# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/81 "2014-12-17T07:19:17Z")
> [@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. The “west” in “Mid-West” doesn’t refer to the western U.S., but the western world; it’s the opposite of “Mid-East”, although it seems to be the only such term still commonly used in the U.S. I’ve never heard of the western U.S. referred to as the “Far-West”, even though that’s what it is. Anyway, I’ve got you all beat: The New Testament was written in the first and second centuries and has been called such starting in the third century. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/82 "2014-12-17T19:20:18Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Naturally, these weren’t actually named such in the time of their relevance, only by much later archaeologists in retrospect. So they’re not strictly \*obsoleted \*terms. Quite true; I was only kidding with those. So I guess Carthage wins the contest to be the oldest new thing in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/83 "2014-12-17T19:22:14Z")
> [@Flywheel](#): > > [Scott Joplin’s New Rag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2UYVNiNNM). (He should have followed up with “Scott Joplin’s New Rag No. 2.”) Scott Joplin’s All New New New Rag. (If Scott had been the Grateful Dead.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/84 "2014-12-17T19:27:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Connecticut used to claim all the territory west of it, which was known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. It was incorporated into the Northwest Territory, which starts in Ohio. [Here’s the full story on that](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=362777), combined with absurdist speculation that if the original claim had held, Eureka, California would be Eureka, Connecticut. It wasn’t called the Western Reserve, though, until Connecticut ceded the rest of its western claim to the federal government, so that the part they didn’t cede at that time was termed a “reserve.” ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/85 "2014-12-18T07:44:46Z")
In USB, there is both “full speed”, and “high speed” connection rates, both of which are significantly slower than USB 3.0 “super speed”. If you buy a portable hard drive, you want to avoid the ones labeled high speed if at all possible. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/86 "2015-01-02T00:48:41Z")
[“New College is one of Oxford’s oldest and best-known Colleges.”](http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/87 "2015-01-02T01:23:02Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Floppy disks stopped being floppy before most people ever heard of them. they remained as floppy as ever. the carrier became stiffer. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/88 "2015-01-02T13:18:26Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > The “west” in “Mid-West” doesn’t refer to the western U.S., but the western world; it’s the opposite of “Mid-East”, although it seems to be the only such term still commonly used in the U.S. I’ve never heard of the western U.S. referred to as the “Far-West”, even though that’s what it is. This is total nonsense. The Midwest was originally called the Northwest after the Northwest Territory, from which the upper Midwestern states were carved. By the mid to late 1800’s, with statehood for the Pacific Northwestern states, it no longer made sense to call Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota the Northwest, and Midwest slowly took hold. But Midwest has always been in reference to the USA, not the western world. But if people wonder why we say, “Pacific Northwest” and not, “Atlantic Northeast,” it’s to distinguish between the Pacific Northwest and the (Old) Northwest, which is the Midwest. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/89 "2015-01-02T14:19:20Z")
C and D voltaic cells are to put into position C and D of your radio, along with two more cells at A and B position… the radio required 4 different voltages, so used four different cells (or something like that ?eg An A, two B’c , three C’s , four D’s… ) Radio bands were originally designated in wavelength, being long wave and short wave… “short wave” is obsolete, as HF , VHF, UHF break it apart and name the bands by frequency… How come the tyre is specified in mm in tread width, but using the obsolete inch for rim diameter and width ? And the circumference is guessed at from the profile specification… its obsolete as these days I am required to fit the same circumference tyre to my vehicle - I can’t complain that I got a speeding ticket due to incorrect speedometer ! The car’s electricity generator is called an alternator, merely because in auto terms, a generator makes DC from the metal (no semiconductor required.). Its a bit silly to call them alternators when we could just call them generators… three phase AC generators… which is promptly rectified, combined and regulated to one DC output, of course… “CMOS” is an obsolete term for the nvram of your computer … pretty much all of its logic circuit chips are CMOS now… but back in the days of the 8086, 80286 , the only bit of CMOS was the batter powered NVRAM and clock chip. Liquid nails were obsolete when they were first released. I mean, I always just get glue all over my hammer ! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/90 "2015-01-02T15:08:20Z")
The one item I recall from the trivia section of many books is “pin money”. before the industrial revolution, allegedly pins were made by hand, adding a head to a needle; and thus expensive, “pin money” was a large amount of money saved up for a big expenditure. After the process was automated, pins were very cheap and the term became an (ironic at first?) expression for something that did not cost very much. “New Zealand”. I bet most people who aren’t trivia buffs would have trouble finding old Zeeland. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/91 "2015-01-02T15:09:28Z")
The genre of music “Alternative” - which is now, for the most part, the most mainstream popular genre. Much as “non-conformists” all seem to wear the same clothes. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/92 "2015-01-02T15:42:32Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > C and D voltaic cells are to put into position C and D of your radio, along with two more cells at A and B position… the radio required 4 different voltages, so used four different cells (or something like that ?eg An A, two B’c , three C’s , four D’s… ) there is mixing of nomenclature here. the A, B and C of early radio batteries was not sizes but voltages. radios at the start were battery powered, electrical mains weren’t. A was filament voltage 1.4 to 2 V and could be a wet cell. B was plate voltage often 45 V. C was grid voltage. radios were portable in the sense that they could be moved, they were the size of a large bread box and had no internal space for batteries. these batteries were large and rectangular. there are A, B, C and D sizes of cylindrical dry cells now. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/93 "2015-01-02T15:47:15Z")
radio waves are still long, medium and short. the radio spectrum is very wide. there still is use in all the frequency regions. what has changed is the usability of shorter frequencies. technology allows useful shortification. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/94 "2015-01-02T15:51:55Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Quite true; I was only kidding with those. So I guess Carthage wins the contest to be the oldest new thing in the world. Wouldn’t that be Cartagena? Cartago was destroyed, Cartago Nova still stands. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839/95 "2015-01-02T15:56:03Z")
“Unleaded” gasoline. It’s been decades since you could buy leaded gasoline at a corner gas station to put into your car. (I realize there are still a small number of places/applications that use leaded gas, particularly in General Aviation.) The milk I buy doesn’t have any added lead either, but we don’t feel it needs to be in the name. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsoleted-descriptors/706839.md?page=4)