Response to Lost Words e-mail

From Richard in reponse to the previous e-mail post--he is an author and priest:

As a wordsmith of sorts, I have bemoaned the passing of some words.
Nevertheless, I have learned to live with what we are given in this day. I do so
24/7. I still drive my 1978 MGB. If I were not married, I'd be proud because
this car is a chic magnet. No matter how much we try to educate, people will
still refer to me and others in my profession as Reverend, i.e., "Ask the
Reverend." I like how every noun has become a verb. I have been tasked to do
such and such. Recently on one of my favorite TV shows a character--playing a
lawyer--said I'll messenger that to you. Irregardless has become acceptable for
regardless. "I'll invoice you."

So often new words represent a
great deal of the progress we have made. For example, surrogate motherhood was
not conceived when I was a child (during 50s and 60s). Not only did we not know
what the Genome Code was, we had no idea it could be cracked. What can I say
about "sperm donor?" And there is the unflappable "in vitro" and "in utero."
Organ donor. Transplants. DNA. DNA testing. Now we have a better idea who my
baby's daddy is.

Unfortunately, we have the diseases HIV and Aids.
The word "cocktail" is used to describe the medicines combined to assist
HIV-Aids persons to fight their illness.

Instant messenger or
instant message. Cell phone or simply, "My cell" as in "Call me on my cell."
Wireless networking. Hooking up. Many of us are not interested in having a gay
old time in gay Paree or any other place. The word fag does not mean cigarette.
When someone asks if you smoke, they generally do not mean Camels or Kools or
Marlboro, et al. Kara told me that she smoked 'weed' and would do so
always.

When did freaky become a word? There is even the verb "to
freak." Rap is not the action you take on the table, it is music (OK, OK, some
of you may disagree).

The computer generation has brought about the
abbreviated message and especially those with acronyms, initials, and the like.
LOL is what many of us do when we hear a joke. Cryptic comes to mind when I read
most e-mail messages. Just a few years back, "Internet" was unknown to most
people; certainly it was not widely known or understood. E-mail address is
now required on applications almost as often as telephone number. Gigabyte.
Browser does not refer to the person window shopping and who may ultimately
procure some store bought items. Perhaps one of the most elegant of all the
technological terms is ISP or Internet Service Provider. AOL comes to mind
immediately.

Graphic seems to be the manner of the day. Not only
are some terms not in vogue like "in a family way" or even pregnant, but the
more basic is employed: knocked up.

A number of two- and
three-letter words exist like Bro and Yo.

What is snail mail? A
guy wishing to court a girl (Do we court today?) will usually ask her for her
digits.

I love the fact that we are reticent to rank; instead we
seemed to have a need to prioritize.

Category = I hope I don't step
on too many toes
Even well-educated individuals will end a sentence with the
preposition 'at," e.g.. "Here's where we are at." and hardly anyone understands
the comparative today. Just the other day I heard a person say, "I could not be
more proud of this individual." Why can't prouder suffice?

Forget
all about the verb to be which takes the nominative case. So one correctly says,
"It is I" not "It is me." Where we really miss the boat is when we say "Thank
you for the time you showed Jeanie and I." That's when the objective case is
required and proper. I like to say that it is OK to say me. But then you'll
actually have those who will say, "Jeanie and myself."

These were
just a few of the things that rolled off the top of my head; I wanted to share
them with you.

For better, for worse. words will come and they will
go. Their meanings may or may not remain constant. Many will be saddened by the
passing of some of our favorites. But some of us will seek out the new, the
revised, the descriptive, the more relevant. We'll examine the use of the new
and improved, the altered, and the words that are dropped for
use.

Thank you for this posting. It was fun.

Lost words from the e-mail inbox (Z)

I was thinking about "fender skirts" and it started me thinking about other words that quietly disappeared from our language with hardly a notice.
Like "curb feelers" and "steering knobs." Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to them.
Remember "Continental kits?" They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental. (I loved the ones for the VW Beetles--the originals.dgb)
When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?" At some point "parking brake" became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with "emergency brake." I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot feed." Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the "running board" up to the house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore: "store-bought." Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy.(Sadly, store-bought may be cheaply- or shoddily-made nowadays. "Handmade" is the premium today!dgb) "Coast to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term "worldwide" for granted. This floors me.
On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.
When's the last time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family way?" It's hard to imagine that the word "pregnant" was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company. So we had all that talk about stork visits and "being in a family way" or simply "expecting." It's hard to recall that this word "divorce" was once said in a whisper. And no one is called a "divorcee" anymore. Certainly not a "gay divorcee." Come to think of it, "confirmed bachelors" and "career girls" are long gone, too.
I always loved going to the "picture show," but I considered "movie" an affectation. Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s word I came across the other day: "rat fink." Ooh, what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss: "percolator." That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? "Coffeemaker." How dull! Mr. Coffee, I blame you for that.
I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like "DynaFlow" and "Electrolux." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with "SpectraVision!"
Food for thought: Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening their kids with castor oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is "supper." Now everybody says "dinner." Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts. Someone forwarded this to me. I thought some of us of a "certain age" would remember most of these. Just for fun, Pass it along to others of "a certain age"!!!