# Obsoleted descriptors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839 "2014-12-10T11:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/21 "2014-12-10T16:08:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > And gnus have been around for a _long_ time. New gnus is good gnus. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/22 "2014-12-10T16:12:59Z")
How about drink sizes? Nowadays, if a place offers three sizes of drink, they’re likely to be Large, Huge, and Super-Size, or something of that sort. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/23 "2014-12-10T16:17:24Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “New” England, for that matter, is the least new part of the US. What about St. Augustine, Florida? That was owned by the Spanish about 100 years before the New England colonies. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/24 "2014-12-10T16:30:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How about drink sizes? Nowadays, if a place offers three sizes of drink, they’re likely to be Large, Huge, and Super-Size, or something of that sort. [Size does matter.](http://brunching.com/sizedoesmatter.html)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/25 "2014-12-10T16:43:23Z")
St. Louis loves it some newness. New City School opened in 1969. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, known as the New Cathedral, opened in 1914. In fairness, the original cathedral, now called the Old Cathedral, is still in use. There is a New Florissant Road. It’s an extension of Florissant Road that was built at least 60 years ago. There is no “Old Florissant Road.” ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/26 "2014-12-10T17:29:16Z")
**Modern art** includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/27 "2014-12-10T17:43:15Z")
“[Shinkansen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen)” is Japanese for “new trunk line.” The Shinkansen system is presently celebrating its 50th anniversary. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/28 "2014-12-10T17:52:26Z")
And at one end of the original Shinkansen line is Shin-Ōsaka Station, i.e., New Osaka Station, which is also 50 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/29 "2014-12-10T18:16:47Z")
Songs continue to be Pop Music long after they’re not popular any more. Floppy disks stopped being floppy before most people ever heard of them. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/30 "2014-12-10T18:19:23Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Radio waves in the 3 MHz - 30 MHz are called High Frequency (HF). Now, HF is near the low end of the frequency ranges being used; apart from AM radio and shortwave radio, most radio broadcasts and communications use frequencies higher than HF. TV and FM radio are in VHF (Very High Frequency, 30-300 MHz) and UHF (Ultra High Frequency, 300 MHz - 3 GHz). WiFi and satellite communications are in UHF to SHF (Super High Frequency, 3-30 GHz). As a less extreme example: Integrated circuits were, for a while, described in terms of how integrated they were; that is, how many components had been etched onto the die. There was Small-Scale Integration (SSI), Medium-Scale Integration (MSI), and Large-Scale Integration (LSI). A bit later, we made it up to Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI). That was some time in the 1970s, right around the time microcomputers were coming into use. Then everyone realized how ridiculous this would become, and the name scheme stopped at VLSI, which now describes pretty much every kind of integrated circuit still in use. (We got it all on UHF!) ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/31 "2014-12-10T19:05:10Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > What about St. Augustine, Florida? That was owned by the Spanish about 100 years before the New England colonies. True, but which doesn’t really cross here or there with the thread trope. The Spanish never got north of about Georgia, IIRC, so the Brits were free to name their area more freely than, say, Alta California de Sud. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/32 "2014-12-10T20:53:34Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > Basically anything with “new” in its name: > > Windows NT (“New Technology”) from 1994. > > The “New iPad”, which was the official name given to the 3rd generation iPad. > > _Le pont Neuf_ (“New Bridge”) in Paris, the city’s oldest bridge. OK, it’s been 30+ years since HS French class, but isn’t “neuf” nine? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/33 "2014-12-10T21:05:53Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > OK, it’s been 30+ years since HS French class, but isn’t “neuf” nine? There are two words written [“neuf”](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/neuf) in French, one from the Latin “novem” (nine), and the other from the Latin “novus” (new), ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/34 "2014-12-10T22:11:41Z")
Then there are pre-backwards mirror retro-obsolete terms like “Xbox One”, which is the third Xbox version. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/35 "2014-12-11T01:24:24Z")
The portion of the United States commonly called “The Mid-West” isn’t vary far towards the western part of the country. Once upon a time, it was. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/36 "2014-12-11T01:27:36Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > The portion of the United States commonly called “The Mid-West” isn’t vary far towards the western part of the country. Once upon a time, it was. Yeah. As a California native I always thought it oughta be called the Mid East since that’s what it is. Both attitudinally and geographically. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/37 "2014-12-11T01:32:09Z")
The Virgin Mary \* - Unless you are Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/38 "2014-12-11T01:51:12Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Movies are still called “flicks”, short for “flickers”, even though they haven’t flickered for quite a while. And “movies” are named, to distinguish them from still photography. Then “talkies” took over for a while, but “movies” remains. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/39 "2014-12-11T01:58:14Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Floppy disks stopped being floppy before most people ever heard of them. I thought the discs themselves would still flop if you took them out of their plastic cases (not that anyone ever did). ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/40 "2014-12-11T02:00:37Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Songs continue to be Pop Music long after they’re not popular any more. > > Floppy disks stopped being floppy before most people ever heard of them. Which, of course, also led to the the delightful frustration of people confusing rigid 3.5" “floppies” with their “hard disk.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839.md?page=3)