I still use nifty and groovy (not quite 1920s I realize Eve). I grew up with “Ye gods and little fishes!”
My sweet little old Gramma, when she was really mad, said “That sucks canal water” which I always assumed was fairly 1920’s (and also assumed was very unladylike language, 
)
Once in a blue moon it would rain and the sun would be shining.
Grandaddy Grimes would look out the porch and say “The Devil’s beating his wife.”
If I see someone driving badly, I like to shake my fist and yell “Twenty-Three Skiddoo!!” at them.
I don’t know what it means, or even if I am using it correctly, but it sure is satisfying.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Polycarp *
Some classics:
> “Wheel” (Apparently exclusive to my paternal grandparents and aunt, this was the term for a bicycle.)
QUOTE]
There is a series of novels “the Whiteoakes of Jalna” by Mazo de la Roche. It follows an Ontario family from 1850 to 1950 and she began writing it in the Twenties. I remember particulary a line regarding Finch Whiteoak picking up his “wheel” from the back of the train station.
Personally, I love drat and rats, and I may be the last person standing who uses “perchance” in everyday conversation!
“If I see someone driving badly, I like to shake my fist and yell 'Twenty-Three Skiddoo!!”'at them."
—It means “gettouttahere!” There’s an urban myth that the phrase comes from the corner of Fifth and 23rd in NYC, where layabouts would wait by the Flatiron Building to see ladies’ skirts blow up in the air (it’s a windy corner). But I have seen the phrase used in books as far back as the 1880s, loooong before the Flatiron Building went up.
Oooh, I also just remembered—“that rolls off my knife,” for something that disinterests me.
Huh? According to your little linkie, the term “jay” goes back to the 1880s, and “jay-walker” is derived from “jay.” Both of which I stated in my post.
If you’re referring to the patent balderdash of the statement that the word “jay-walker” didn’t appear in print until 1917 and the arrival of the horseless carriage, I have some 1905 Winsor McKay comic strips to share with you.
So go peddle yer papers! {insert smiley here}
From those chalk-like Valentine Heart candies, and Daffy Duck cartoons from the 1930’s…
“Oh You Kid”
I have no idea why or what it means… yet it’s funny to me.
I think the whole phrase is “I love my wife—but oh, you kid!” as said by a big butter & egg man from San Berdoo to the chorine in the Scandals.
When the situation is fine, “everything’s Jake!” I also use, “goin’ to hell in a handbasket” (which is in someone’s sig line). When someone’s all spiffed up, they’re “dressed to the nines”. I’ve got a lot of these…they’ll come to me.
My dad had a friend who, instead of saying “a big butter and egg man” said, “a big buttock and leg man”. That always cracked me up!
I’ve started muttering “Oh, the humanity” lately when I get frustrated.
I’m not sure if this was a widely-used expression at one time, or just something that popped out of Herbert Morrison’s mouth as he watched the Hindenburg go down, but I find it oddly satisfying.
A friend of mine and I refer to movies as “the flickers.” We don’t know why.
From an old friend (“old” being 74), I’ve picked up his habit of prefacing his staunch opinions with “mark you…”
“Egads!” is something I actually use fairly often. I’m a bit of an odd duck, so I also use “Zounds!” and the Scooby-Shaggy “Zoiks!”
And I used to hear “Lands!” a fair bit (I think it was from “Land’s sake!”). But I can’t remember who would say it (probably my aunt.)
I was once dating a guy, and I have no idea why, but guaranteed, whenever I was around him I would at some point end up saying: “No guff!” (As in “No shit!”) It’s not a particularly antiquated phrase, but it’s something not heard since I was 11 yrs. old. He seemed to think I was really weird for saying it.
I use “And now for the $64 dollar question …” occasionally - more often when I was teaching.
Would “bummer” be considered antiquated? Or just uncool?
No kidding, zoogirl!?! My father’s father’s mother, who lived from 1841 to 1937, was born and raised on a farm outside Kingston, Ontario, and may very well have been where this little bit of family terminology came from.
OK, so I see that Rubes and Ruben are being tossed around a bit here, no need to get personal.
I like to say, “I pity the fool…” but don’t use it nearly enough.
I used “poppycock” last night, as in, “Oh, poppycock!”
There’s also “dear” for expensive, which my sister and I used to throw around quite a bit (mocking our English relatives).
My mom occasionally says “Heavens to Mergatroid!”, which makes me laugh. She also says “Fuck a priest!” which makes me laugh even harder.
My late father, a Texas native, used the phrase “Slicker ‘n’ calf snot,” which I still use in his memory. Also, “Colder ‘n’ a well-digger’s ass.”
My mom, who’s from the upper midwest, says “Stepped in what?” to express confusion over what you just said. She’s the only person I ever knew who used this expression, until I met another older woman from the upper midwest who used it, too. Is it regional, do you think?
And then there’s my Iowan girlfriend who says “yeppers,” and says that everyone back home says it. I have never heard anyone but her and a guy from North Carolina use this word.
I notice that Gary Larson frequently used expressions like “Crimony” in the Far Side, but probably that was just to avoid offending any of the millions of readers of newspapers that carried his work.
There was recently a Foster Farms Chicken commercial in which this one chicken is trying to use a chest expander to work out, and hence appear more like a Foster Chickens chicken should; the exerciser snaps and catches his chest feathers, and he exclaims, “Criminy!”. I thought the commercial was a hoot and have caught myself using “Criminy” in a joking way.
One of my favorite novels is The Caine Mutiny, set during WWII, and I notice that the characters use several expressions which I remember my parents using when I was a small kid in the 1960’s, but they mostly don’t use anymore:
[ul]
[li] “Ye Gods!”[/li][li] “Don’t rush off.” (when somone says they have to go)[/li][li] “We don’t want any!” (jokingly, when someone knocks on the door[/li][li] “Well, hooray for (insert name here)” to express sarcastic contempt for (insert name here).[/li][li] “Let’s blow this joint” (jokingly said by my dad, when we were preparing to leave my grandmother’s house[/li][/ul]