Old fashioned speech

I still use a frightening number of the examples posted....


Chris Wilson said:
Alsatian
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That was only in use for a short period anyway, as a marketing ploy. Now that the war is long over, we've gone back to calling them German Shepherds...

krooton said:
I do wonder if today's youth will be similarily upset with tomorrow's youth for not knowing what 'on fleek' means :D
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Absolute piffle.... Are they upset with those of us from yesterday's youth (and earlier) who don't know WTF it means either?
Rinsin'? Givin' it larrrrrrrrrge? Fantazzydozy... or absolutely cöck-a-hoop?
 
Mrp1980 said:
Yeah but I'm not sure its appropriate nowadays.
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My previous office (2010/11) were mostly smokers and they would say "just popping out for a fag."

tek81 said:
Fanny. Such a different meaning these days, that I imagine it's censored here.

Edit - or maybe not
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What does it mean nowadays? 25 years ago back in school, it was the lady's privates. Thought it still mean that?

rubberduck said:
Ball-point pen
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Good call :) Everyone just calls it a biro, if they still use pen and paper that is. My office has been paperless for years.

d_brennen said:
Surfing the internet
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Cyberspace.. that's another one you no longer hear outside of BBC News :p

dirtychinchilla said:
There's a South African at work who says motorcar every time. It's a bloody car!!
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It might be a regional thing then since you mentioned a nationality. IIRC the Americans say automobile.

Rroff said:
Cheque
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Yup! My dad (through-and-through blue voter luddite) told me to still use cheques when paying tradesmen, but they all use bank transfers or Android/Apple pay nowadays, just like everyone else. In fact, I've not had a chequebook for donkeys. Hell, even my granny at 90 does online transfers.

Merlin5 said:
Telegram
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Teletext :D
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
What does it mean nowadays? 25 years ago back in school, it was the lady's privates. Thought it still mean that?
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Once, it was nothing more than a womans name. But at some point, I don't know when, it took on a different connotation; the one we are most familiar with today.
 
Gordon Bennett

For Pete's sake

Lovely jubbly

Give over

Me aunt Fanny

My giddy aunt

It's not over until the fat lady sings

Press button A

Telegram boy

Tea cosy

Blimey O 'Reilly

Oops a daisy

Coal scuttle

Golly gosh

Bit of a Jezabelle

My sainted aunt

Cor love a duck

Going Dutch (maybe still used, but not heard it for ages)

He's a bit of a Beau Brummell

Moving staircase
 
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G-MAN2004 said:
Clout

Back in my day it meant 'hit' (typically with your fist), but now the Soundcloud rappers and Gen Z kids use it to mean 'fame'.
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I can see the reason for that. "Clout" also means "power" (and has done for at least 40 years because it was used with that meaning for as long as I can remember) and fame brings power.
 
Merlin5 said:
Telegram
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Slightly strange, since the number of telegrams sent nowadays is many orders of magnitude greater than the number sent in the past. We just call them by the more descriptive term "text messages".

tek81 said:
Once, it was nothing more than a womans name. But at some point, I don't know when, it took on a different connotation; the one we are most familiar with today.
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I have a vague memory that it was due to a specific woman who was famous for sexual reasons. Who might not have been real, come to think of it. A character in a book that was wildly notorious in its day, a couple of hundred years ago, and promptly banned. Fanny Hill, I think her name was. Probably actually Frances Hill.
 
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