# Did people in the 1940s and early 1950s \_really\_ talk that way? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128 "2008-08-07T04:00:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/41 "2008-08-08T16:16:27Z")
panache45 writes: \> Whenever I hear about “broads” or “dames,” I immediately think of Frank \> Sinatra. It was considered “hip” to use those terms, and I don’t think they \> always had the same negative connotation they have today. How about “chick” \> or “gal”? The fact is, we really don’t have a word for the female equivalent \> of “guy.” It’s hard to come up with a term that isn’t sexist, or at least \> condescending. Frank Sinatra is exactly who I was thinking of too, and he really was rather sexist. He is the primary model in the late 1940’s and the 1950’s of what it meant to be a hip guy, and the sexism was part of the hipness. “Chick” and “gal” are from a little later and were like “dame” rather than like “broad” in not necessarily being as sexist. ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/42 "2008-08-08T16:29:23Z")
When my grandpa (b. 1913) got mad at me he would say, “Why you little so-and-so!” I did not realise that “so-and-so” stood for something like “bastard”, I thought he was calling me a sewing machine or something. He also referred to women as “dames”. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/43 "2008-08-08T20:25:36Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] How about “chick” or “gal”? The fact is, we really don’t have a word for the female equivalent of “guy.” It’s hard to come up with a term that isn’t sexist, or at least condescending. [/QUOTE] And to me, “gal” has always sounded as is the speaker works on a ranch and attends rodeos regularly. ---
**Author:** ![accidentalyuppie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@accidentalyuppie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/accidentalyuppie)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/44 "2008-08-08T21:10:03Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] elmwood writes: “Broads”: This is typical of just how sexist those times were. A guy could say this and not be perceived as a sexist pig but as a hip guy with wide sexual experience. This term was how a man referred to a woman who he was willing to sleep with but wouldn’t marry. This is how a man showed that he despised the women he slept with while insisting that he didn’t actually dislike all women. . [/QUOTE] I don’t know that this is any less enlightened than “bitch” or “ho”, which seem to be used frequently by some of today’s popular musicians. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/45 "2008-08-08T21:33:45Z")
[QUOTE=ntcrawler] Hot diggity dog, we have some cool cats in this thread! Straight dope thread, that is! [/QUOTE] I’m tellin’ ya, Toots, the phrase “straight dope” is right up that ol’ alley. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/46 "2008-08-09T00:17:40Z")
accidentalyuppie writes: \> I don’t know that this is any less enlightened than “bitch” or “ho”, which seem \> to be used frequently by some of today’s popular musicians. I think that “broad” is approximately equal to “bitch” in its nastiness toward women, but it’s not quite as bad as “ho.” In criticizing Sinatra, I wasn’t letting present-day musicians off. Sinatra was a brilliant musician (which isn’t true of certain modern ones), but he wasn’t a wonderful person. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/47 "2008-08-09T02:16:56Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] “Broads”: This is typical of just how sexist those times were. A guy could say this and not be perceived as a sexist pig but as a hip guy with wide sexual experience. **This term was how a man referred to a woman who he was willing to sleep with but wouldn’t marry.** This is how a man showed that he despised the women he slept with while insisting that he didn’t actually dislike all women. [/QUOTE] :eek: I sure hope not! My grandfather referred to me as a “good-looking broad” when I was 19. > [@panache45](#): > > Whenever I hear about “broads” or “dames,” I immediately think of Frank Sinatra. Well, that might explain it. Grandpa loved him some Frank. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/48 "2008-08-09T14:39:03Z")
What about other ways to tell people to hurry up before they even started they even started some task at hand; for instance, after dictating an order to a waitress, telling her “and put some pep in your step, missy!” or “Chop chop!” It’s the same context I usually heard “make it snappy” in; “Gimme’ two eggs over easy, some bacon, and a cup of coffee, and make it snappy!” A lot of it might seem like movie-speak, but it seems that with the exception of certain cult films like _Juno_ and _Swingers_, the use of oddball slang one would encounter mostly in cinema isn’t as common now as in the 1940s. Also, FWIW, while we certainly said “Awesome!” quite a bit in the 1980s, I’ve never heard the youth of today use “Extreme!” in the same context, even though such usage is implied in a lot of contemporary marketing. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/49 "2008-08-18T04:04:36Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] Also, FWIW, while we certainly said “Awesome!” quite a bit in the 1980s, I’ve never heard the youth of today use “Extreme!” in the same context, even though such usage is implied in a lot of contemporary marketing. [/QUOTE] A few years before that we used to say “mega”, meaning “very” or “to a great extent”. Although come to think of it it was only within my fraternity that I heard and used it–was that just “frat slang” in the late 1970s? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/50 "2008-08-18T07:47:34Z")
I lost half of my vocabulary when “far out” and “right on” and “bummer” were lost to me. Those phrases, a little love and some weed were all I needed to get by. My last name at that time sounded a little bit like “Groovy” to some of my students and that’s what they called me – Ms. Groovy. I grew up saying “Boy hi-dey!,” but outgrew it by the time I was dating at fourteen. I also remember saying, “I’ll swan!” and “I’m tellin’ you!” “Cool” came into use sometime in the Fifties, I think, fell from grace and then was redeemed fifteen or twenty years ago. “Cool” doesn’t even seem like a slang term to me anymore. I never did use “keen.” I did hear Judge Marilyn Millian say “peachy keen” the other day. It hurt my ears! By the time I was a senior, we said, “I kid you not” a lot. That was because of Jack Parr. Speaking of movies, no one in real life ever called me “Darling.” Major disappointment. To Zeldar: Dig me, Daddy! Eight to the bar! ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128/51 "2008-08-18T08:02:59Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Speaking of movies, no one in real life ever called me “Darling.” Major disappointment. [/QUOTE] Not even an older storekeeper? That happens here all the time. I’ve even caught myself calling girls (strangers in any sort of stranger-type interaction) “love”. I couldn’t have imagined myself doing that when I was younger, but as I approach forty, it just slips out before I realise I’ve said it. I _know_ some women find this offensive, but others seem to like it, and most seem not to notice. So it’s just another boulder in the obstacle course of being a guy these days. Also, a lot of women do it themselves. We have one at work who takes it to extremes: she’s a very jolly, funny type, and the rougher, hairier, and more covered in tattoos a guy is (we work with truckers), the more likely it is she’ll call them “petal” or “blossom”. I’m still only worth a “sweetie” from her - I aspire to “blossom”. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-people-in-the-1940s-and-early-1950s-_really_-talk-that-way/459128.md?page=2)