# "Old-personisms" that have sneakily snuck into your habits or vocabulary **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2023, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111 "2023-01-12T16:52:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/61 "2023-01-13T18:07:37Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Is it a sign of old age that I can remember similar prior threads from over a decade ago and have searched them up for your reading pleasure? No, remembering similar prior threads from years ago just shows you’ve been around for awhile and have a good mermory. Forgetting those prior threads would be a sign of old age 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/62 "2023-01-13T18:22:17Z")
I (witout wanting it) … have started to nap a good Siesta every now and then … might have started with HOffice but is in line with my age (early 50ies) ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/63 "2023-01-13T20:28:23Z")
You know how _old people_ repeat the same stories over and over again? Well… On another tack, I’ve developed a verbal tic in response to a modern annoyance in the English language. Swimming in the sea is, these days, always called (at least in the UK) “wild swimming”. (There are lots of other examples of this sort of thing, but for some odd reason I can’t remember any of them just now). But anyway, that’s not a useful clarification, it’s just an unnecessary extra word and it annoys the hell out of me. I simply cannot stop myself from observing: > “Wild swimming”? Or, as we used to call it… _“Swimming”_? Grrrr… And another thing - You know how _old people_ repeat the same stories over and over again? Well… j ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/64 "2023-01-14T08:12:08Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > I am only 55 and I am already reshuffling things in the dishwasher before running it. I’m not even 53 and I’ve been doing that for years. Sigh. Ever so often I have to supress the urge to make a sound when getting off the couch. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I find that it’s not so much that I’ve started using phrases that I associate with older people, as that I’m still using phrases that younger people don’t use any more. This. And because I do not live in the country of my birth, I am way behind on the current phrases. Do people actually say, “Cool, cool, cool” or is that just television? None of my coworkers have even heard the word “bling” and I think it’s already old slang. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/65 "2023-01-14T13:20:02Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Do people actually say, “Cool, cool, cool” or is that just television? Saying it three times like that is pretty much only Danny Pudi’s character Abed on the show Community. Saying it once is still cool though, as far as I know. ‘Cool’ is a rare slang term that seems to straddle generations. Unless I missed the memo that it’s not cool anymore, which is always possible. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/66 "2023-01-14T15:02:08Z")
> [@solost](#): > > ‘Cool’ is a rare slang term that seems to straddle generations. I still use ‘cool’ on occasion, along with ‘cool beans’. But never say ‘cool, cool, cool’. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/67 "2023-01-14T15:16:05Z")
I am a bit older than you. What fascinates me are my dreams. In my dreams, I am always about mid-20s-ish. I have noticed the ‘erotic’ dreams have fallen off immensely but I will have dreams where I am in college as a student. I freaking taught college for 6 years full-time! I never had dreams where I mentor a young buck in my field which I did several times before I retired. Instead, I am the young buck being mentored. It’s just weird. I guess I just assumed as I got older my dreams would reflect me…but, almost all the time, I am mid-20s ish. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/68 "2023-01-14T19:04:01Z")
When _Children of a Lesser god_ came out, in 1986, Marlee Matlin, b. 1965, was dating William Hurt, b. 1950, IRL. I was just a couple of years younger than Matlin, and kept thinking, “What does she see in that old fart?” Saw the film again a few years ago, and I’m now significantly older than Hurt at the time, and I’m thinking “What does a full-grown adult see in a kid a few years out of high school?” I mentioned this to my mother, who said she had similar reactions the first time she saw _Casablanca,_ and then when she saw it again around the year 2000. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/69 "2023-01-15T20:48:03Z")
You’re thinking of “old-personisms” as what you would have remembered old fogeys doing when you were young. But the modes of speech and behaviour you consider perfectly normal (and unchanged from when you were young) are old-personisms from the perspective of current young people. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/70 "2023-05-16T05:23:33Z")
At least once every day a friend and I have a conversation about well each of us slept the night before. Sometimes, if we run into each other a second time, we’ll recap it. I recently saw someone refer to old folks’ health conversations as an “organ recital.” And my first thought was “That’s really clever, I’ll have to remember that.” My second thought was “Dear Og, am I really this olde?” The dishwasher thing, I never thought of that as an old person deal. But I barely suppress my rage every time I unload it. There will be about seven items in there, and still some of them are either now upside down and full of filthy water, or clearly faced away from the spray and need re-washing. If I didn’t hate doing dishes so much, I’d just do them all myself. I don’t think of myself as “crotchety” in general, but this will be my “Get off the lawn” when filters begin to break down and things start to slip out. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/71 "2023-05-16T05:38:59Z")
I remember that usage in the mid-90s but hadn’t heard it had made a comeback. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/72 "2023-05-16T07:18:48Z")
As an elder millennial, I often find myself having to explain to my Gen-Z coworkers what life was like in the '90s. The first time I realized I was getting old was when I was in a car with two of them and talking about how on Halloween 1999 I dressed up as Neo from _The Matrix_ and subsequently got called into the vice-principal’s office because I was supposedly imitating the Columbine perpetrators, and both of them asked me “What’s Columbine?” ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/73 "2023-05-16T13:13:27Z")
I was going in for this novel new test and one of the nurses introduced the other one. I said ‘it’s nice to meet you!’ with a normal amount of enthusiasm for a patient. They both mimicked and started laughing really hard. My sister said it’s definitely a pre-cellphone habit and people just ignore introductions now. Crazy, man. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/74 "2023-05-16T13:17:13Z")
> [@Eric1](#): > > My sister said it’s definitely a pre-cellphone habit and people just ignore introductions now. Crazy, man. But…_ **they** _ introduced themselves. You were just politely responding. Sounds more like terrible bedside manner than a generational gap. Nurses mocking a patient going in for a test, for whatever reason, sounds like a really shitty thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/75 "2023-05-16T14:18:33Z")
We routinely refer to the dog’s bowel movements (occurrence and quality therof)\* but have so far avoided discussion of our own, in favor of questions about sleep quality. \*Pluto is beautifully house-trained, but it’s useful to know what outdoor walks should be prolonged for achieving this purpose. ---
**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:** [May 16, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/76 "2023-05-16T14:24:25Z")
During my late first wife’s extended illness, talking of all things biological became routine for us. Everything from vital signs, to bowels, to …, etc. I’m no medic, but I played one at home. Once remarried, my new wife finds the very idea of asking about the other’s sleep to be impolitely intrusive. Speaking of anything more … intimate … is beyond unspeakable. Another “interesting” change of pace for me. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/77 "2023-05-16T14:36:22Z")
I’ve noted that whenever a buddy and I get together for a couple of beers, our conversations feature the “word” **usetacould** a lot more than they did in previous decades. I blame Jeff Foxworthy. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/78 "2023-05-16T19:25:20Z")
Come to think of it, another person I met in college said ‘It’s nice to meet you’ is way too familiar for a lot of people. I could definitely see how people see it. In San Diego ‘Sup dude?’ surely seems more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/79 "2023-05-16T21:10:26Z")
Does muttering to myself, “I’m getting too old for this shit” count? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2023, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111/80 "2023-05-16T21:16:55Z")
No, but saying it on a public message board does. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-personisms-that-have-sneakily-snuck-into-your-habits-or-vocabulary/978111.md?page=5)