I was reading Jane austen’s “Emma” and in it, one character remarks how another must have used “Aladdin’s lamp” to conjure up the decorations for a ballroom. It got me to thinking that (in America, at least) not many people are reading “Tales of Arabian Nights” anymore (to their children or themselves). I suppose Disney’s redux of Aladdin may have helped to sustain this particular reference but the command “open sesame,” from “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” is probably taking a major hit right about now. I’ll also nominate “the whole megillah” (from reciting the Book of Esther during Purim) and “Man Friday” from Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” as additional examples.
What other common literary references have you noticed fading from daily usage?
I disagree. The phrases are still used in some form; it’s just that their origins are becoming obscure. It’s sort of like the phrase, “Try another tack,” which has nautical origins, but many don’t realize that.
If there was a candidate, I’d use the phrase: “vaccinated with a phonograph needle,” since both are now obsolete.
Not know sh!t from Shinola… do advertising slogans count? It was a kind of shoe polish – before my time, so I’m sure the young uns have never heard of it.
Sadly, the subtle meanings of Bull Moose Jackson’s great song, “My Big Ten Inch Record” (later covered by Aerosmith) will soon be lost to the ages.
A quick peek at amazon.com showed Aladdin and his lamp are doing just fine, though, thanks very much. Now, Tom Swift – there’s someone you don’t hear much about these days.
I was just thinking about this Monday at a book store with a shelf full of Horatio Alger books. Alger as a touchpoint for rags-to-riches stories is one that I think won’t be with us much longer. “Pollyanna” is one I don’t hear very often although one or more of the Disney movies may keep it going for a while.
Twice recently, once in an old movie and once in a Wodehouse short story, I’ve run across the following couplet:
“A youth, who bore 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device–Excelsior!”
Neither bothers to reference the quote; both seem to assume that it was familiar to readers/viewers. It’s from the Longfellow poem, “Excelsior.” I’m under the impression that he was a widely popular poet whose works were familiar to schoolchildren up `til at least the middle of the last century. But do people (non Lit. majors) know Longfellow’s poems these days?
Any allusions to classical literature (ie, Ovid, Cicero, et al – [wow, two latin abbreviation in one parenthetical remark]) are probably lost, although they were once common. Mythological references may be going, too.
I’ll have to check my Guide to Modern English Usage when I get home–it has a section on hackneyed phrases, but its audience appears to be early-20th century Oxford-educated upper class Britons. What it considers hackneyed now seem hopelessly obscure.
