# Is there a word for using actions that no longer exist?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-using-actions-that-no-longer-exist/714709>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 10, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-using-actions-that-no-longer-exist/714709 "2015-03-10T17:48:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-using-actions-that-no-longer-exist/714709/41 "2015-03-12T20:12:18Z")

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> [@Marion\_Wormer](#):
>
> I haven’t heard ‘dial’ a phone or ‘hang up’ for a long long time. Now it’s just ‘call’ a number or ‘cut off, break off, disconnect’ from some one.
> 
> And anyway, even in my generation, the only people who talk on the phone instead of text are talking to even older people who don’t text.

About 60% of homes in the U.S. still have landlines and those phones still get hung up. Of course one might say that really only wall phones are hung up and that desk-top phones are cradled(?), I suppose.

As for talking vs texting, one still often has to talk to make an appointment, for example. And certainly a longish conversation is much easier to speak than to text. It’s also much easier to talk if you need rapid back and forth exchanges.

Finally if you use “cut off” to mean “hang up” you’re using a phrase in a way not customary in phone usage. “Cut off” typically refers to an inadvertent disconnect.

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**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-for-using-actions-that-no-longer-exist/714709/42 "2015-03-13T04:15:19Z")

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> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#):
>
> I read that due to digital watches, some kids don’t know what ‘clockwise’ means. What other term could be used?

Except for clocks on DVRs and microwaves and alarm clocks, all of the clocks you see are probably analog. At schools analog clocks are still being used - they even stop running for a minute before the hour to synchronize themselves, just like the old days.

Try to find someone wearing a digital watch any more - now they’re the things that are antique! (The original Pulsar push-for-time LED watches run about $500 on eBay.) Except for the very cheapest digital watches at Walmart, it seems like they don’t sell digital watches.

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