Expressions from the past


 An interesting phenomenon occurs when you get to be "grandpa age." You start using words and expressions that don't make sense to the youngsters.

Language is fascinating in its evolution. We use many expressions and words now that are actually relics of bygone days. Vermont poet Julie Cadwallader Staub expressed the phenomenon this way in a poem titled "Progress":
And isn’t this how we move forward:
with horsepower for jet engines
and candlepower for light bulbs
we take what we understand from one era
to describe
what we don’t
in the next.
Here's a whole list of expressions I've collected that really don't mean anything in today's era if taken literally, but are still in use:
  • Roll up the window (no cars today have "rolling" windows)
  • Dial a phone number (dials were replaced by buttons decades ago)
  • Hang up the phone (you don't hang up now - you disconnect)
  • Don't touch that dial (you would turn a dial to change channels on old televisions)
  • Carbon copy (cc: on email messages - but no carbon paper involved for copying)
  • Tape a program (recordings used to involve magnetic tape and VCRs)
  • Sound like a broken record (continually skipping and repeating like damaged vinyl)
  • Hung out to dry (we used to put wet clothes out on a line in the sunshine)
  • Carriage return (used to be a manual action on old typewriters)
  • Telegraph your intentions (I last received a telegraph 40 years ago)
  • Hold your horses (don't get too eager - but horses?)
  • Mad as a hatter (many hat-makers used to go mad from mercury poisoning while making felt hats)
  • Rewind (backtrack in a movie - used to involve rewinding recording tape)
  • Running out of steam (no energy left, like an old steam engine)
  • Kodak moment (Kodak film was the standard for good photos)
  • Been through the wringer (a tough experience, like clothes getting water pressed out)
  • Burning the midnight oil (lamps used to require oil!)
  • Jump on the bandwagon (join a popular event when a wagon passed through with a band)
  • Get off your high horse (the most important people rode bigger horses)
  • At the drop of a hat (a visual signal used to start a race)
  • Pulling out all the stops (give full energy - like like an organ with all pipes opened)
  • Horsepower (comparing the power of an engine to the stregth of a horse)
  • Candlepower (comparing light bulb output to a simple candle)
  • Bite the bullet (endure pain - soldiers used to bite on a bullet during surgery)
  • Close, but no cigar (they used to hand out cigars as prizes in carnivals in the 1800s)
  • The "save" icon in many programs looks like a diskette, out of use for decades
  • The "send" icon looks like an envelope
I #GiveThanks for the wonderful richness of language and the chance to admire it in its evolution.


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