Okay, I watched a lot of cartoons when I was growing up. A lot of them were made way before I was born, so they had “archaic” terms. The “Mac” thread got me thinking about his.
We don’t call people Mac any more.
Buddy and fellah seem to be out-of-common-usage.
Hood. Sure we use it for territory, but when was the last time you heard a person refered to as a “hood”? (“He’s nothing but a two-bit hood!”)
Two bits. Of course, what can you buy for two bits any more?
Nobody said groovy in the 80s and early 90s. I liked to use it for the mild shock-value. I also used hep for the same reason. “Groovy” seems to be making a come-back.
The ginchiest was not a word I heard growing up, but it’s fun to use now and then.
Hill of beans and *dollars to doughnuts
Others? Post 'em! Better yet, use them, and see the reactions!
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
For the longest time, I used to echo Kermit the Frog with the greeting “Heigh ho.” Just the other day a younger colleague (who surely should have known Sesame Street characters) asked me if I was calling her a “ho’.”
renee
Homepage: http://www.bigfuckinboatwithbadassplanes.mil
Occupation: Swabbie Pounder, First Class
Location: Anywhere you feckless landlubbers ain’t.
Interests: Navy Chow, Port of Call, The Head, Air Superiority
ICQ Number: CVN69 – An UncleBeer Profile
“Avast and ahoy, landlubbers! Shore leave’s in August. Hide your women.” – A WallySig
Wow! My kind of thread! I use a lot of words that no one else seems to use anymore.
Cool Beans!
Neato
keeno
gregarious ( yep ! that’s me!)
diatribe
laconic (when was the last time you heard someone say this, not in a western novel)
turgid (outside of romance novels, that is)
plethora
I’m sure there are more, but can’t think of them right now, except ones already mentioned.
You are more than a human being, you are a human becoming.
Og Mandino
That’s my name, not a description. I am neither purple nor a bear. Okay, so I’m purple.<a true Wally original!>
I always get weird looks when I use the word “album”, ie, “Did you get the new album from XYZ group?” Why did that word go away? A CD is still an album of songs, right?
Check out Mr. Burns on the Simpsons. My personal favorite is when he says (in reference to blocking out the sun): “It’ll be like taking candy from a baby…say, that sounds like a larf!” Then he proceedes to take Maggie’s lollypop. He uses a lot of words like that, some of which I think are made up.
Fuckin A? I use that all the time! “Fuckin A! FUCKIN GOD DAMN A!” Only when I’m angry, though.
Groovy, use it.
awesome? Naw.
And I must correct you on that Simpsons bit.
“It’ll be like taking candy from a baby… say, that looks like a larf!” He looks through a telescope and sees Maggie with some candy. Smithers then proceeds to distract him with a box of chocolate from the Simpsons. Burns doesn’t take the candy until the end of that episode. Well, he TRIES to…
I sold my soul to Satan for a dollar. I got it in the mail.
Some words I use that don’t seem to be commonplace:
[list=1][li]keen[/li][li]wiggy[/li][li]wonky[/li][li]ungood[/li][li]widdershins[/li][li]mayhap[/li]peckish[/list=1]
Here’s some seriously over the hill words, not just trendy words that have fallen out of fashion.
score (as in twenty)
deasil (“clockwise”, presumably used before clocks were especially common)
widdershins (counter-clockwise)
afeared
aged (we just say “old” now)
Southron (not since they lost the war)
mater & pater (got this one from Monty Burns)
trousers (someone may disagree with this, but no human under the age of sixty doesn’t say “pants”)
And if things keep going the way they are, there’s a whole group of words I see heading towards the graveyard: adverbs.
One became great by expecting the possible, another by expecting the eternal, but he who expected the impossible became greater than all. -Kierkegaard
I thought it was “larf,” too, and Burnsie was using an English pronunciation for “laugh” (like when Paul McCartney sang, “but I never sawr them at all” in 'Til There Was You).
