Take another tack,” isn’t anachronistic, is it? A lot of people still sail recreationally, even if it’s not a primary method of transportation any more. Or am I wrong about the origin of the phrase? And what’s anachronistic about “The Devil to pay?” ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/23 "2007-10-20T04:25:44Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I was reading something the other day, and one character was making fun of another character because he called him at home, and asked, “Where are you?” Not really a stupid question any more. [/QUOTE] Just the other day I read somewhere (might have been on the Dope actually) of a woman who answered her cellphone in a restaurant with, “How did you know I’d be here?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/24 "2007-10-20T04:47:01Z")
This one is an anachronistic sound effect: When a humorous film or TV show wants to do a gag involving background music cutting off, I still hear them use the sound of a needle being scratched off of a record. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/25 "2007-10-20T05:02:37Z")
> [@AtomicDog](#): > > After I finished laughing, I proceeded to explain to a child who had grown up listening to nothing but cassettes and CDs the phenomenon of record scratches. I’m not saying I doubt you, but I can’t understand how anyone born in the mid-1980s or later could be unfamiliar with [the sound of a record scratch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratching). ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/26 "2007-10-20T05:06:15Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] “Take another tack,” isn’t anachronistic, is it? A lot of people still sail recreationally, even if it’s not a primary method of transportation any more. Or am I wrong about the origin of the phrase? And what’s anachronistic about “The Devil to pay?” [/QUOTE] Supposedly it is a reference to the age of sail, when you had to “Pay” the seams of a ship by patching them with hot pitch. The Devil being the seam between the deck and the hull, and being the most difficult to pay. I’ve also heard that the expression “I’m pooped” comes from the Poop Deck on sailing warships, which was the part where most of the ship’s officers stood watch from. Presumably, a crewman assigned to a detail on the Poop deck would find himself entirely unable to goof off, and would spend the entire time there toiling away so as to avoid being disciplined by the officers. Thus, he would be “pooped”. In the military, we talk about being “Shipped out” somewhere, even though I’m pretty sure the preferred methods of transportation for this purpose are airplanes and busses. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/27 "2007-10-20T05:40:09Z")
[QUOTE=jimmmy] My Dad called the Refrigerator the “Ice Box” and I still do that from time to time - but I think alot of people still do [/QUOTE] It’s a box. It contains ice (usually). Why not call it that? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/28 "2007-10-20T06:12:59Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] Supposedly it is a reference to the age of sail, when you had to “Pay” the seams of a ship by patching them with hot pitch. The Devil being the seam between the deck and the hull, and being the most difficult to pay. I’ve also heard that the expression “I’m pooped” comes from the Poop Deck on sailing warships, which was the part where most of the ship’s officers stood watch from. [/QUOTE] Part of this labour, no doubt, was polishing the brass monkeys on which the cannon balls were stacked. :dubious: Seriously, this sort of folk etymology can be attractive - but this sense of “poop” didn’t enter the language until the thirties, and the phrase “the devil to pay” had been in use for almost two hundred years before the word “devil” has been recorded in connection with the seam of a ship. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/29 "2007-10-20T06:19:45Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] “Take another tack,” isn’t anachronistic, is it? A lot of people still sail recreationally, even if it’s not a primary method of transportation any more. [/QUOTE] Just so. Not only is sailing not obsolete, they continue to make innovations in the design and rigging of sailing vessels. And as long as there are sailing vessels, if they wish to go in the direction the wind is blowing from, they’ll have to tack in order to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/30 "2007-10-20T06:45:48Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] Supposedly it is a reference to the age of sail, when you had to “Pay” the seams of a ship by patching them with hot pitch. The Devil being the seam between the deck and the hull, and being the most difficult to pay. [/quote] That doesn’t make much sense. “The devil to pay,” doesn’t refer to the hardest part of a job, it refers to dire consequences from a given course of action. It seems like a pretty straightforward metaphor. When you sin, you pay for it in hell. And since the devil rules hell, you’re paying the devil. I’m sure it was used quite frequently on boats, but probably in reference to the concept of paying for one’s sins. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/31 "2007-10-20T07:08:03Z")
I still tell someone who’s annoying me with repetitious conversation that they sound like a broken record. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/32 "2007-10-20T13:58:44Z")
[QUOTE=fetus] I’m not saying I doubt you, but I can’t understand how anyone born in the mid-1980s or later could be unfamiliar with [the sound of a record scratch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratching). [/QUOTE] He’s familiar with that sound effect, but that’s not what he heard. It was just the popping and clicking associated with old, well-worn records. He had never before heard this as I hadn’t played my record collection in many years. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/33 "2007-10-20T14:14:51Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] And what’s anachronistic about “The Devil to pay?” [/QUOTE] The phrase was originally “The devil to paye and no pitch hot” and refers to using tar to patch a difficult seam in the ship. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/34 "2007-10-20T14:26:19Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] The machine that packs down a new road is still called a steamroller. I daresay none of us here has ever seen a real steamroller. [/QUOTE] No equivalent of [Rough and Tumble](http://www.roughandtumble.org/) where you grew up? Admittedly they do more antique, often steam-powered, tractors than anything else, but I know I saw a real steam roller at a Steam-Up once. Noisy beast. I work at a daycare in a very old building where we still do _turn_ some of the lights on and off. (Sometimes I wonder how that building passes fire codes…) Most of us flip a switch up or down, but still ask someone to turn off the light. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/35 "2007-10-20T15:49:59Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] The phrase was originally “The devil to paye and no pitch hot” and refers to using tar to patch a difficult seam in the ship. [/QUOTE] Sorry to take the wind out of your sails, but it appears much earlier in Swift’s _[Journal to Stella](http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/stlla10.txt)_, with no nautical association. > [@](#): > > The Earl of Strafford is to go soon to Holland, and let them know what we have been doing: and then there will be the devil and all to pay; but we’ll make them swallow it with a pox. The French Ministers stayed with us till one, and the Secretary and I sat up talking till two; so you will own 'tis late, sirrahs, and time for your little saucy Presto to go to bed and sleep adazy; and God bless poor little MD: I hope they are now fast asleep, and dreaming of Presto. It appears as well in _Polite Conversation_: > [@](#): > > …a man may love his house very well, without riding on the ridge: besides, I must be with my wife on Tuesday, or there will be the devil and all to pay. This is a straightforward expression which was punned on later. (“The devil to paye and no pitch hot” first appeared in 1865.) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/36 "2007-10-20T16:21:59Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] It’s a box. It contains ice (usually). Why not call it that? [/QUOTE] It’s a throwback to the days when the iceman cometh, to bring you ice to put in your ice box to keep your food cold. Then along came this marvelous new invention, the refrigerator, that made its own cold. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/37 "2007-10-20T16:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] It’s a box. It contains ice (usually). Why not call it that? [/QUOTE] I get ya. Just an Icebox, to me, is a cabinet and the Ice Man Cometh, ([(possibly 3 Icemen)](http://www.veoh.com/videos/v500921bMjTt6WH) usually on a horse drawn cart, and maybe need to use oversized tongs to actually deliver ice to the [icebox](http://antiques.search.ebay.com/ice-box_Other-Furniture_W0QQsacatZ63589) \*\* Larry Miller\*\* I do make that distinction and am not clear on what you are saying. ---
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/38 "2007-10-20T17:29:57Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I have. At a museum, admittedly, but in full steam. And they were in real use in Britain until the [1960s](http://www.bseps.org.uk/scf2k5/scf2k5__rollers.htm). [/QUOTE] I still hear the term “steam shovel” here and there. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/39 "2007-10-20T17:40:16Z")
[QUOTE=jimmmy] **Larry Miller** I do make that distinction and am not clear on what you are saying. [/QUOTE] If you’re refering to **Larry Mudd** ’s post #18, I think the point is that a Digital Video Disc is a ‘video’. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315/40 "2007-10-20T17:42:34Z")
[QUOTE=jimmmy] I still call Blockbuster the “Video store” although we haven’t watched a Home video this century. [/QUOTE] I think the point is that you probably _have_ watched a video—just a video **disc** rather than a video **tape**. “Video” in the pure sense just means something you watch. Somewhere along the line, “video” came to be the shortened word for “video tape” or “video cassette,” but it doesn’t have to mean that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-in-everyday-speech/423315.md?page=3)