# Anachronisms that persist
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 10, 2021, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009 "2021-06-10T22:28:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/21 "2021-06-11T05:26:14Z")
“Turn up/turn down the volume” seems to still be pretty widely used, and seems to be an anachronistic reference to an actual volume knob on a radio or TV.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/22 "2021-06-11T06:45:01Z")
The interesting thing is that the “persistent anachronism” state in many of these words is probably transitional, and in many cases the changed or broadened meaning will prevail, with the original meaning relegated to the “etymology” section of the dictionary, perhaps forgotten in everyday usage.
There are surely a vast number words in our language that completed this kind of transition.
A handicap no longer requires a cap.
Sycophancy no longer involves fig-like gestures.
A salary need no longer be paid in salt.
A clue guides you, but need not be a ball of yarn.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/23 "2021-06-11T09:52:59Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> The hand signal for “call me” harkens more to the way you hold a handset, even though you don’t extend your thumb and pinky to use a handset, I assume they represent the ear and mouthpieces with the other fingers wrapped around the center. Nowadays, holding a phone is more the thumb and pointer finger extended with the other three fingers above the exposed palm.
I’ve actually heard that younger people are more likely to not use the same phone gesture, and instead do hold their hands more like you would if you were holding a smartphone. It was one of those “you can tell what generation you’re in” type of posts.
As you say, it’s not like you ever actually hold even a regular handset like that. The actual grip is similar, just with a more closed hand.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/24 "2021-06-11T11:33:24Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> I still “roll” down the windows in my car
I’ve driven Jeep Wranglers for decades, all with crank windows. Years ago I drove a friend home in her car as she’d drunk too much and had passed out.
I came to a sobriety checkpoint. The cop was standing there and I began trying to lower my window. The rear passenger window went down, then up again. Then the doors all locked. I was really struggling and getting nervous.
After flailing awhile I got the window down. The cop lit me up with his flashlight and asked me how much I’d had to drink. I explained it wasn’t my car, it belonged to the woman in the backseat, who just then raised her head and asked where we were.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/25 "2021-06-11T11:37:00Z")
In the grocery business, the people responsible for ordering products for the store are referred to as “order writers” despite the fact that it’s been decades since ordering involved mailing or faxing a written form, and is now done using scanner guns or entered into a desktop PC ordering program.
> [@BigT](#):
>
> As you say, it’s not like you ever actually hold even a regular handset like that. The actual grip is similar, just with a more closed hand.
Similarly, nobody pulls the trigger of a handgun with their middle finger, but the “finger guns” gesture involves using the thumb as the hammer (even though modern pistols don’t usually have hammers), the index finger as the barrel, and the middle finger as the trigger.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/26 "2021-06-11T12:01:39Z")
Sticking with phones, even kids who have never had a landline still say that they’re hanging up when they end a call. And, of course, it’s been even longer since the handset literally hung from anything.
Telephones are a great example of anachronistic language persisting because the technology has advanced so rapidly - from rotary landlines to push-button landlines to bulky cell phones to smartphones all in the span of a single human generation. The technology has evolved more quickly than the language. It’s neat.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/27 "2021-06-11T12:08:18Z")
We’re all **typing** our answers…anybody still using a typewriter?
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/28 "2021-06-11T12:13:00Z")
To be fair, we are using a keyboard that closely resembles a typewriter. Your example would be more valid if I had simply told my AI what I wanted to say and it had created my response in whatever format that was most convenient for you.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/29 "2021-06-11T12:17:45Z")
20 years ago (and maybe today), the schools here started offering “Keyboarding” instead of “Typing” class. The attempt to differentiate hasn’t caught on, apparently.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/30 "2021-06-11T12:39:16Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> “Turn up/turn down the volume” seems to still be pretty widely used, and seems to be an anachronistic reference to an actual volume knob on a radio or TV.
I still say, and hear, “tune in” for selecting a TV channel. That is in reference to when radio stations had to be found by hand turning the tuning knob across the frequencies.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/31 "2021-06-11T12:42:52Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> The little “save” icon in most computer apps is a floppy disc. When’s the last time you saw a floppy disc, let alone used it?
As a former graphic artist, now web developer who sometimes deals with UX/UI, this is a tricky one. If a new icon ever universally replaces the old floppy icon for ‘save’, it’ll probably be something that’s more abstract at first glance but comes to be understood as meaning ‘save’, similar to the universal ‘power’ symbol-- the partial circle open at the top with a line going through the top.
> [@flurb](#):
>
> Speaking of rotation, I still “roll” down the windows in my car even though I haven’t owned one with a manual crank in decades.
> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
> >
> > The term ‘taping’ a video or audio recording is still in common use
>
> I still hear accounts on the news about someone “filming” with their phone.
These are three good ones! Related: when my wife and I are about to watch a streaming movie and I have the remote, she’ll say “spin it”, as if we were Luddites still watching the movie on an old-fashioned DVD 😄
> [@Riemann](#):
>
> There are surely a vast number words in our language that completed this kind of transition.
>
> A handicap no longer requires a cap.
> Sycophancy no longer involves fig-like gestures.
> A salary need no longer be paid in salt.
> A clue guides you, but need not be a ball of yarn.
Interesting! I knew ‘salt’ was the root origin of ‘salary’, but had no idea of the other word origins. Will be doing some googling today.
> [@lobotomyboy63](#):
>
> We’re all **typing** our answers…anybody still using a typewriter?
I think of ‘typing’ as the act of choosing type. In that sense it’s no different on a modern keyboard or virtual keyboard on a phone or tablet than it was when there were ‘typewriters’ or even ‘typesetters’ who set individual type characters into a board to print pages of copy.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/32 "2021-06-11T14:58:13Z")
People still talk about watching “the tube” even though vacuum and cathode ray tubes are long gone.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/33 "2021-06-11T15:05:37Z")
Speak for yourself. Here is my smartwatch:
[/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46597212/7700.0.0.png) ](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZoH1ECZX-6eHSY-Vg8EWIDMY1O0=/0x134:800x667/1200x800/filters:focal(0x134:800x667)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46597212/7700.0.0.png)
Stranger
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### Author:  [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/34 "2021-06-11T15:13:12Z")
It struck me the other day while pointing out diggers to my 3-year-old daughter (a huge source of excitement on any car ride) that I have no idea of a non-anachronistic way to refer to a “Steamroller”. Seeing as they haven’t used steam in over a century (I assume) what should you call a big vehicle with a metal roller on the front used to flatten tarmac? Just calling them a “roller” doesn’t seem right.
I’m not sure if this is a British-ism.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/35 "2021-06-11T15:16:54Z")
Wikipedia says they’re a subclass of “road rollers.” I did not know this.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/36 "2021-06-11T15:24:12Z")
Mike Mulligan may have kept the term ‘Steam Shovel’ around for new generations. It’s a better sounding name than ‘Excavator’. ‘Steam Roller’ is just better sounding also, and the verb form is still in common use. The term ‘steam’ evoking a sense of power may be losing influence though. Steam as a power source is rarely seen or heard of anymore.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/37 "2021-06-11T15:37:13Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> The term ‘steam’ evoking a sense of power may be losing influence though.
So, in other words, you’re saying that term is losing steam? 🤣
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/38 "2021-06-11T15:37:50Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> Speaking of rotation, I still “roll” down the windows in my car even though I haven’t owned one with a manual crank in decades.
The universal gesture for “hey, you, open your car window!” is still “make a loose fist and move it in circles.” (Probably because the more accurate “point downward with your index finger” would just get you funny looks.)
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### Author:  [@dogbutler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogbutler)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/39 "2021-06-11T15:49:54Z")
> [@flurb](#):
>
> Speaking of rotation, I still “roll” down the windows in my car even though I haven’t owned one with a manual crank in decades.
My 2014 Kia Rio has manual crank windows, manual door locks, and satellite radio. 🤨
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anachronisms-that-persist/944009/40 "2021-06-11T15:52:09Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> So, in other words, you’re saying that term is losing steam? 🤣
[Quiet, you!](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/e7/00/bde700659d5a31360e1bd21fd6e1602c.jpg)
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