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Words Now Seldom Used

Discussion in 'Evolution of Language' started by William DeFox, Mar 22, 2019.

  1. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Dungarees. When did we stop wearing 'em?
    Two bits = 25 cents (a quarter)
    Apparently a "bit" was an old circulated spanish coin that was worth 12 1/2 cents. (I had to look that one up; I have heard the expression all my life but never knew its origin.)
     
    #46
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  2. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I can remember my grandpa always calling the refrigerator "the Frigidaire." Also my grandma had a "settee" in the parlor, lol.
     
    #47
  3. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    We called our living room couch a "Davenport". (And I assume the folks in Iowa did too!)
    Hal
     
    #48
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2019
  4. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    Eight "bits" equalled a Spanish "Peso", which British seamen called a "Dollar".

    Therefore the Pirates called Dollars "Pieces of Eight", matey!

    "Steer Sou'-Sou'-West, helmsman, and be smart about it!"

    "Aye Aye, Cap'n!"

    Harry
     
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  5. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    Excellent. I've always wondered exactly what it meant.. now I know.. :D
     
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  6. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    I think that's because the first fridges in homes were made by frigidaire...

    here in the UK we call every vacuum cleaner regardless of the brand a ''hoover''..

    We always called our sofa a settee when I was growing up in Scotland... and my grandparents had the parlour as their best room in the house fit for weddings and funerals only.. had the settee in there along with the very well polished furniture that smelled of lavender :D
     
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  7. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    I thought that was a coating applied to certain metals to protect from corrosion...

    Hal
     
    #52
  8. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    Did You Know?
    Back in the 14th century, a young man of fashion (or a ladies' man) was called a gallant. By the late 1600s, gallant was being used as a verb to describe the process a paramour used to win a lady's heart; to gallant became a synonym of "to court." Etymologists think that the spelling of the verb gallant was altered to create gallivant, which originally meant "to act as a gallant" or "to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex." Nowadays, however, gallivant is more likely to describe wandering than romancing.

    Examples of gallivant in a Sentence
    They've been gallivanting all over town. He's been gallivanting around the country when he ought to be looking for a job.
     
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  9. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Our new son-in-law didn't ask to "court" our daughter, but he did call my husband and ask for permission to marry her. We were floored. They were married last summer.
     
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  10. Emma Smith

    Emma Smith Veteran Member
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    flim·sy
    /ˈflimzē/
    adjective
    1. 1.
      comparatively light and insubstantial; easily damaged.
      "voyagers who crossed the sea in flimsy boats"
      synonyms: insubstantial, slight, light, fragile, breakable, frail, shaky, unstable, wobbly, tottery, rickety, ramshackle, makeshift; More
    BRITISH noun
    1. 1.
      a document, especially a copy, made on very thin paper.
      "credit-card flimsies"

    flimsy - My aluminum blinds are flimsy and hard to clean.
     
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  11. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Emma--I use flimsy all the time. :D
     
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  12. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    You didn't mean floosy did you?
     
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  13. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Fetch.

    Retch.

    Ketch.
     
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  14. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I use "fetch" a lot. As a word, it seems to have lost much of its effectiveness, however. I tell my wife to fetch me some coffee, and the coffee never comes. What's up with that?
     
    #59
  15. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Why would I?
     
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