I also can’t find any evidence for Wow being anything other than onomatopoetic.
I like to keep the archaic phraises in use if I can. By golly
By Jove. You gotta love a phrase that’s probably at least 1000 years old (Jove was, I believe, a Roman God.)
Me too. It’s in the basement, but every now and then I look at it and think it’d be funny to put it back in service.
Better yet, my mother has one of these on the wall of the dining room. It’s currently unhooked, but for a while there it was completely functional, wired up by an electronics-whiz friend of my brother’s. To dial a number, you take the earpiece out of the cradle, and then tap the cradle and keep count. To dial 9-1-1, for example, you’d go tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap pause tap pause tap. Way cool.
I still use six of one, half-dozen of the other, but usually have to explain it to anyone under 50. Thanks, Mom.
I also say criminetly, good gravy and hold your horses. If something finds my favor, it is oft described as neat-o, groovy, hip or even peachy-keen. True awesomeness is described as bitchin’, and no one can convince me otherwise.
There’s more than one way to skin a cat makes me wonder who was skinning cats and when . . . and why, for crying out loud!
Y’know, if the words and terms are still commonly used, then they’re not, by definition, archaic, are they?
And some of us are still proud to use “Zounds!” (and “Ods bodkins!”) in casual conversation… hell, we made a movie based around those two terms…
Please forgive my ignorance, SPOOFE, but what movie?
Not even then. It was renamed Flying High for Australia.
We still ‘type’, but never on a typewriter, or anything else actually involving physical type.
Oh, and rotary phones have one useful function - it’s far easier to hear the ringer throughout the house.
Heck, my modem still has a light marked ‘OH’ for “Off the Hook”.
My dad rents his telephone handset from the (formerly govt. monopoly) telco. As recently as the late 80s, he was given a rotary phone by them (even then it was dodgy. Must have been “fobbing the old stock off onto the old dude”). Ten years later, and the rotary phone was still going strong, but my dad rang up the telco to ask for a push button one…
DAD: I’d like to have my dial telephone replaced with a touch tone one, please…
OPERATOR: Is the rotary telephone broken?
DAD: No, but I cannot use it to access any major business number that has a computerised menu…"
OPERATOR: I’m sorry sir, but if the telephone is in working order, we cannot replace it.
[DAD: Aaaah… okaaaay. So what if I dropped it onto the floor a couple of times and it broke?
OPERATOR: (with a laugh) Then we’d replace it, sir…"
My dad got his push button phone. 
My grandma always used to say “icebox.” She also had a “davenport,” not a couch or sofa. She doesn’t say these much anymore … I mostly remember her using them in the '80s.
I say **“six of one, half a doz…etc.” ** and “criminetly” all the time. [and also “posilutely” and **“absotively”, ** but I’m snarky that way.]
My favorite phrase - “they were Thick as Theives” It’s just fun to say. And hear. Go on, try it. 
Not sure how it came about, but it sounds naughty.
The expression “ciao” is a Venetian alteration of “schiavo,” meaning “slave”. As in “I am your slave.”
Cervaise; my grandparents had one of those phones up until the 60’s :eek:. My dad remembers using it in highschool (he graduated in like 1967) Then they got a rotary phone, but had a party line and did all the way thru the 80’s. At least they have advanced, they now have a cordless phone and the rotary. But then again, it is not suprising considering they didn’t get a TV until my dad was in highschool either. They also had a well pump kitchen sink and didnt have indoor toilets until the early 60’s. They lived and still live in rural Nebraska.
My mom still calls it a davenport. And she frequently refers to a “pocketbook,” rather than a purse or handbag.
Other than that, almost all of the phrases mentioned before are still common where I grew up, in small-town central Indiana.
Huh, I just always thought it had to do with the tradition of dressing the horses up for special occasions, like at Christmas time you’d add sleighbells to the harnesses to be all festive-like.
Poking around on Google I see about five different theories for the origin, including yours, and mine, and something about jesters, and freight-hauling teams and such. Interesting!
Of someone who is feigning innocense it is still often said “butter wouldn’t melt in his/her mouth.” Everyone knows what it means, but it never made sense to me. A brief google search just turns up lists of such sayings without giving their derivation. Anybody here know this one?
I can attest to that, too. I’ve either heard or used about 99% of the phrases in this thread. So I guess that means they’re not exactly archaic.
“Well, that’s a different kettle of fish.” I use that all the time. Anyone know its origins? I know it means, “Well, that’s a different situation” or “That is different” but why “kettle of fish”?