# Old terms in fiction that are weird to hear or read today. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 4, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741 "2012-10-04T20:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/1 "2012-10-04T20:44:26Z")
In old fiction you run across terms for something new or not yet existing that are archaic and hilarious today. List terms used and what they were. No derogatory terms please. 1. Computer used to refer to a mathematician or navigator on the space ship. 2. Penises referring to cylindrical space ships with a pointed nose or bullet shaped ships. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/2 "2012-10-04T22:07:13Z")
“Atomic pile” instead of “nuclear reactor”. ---
**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:** [October 4, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/3 "2012-10-04T22:20:04Z")
[TvTropes has an entire article on one particular word that doesn’t mean the same thing it used to.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HaveAGayOldTime) Some that I always notice; - “Atomic” instead of “nuclear” - “Galaxy”, capitalized, as a synonym for “universe” - “Bob” for “shilling”. - “Ejaculated” for “exclaimed”. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/4 "2012-10-04T22:24:14Z")
“making love” to mean flirting or courting - as seen in C. S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair” for example: “[Jill] made love to everyone — the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, and the elderly giant lords.” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/5 "2012-10-04T23:24:56Z")
Gay used to mean happy and carefree. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/6 "2012-10-04T23:29:07Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [TvTropes has an entire article on one particular word that doesn’t mean the same thing it used to.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HaveAGayOldTime) > > Some that I always notice; > > - “Atomic” instead of “nuclear” > - “Galaxy”, capitalized, as a synonym for “universe” > - “Bob” for “shilling”. > - “Ejaculated” for “exclaimed”. Who says shilling anymore? Bob is still current, here at least. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/7 "2012-10-04T23:46:06Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “making love” to mean flirting or courting - as seen in C. S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair” for example: “[Jill] made love to everyone — the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, and the elderly giant lords.” Yes it confuses you when you first encounter it. John was seen making love to Lord Falmer’s wife, when all they had was a flirtatious chat or long eye contact in public. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/8 "2012-10-04T23:53:59Z")
“Needs must” for just plain must. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/9 "2012-10-05T00:36:48Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “making love” to mean flirting or courting - as seen in C. S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair” for example: “[Jill] made love to everyone — the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, and the elderly giant lords.” That was going to be my post. Exactly. Seriously, the same answer, and the same example thereof. (She made love to GIANTS. Owieowow!) ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/10 "2012-10-05T00:38:36Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > “making love” to mean flirting or courting - as seen in C. S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair” for example: “[Jill] made love to everyone — the grooms, the porters, the housemaids, and the elderly giant lords.” > [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Yes it confuses you when you first encounter it. John was seen making love to Lord Falmer’s wife, when all they had was a flirtatious chat or long eye contact in public. I came in here to post that too. I did a double-take the first time I ever encountered it, because it grammatically could have meant “have sex with”, but was contextually very strange. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something like: “I spent all night making love to her in the restaurant.” Ugh. Now I have the mental image of Jill making love to elderly giant lords. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/11 "2012-10-05T00:59:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > - “Ejaculated” for “exclaimed”. That’s what I thought of too. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/12 "2012-10-05T01:22:38Z")
1. Emanations instead of radiation. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2012, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/13 "2012-10-05T11:15:19Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > In old fiction you run across terms for something new or not yet existing that are archaic and hilarious today. List terms used and what they were. No derogatory terms please. > > 1. Computer used to refer to a mathematician or navigator on the space ship. > 2. Penises referring to cylindrical space ships with a pointed nose or bullet shaped ships. Okay – I’ve been reading science fiction for several decades now, and have an interest in a lot of the older stuff. I have never encountered “penis” as a term for a cylindrical space ship that wasn’t making an explicit correlation between the male anatomy and the ship. (Like in the movie _Flesh Gordon_, or in Kurt Vonnegut’s short piece for one of the Dangerous Visions collections, _The Big Space Fuck_) If you’re gonna claim that “penis” was innocently synonymous with “spoaceship”, I’m gonna have to see a citation or an example. I don’t think Science Fiction was ever that naive. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/14 "2012-10-05T11:27:42Z")
An old phrase that rings very odd today: “The things you see when you haven’t got your gun.” I’ve seen attempts to modernise it by substituting “gun” for “camera”. But the original tone of “I say, there’s a new specimen! Jenkins, hand me the .303 research tool and I shall science it between the eyes.” is almost unfathomably odd now. ---
**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:** [October 5, 2012, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/15 "2012-10-05T11:49:40Z")
If you go back a couple of hundred years, you find lots of these **Adventurer** – In colobnial days, an “adventurer” was someone who provided money for establishing a colony. Adventurers stayed home and sat on their asses. They didn’t get involved in what we would call an “adventure” – they paid other people to do that. **Projector** – In _Gulliver’s Travels_ a “projector” was what we would call a “professor” or a “researcher” \*\* Regulator\*\* – Today a Regulator is someone who regulates, or oversees a regulation. Or something that governs a process on a mechanical device, suxch as a speedc or voltage regulator. But the term used to be used several now pretty much obsolete definitions, such as political activists, self-appointed policemen, ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/16 "2012-10-05T11:57:48Z")
“Hertzian waves” a.k.a. radio Ague, apoplexy, pleurisy, consumption, etc. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/17 "2012-10-05T12:07:59Z")
In old batman comics, the Joker used to always refer to boners. I think they meant mistakes… but I wasn’t really sure. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/18 "2012-10-05T13:07:23Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > In old batman comics, the Joker used to always refer to boners. I think they meant mistakes… but I wasn’t really sure. You figured correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/19 "2012-10-05T13:13:10Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Okay – I’ve been reading science fiction for several decades now, and have an interest in a lot of the older stuff. I have never encountered “penis” as a term for a cylindrical space ship that wasn’t making an explicit correlation between the male anatomy and the ship. (Like in the movie _Flesh Gordon_, or in Kurt Vonnegut’s short piece for one of the Dangerous Visions collections, _The Big Space Fuck_) > If you’re gonna claim that “penis” was innocently synonymous with “spoaceship”, I’m gonna have to see a citation or an example. I don’t think Science Fiction was ever that naive. You will have to wait until later today, when I can spend the time to find it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741/20 "2012-10-05T13:17:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Adventurer** – In colonial days, an “adventurer” was someone who provided money for establishing a colony. Adventurers stayed home and sat on their asses. They didn’t get involved in what we would call an “adventure” – they paid other people to do that. The old-timey definition of “adventurer” that I encounter more often means something like “gambler” or “gold-digger”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-terms-in-fiction-that-are-weird-to-hear-or-read-today/636741.md?page=2)