# Terms that have fallen out of fashion **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2012, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938 "2012-03-06T16:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/161 "2012-03-09T21:52:13Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > …getting a wash and set from a **beautician** … Or as my grandma was still saying in the mid-90’s, a “beauty operator.” ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/162 "2012-03-09T22:39:57Z")
Here’s a quarter. Call someone who cares. ---
**Author:** ![florez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@florez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/florez)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/163 "2012-03-10T02:29:44Z")
Que sera sera penny candy bloomers knee high to a grasshopper ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/164 "2012-03-10T03:59:10Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Well, considering that kids aren’t allowed to walk to & from school on their own anymore, I’m assuming they’re not told to not “dilly-dally” either. Mine still walk. 5 miles…each way…up hill…in the snow, though sometimes they do dilly-dally. 😃 > [@Nobody](#): > > Here’s a quarter. Call someone who cares. Travis’s song was adjusted for inflation, payphones (do _they_ still exist?) used to be a dime ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/165 "2012-03-10T04:34:20Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Travis’s song was adjusted for inflation, payphones (do _they_ still exist?) used to be a dime Yeah, pay phones still exist. Last time I used one because I left my cell phone at home it was a dollar per minute. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/166 "2012-03-10T07:15:46Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Yeah, pay phones still exist. Last time I used one because I left my cell phone at home it was a dollar per minute. I think local pay phones are up to 50c for a local call now. (Cash, though various cards may carry a higher charge–I really don’t know.) Regardless, I think of how dated Dr. Hook’s “Sylvia’s Mother” sounds now: “And the operator said, ‘Forty cents more for the next three minutes.’” Or Jim Croce’s “Operator”: All the singer is doing is calling the operator with the intention of making a long-distance call, but deciding not to complete it: “Thank you for your time; you’ve been so much more than kind. You can keep the dime…” The days when a quarter got you coffee and a newspaper–and change from your quarter! ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/167 "2012-03-10T07:19:13Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Jim Croce’s “Operator” Yeah, I was thinking about that song when I typed the phrase. I only put quarter because by the time it cost more the phrase hadn’t been updated because cell phones were becoming popular. Now I guess it would have to be something like, “Pull out your cell phone and call someone who cares.” Or, if you’re British, “Pull out your mobile phone and call someone who cares.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/168 "2012-03-10T08:01:43Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Rascal! Hee hee, my grandma used to call me a rascal all the time when I was very little. Even then, I kinda understood it wasn’t in anger and was kind of an old-timey perjorative. /30 now, so do the math. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/169 "2012-03-10T08:39:41Z")
I’m reminded of [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-6CaUKC7tM) scene from Family Guy. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/170 "2012-03-10T09:04:04Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I think local pay phones are up to 50c for a local call now. (Cash, though various cards may carry a higher charge–I really don’t know.) > > Regardless, I think of how dated Dr. Hook’s “Sylvia’s Mother” sounds now: “And the operator said, ‘Forty cents more for the next three minutes.’” > > Or Jim Croce’s “Operator”: All the singer is doing is calling the operator with the intention of making a long-distance call, but deciding not to complete it: “Thank you for your time; you’ve been so much more than kind. You can keep the dime…” > > The days when a quarter got you coffee and a newspaper–and change from your quarter! I once answered the phone with “start talkin’, it’s your nickel”. Whoever it was hung up. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/171 "2012-03-10T10:32:42Z")
This thread’s a real hootenanny. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/172 "2012-03-10T15:09:31Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > How about “bogart”, as in to act in a bogue manner. “Don’t bogart that joint, save a hit for me”. OK, I’m late to this, but I have to respond to this. One, I have no idea what “bogue” means. I looked it up and I still don’t know. Two, while I always understood the term “bogart” (as in DBTJ, my friend) to mean “stingy” or “unwilling to share”, I have always believed its use began with a meaning much more charitable. When someone said “don’t bogart that joint”, I thought they were referring to leaving it in your mouth, hanging off your lower lip, while you were talking, as Mr Allnutt in “The African Queen”. Another way of saying “If you aren’t going to smoke it, pass it over here”. I just assumed most of the stoners who used the phrase wouldn’t know Humphrey Bogart from Gregory Peck, but sure knew when someone was “bogarting”. excavating (for a mind) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/173 "2012-03-10T17:00:51Z")
Read an article once, some twit all excited to be moving in with a boyfriend, impressed but flummoxed with all his stereo equipment and called it ‘the Victrola’. Twee twit. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/174 "2012-03-11T02:41:02Z")
How about describing a flabby gut as a “potbelly” (still occasionally heard), or a “bay window” (only heard on old shows from the 50s)? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/175 "2012-03-11T03:10:49Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > How about describing a flabby gut as a “potbelly” (still occasionally heard), or a “bay window” (only heard on old shows from the 50s)? Huh? Our current home listing contains the term “bay window”. I have seen it numerous times in other listings as well. What is supposed to have replace it. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/176 "2012-03-11T03:15:39Z")
I think he’s saying bay window is slang for a flabby gut as well. (My family must just be old souls because I say loads of these things all the time. Although, I usually say “smoke on your pipe and put that in” due to too many viewings of West Side Story.) ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/177 "2012-03-11T03:27:16Z")
Up your nose with a rubber hose! ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/178 "2012-03-11T03:27:47Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > How about describing a flabby gut as a “potbelly” (still occasionally heard), or a “bay window” (only heard on old shows from the 50s)? Or Dunlap’s Disease (his belly dunlaps over his belt). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/179 "2012-03-11T04:56:37Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Read an article once, some twit all excited to be moving in with a boyfriend, impressed but flummoxed with all his stereo equipment and called it ‘the Victrola’. Twee twit. Something like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtco)? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938/180 "2012-03-11T05:14:58Z")
Long time since I heard of anyone “cocking a snook”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terms-that-have-fallen-out-of-fashion/614938.md?page=10)