Words and phrases of my lifetime that have disappeared from the language

[NightTrain]

Today, March 20th, is my 38th birthday. Since I'm a self-appointed linguist, I started thinking about some of the words, phrases, acronyms, et al, that have come and gone from the American vernacular in my lifetime. Here's what I've come up with:

Arco (Gas station chain that still exists in Canada)
Axion (Long-gone brand of laundry detergent)
AYDS (Unfortunately named diet candy, circa 1980)
Beefalo
Beep beep yer ass! (Bumper sticker with picture of Road Runner on it)
Bicentennial Minute (60-second TV presentations aired in 1976)
Black-and-white (as in television)
Bra-burning
Breaker 1-9 (CB radio lingo)
Close 'N' Play (Record player for kids)
8-track tape (If you don't remember these pieces of shit, you're lucky!)
Ethyl (Synonym for gasoline)
Gasohol (Short-lived gasoline/alcohol mix for powering cars)
Hot pants
H.T.A. (Gasoline additive)
Hysterical History (Satiric bubblegum cards from 1976)
Icebox (Nickname for refrigerators)
"Keep on truckin'!"
Le Car (Compact automobile made in France)
MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig)
Midi (Short-lived substitute for "mini," circa 1970)
Mood ring (Dumbass fad, circa 1973)
Pet rock (Another dumbass fad, circa 1974)
Phillips 66 (Another deceased gas station chain)
Quadrophonic sound
Record player (Predecessor of "turntable")
Red Dye Number 2
Russian flu
SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
Shaker Maker (Kids' toy with which you made your own statues)
Son of Sam (Serial killer who stalked NYC in 1977)
SSP Smash-Up Derby Set (Toys for boys!)
Unisex
Wacky Packages (Satiric bubblegum cards, late '60s/early '70s)

Feel free to add whatever I forgot!

[WillyBrandt]

1. "Must needs"

That's a construction that I suppose was never popular in my lifetime, but I enjoy coming across when reading older texts.

[Gildor Inglorion]

38. Also "needs must"

Both of them awkward constructions. No wonder they're disappearing.

From Jonathan Harpaz, Israel: “Does the following expression/idiom exist: needs must when the devil drives? If so, is it British or American and when did it originate?”
The expression does exist, and as it happens is one of the older proverbs in the language, somewhat predating the USA. Shakespeare uses it in All’s Well that Ends Well: “My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives”. However, it is actually older—the earliest I can find is in John Lydgate’s Assembly of Gods, written about 1420: “He must nedys go that the deuell dryves”.
The form you quote is the usual modern one, but it isn’t so easy to understand, as it is abbreviated and includes needs must, which is an semi-archaic fixed phrase meaning “necessity compels”. The Shakespearean wording makes the meaning clearer: if the devil drives you, you have no choice but to go, or in other words, sometimes events compel you to do something you would much rather not.

Now, oh now I needs must part
Now, oh now I needs must part,
Parting though I absent mourn.
Absence can no joy impart:
Joy once fled cannot return.

While I live I needs must love,
Love lives not when Hope is gone.
Now at last Despair doth prove,
Love divided loveth none.

Sad despair doth drive me hence;
This despair unkindness sends.
If that parting be offence,
It is she which then offends.


Dear when I from thee am gone,
Gone are all my joys at once,
I lov'd thee and thee alone,
In whose love I joyed once.

And although your sight I leave,
Sight wherein my joys do lie,
Till that death doth sense bereave,
Never shall affection die.

Sad despair doth drive me hence;
This despair unkindness sends.
If that parting be offence,
It is she which then offends.

[JVS]

2. Hot pants live on in our hearts!

[REP]

3. Mood Rings Are Alive and Well

I've been seeing them everywhere.

'Regular or Unleaded' (gas choices before unleaded gas became mandatory)

[maggrwaggr]

4. dude, I'm 42 and I've never heard of half of those

you from Canada or sumpin'?

[James T. Kirk]

17. I'm 34 and I can vouch for most of it!

[mykpart]

5. Fashion plates (girl's drawing toy)

PBX - old fashioned switchboard with trunk lines that plugged in
TWX - an old teletype machine
Keypunch operator
IBM Machine (referred to early computers)
Poll tax (abolished in the 60's, but you used to have to pay this by January 31 in order to vote in the ensuing year.)
Hi-Fi (predecessor to stereo)
Swine flu

[JVS]

6. Is that the one with the interchangable plastic plates that you rub a...

crayon over to color paper held in the plastic frame?

[mykpart]

10. Yes. They had a version for boys

which had super heroes and villains, but I can't remember what it was called.

[JVS]

13. We had both of them at my house

The dress one was pink and the other one was yellow iirc. We would mix and match to make make superheroes with skirts and other oddities.

[Sentath]

51. And another

With aliens and monsters

[baldguy]

22. I remember keypunches!

My first prog class was fortran.

[theoceansnerves]

7. arco

arco is still alive and well in california, unless it's a different arco.

i think "laptop" computer is starting to disappear, replaced by "notebook."

[theoceansnerves]

8. also relating to gas

i think "super" unleaded is starting to disappear, replaced by "premium" :eyes:

[NightTrain]

19. Hmm....

All I know is, I haven't seen an Arco station on the East Coast since around 1973. Perhaps I was thinking of Esso? :shrug:

[King_Crimson]

75. Hey 'Train...

don't forget Conoco and Gulf.

[Qanisqineq]

20. how about unleaded vs. regular?

they used to be two different things

Now it seems there is just regular (unleaded) and diesel

[regnaD kciN]

72. Arco...

...is all over the west coast. (It was originally a merger between a chain from the east coast, Atlantic, and one from the west coast, Richfield. It's a sign of my age that I remember each of the two chains separately.)

i think "laptop" computer is starting to disappear, replaced by "notebook."

I remember when they were called "portable computers," because you couldn't hope to hold one in your lap unless you were Andre the Giant...

[Kenneth ken]

9. H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y ! ! !

:party:

:toast:

:thumbsup:

Y A Y Y O U ! ! !

NightTrain
:yourock: & SOUL (with a capital S), baby!

[Insider]

11. Esso

Gino's Giant

phonograph
record player
victrola
stereo console
transistor radio
boom box, sort of
high-top fade
flat-top
jheri curl

[ProudGerman]

14. You'll find Esso's all over Germany

Probably other parts of Europe as well.

[JVS]

18. Canada has esso

[dolo amber]

23. With the disappearance of

"Jheri-curl", the world became a better place. :D

Happy B'day, Night Train! :party: :toast:

[pagerbear]

26. Speaking of Esso

How do you get a tiger in your tank?

You kick him in the gas-hole!

[Insider]

50. for the record

that have come and gone from the American vernacular in my lifetime

and Happy Birthday NightTrain!

:party::bounce::bounce::party:

[Nevernose]

12. Bush 2 killed the SALT treaty...

...his first hundred days.

Atlantic-Richfield (ARCO) is still big out west (I bought gas there this morning), and Phillips 66 is still big in Texas/New Mexico.

I also still own eight-tracks, though I have lost the eight-track player. Why? What possible use could I have for an eight-track version of Billy Jel's "2nd street" or "The Best of Cat Stevens"?

[Khephra]

15. album

[James T. Kirk]

16. Zoofy Goofies

It was a toy that would let you mold your own animal heads, feet and torsos and hook them together to make silly creatures.

Thanks for reminding me of the Wacky Packages. Too bad I can only remember the "Armored Hot Dogs".

[RebelOne]

21. You forgot "hi-fi"

[MrBenchley]

24. Stereos too...

Transistor radios...

[TOhioLiberal]

25. 1st of all...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Who can forget the worst car to come along--the Yugo? Or the proposed station wagon version...the 'we-go'? LOL

Trekkerlass

[lpbk2713]

27. And speaking of gas stations........

I remember when they used to give out roadmaps.

[analogman]

53. Remember when they were called "service stations"...

And they actually provided service?

[Don_G]

28. Drive-In Movie Theater

Service Station, Fallout Shelter and Repairman is on it's way out.

[NightTrain]

29. Thought of some more

ABSCAM
Acid rock
Creeple People
DeLorean (brand of car)
45 RPM
Kentucky Fried Chicken (Now called "KFC")
Lite-Brite
Locally owned and operated (OK, I'm being facetious!)
Love Canal
LP
McD.L.T. (Fast-food burger with environmentally wasteful packaging, circa 1985)
Milkman
Monaural
Moral Majority (Now called the Heritage Foundation)
Soviet Union
Spirograph
TV antenna
"Where's the beef?"
"Who shot J.R?"

[Don Claybrook]

30. You forgot the most tragic product name ever:

Ayds diet candy.

Sure, it was a really dumb idea to convince people to eat chocolate flavored caramel things in order to lose weight, but their timing was tragic.

Remember "Lose weight with Ayds"?

The spelling was different, the pronunciation the same.

[NightTrain]

31. I didn't forget it!

See my initial post. "AYDS" is clearly mentioned.

[Don Claybrook]

33. Sorry about that

I just missed it.

I'm glad you brought this up. It gave me the opportunity to explain some of these defunct products and companies to my 12 year old son.

Sorry for the oversight.

[RebelOne]

57. I don't know, but is there any such thing

as a typewriter anymore?

[m-jean03]

48. About KFC

Is this because they don't actually use natural chickens -- Instead their chickens genetically engineered to not have beaks & claws ? Heard this somewhere. :shrug:

[NightTrain]

49. Urban myth

Snopes covered it.

[m-jean03]

69. Thanks --

It seemed pretty far-fetched.

[DancingBear]

32. "You in a heap of trouble, boy"

from the old Dodge commercials

Also:

Crashmobile
Flying A
"hang in there"
Mod clothes
toast-r-oven
blank guns
blasting wire
cesspool

and about 3 million more that someone else wil think of

[UrbScotty]

34. WASSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPP?!?!?!?!?!?!

That's a good one!

[NightTrain]

35. Also from more recent times: "Compassionate conservative."

:eyes:

[Lars39]

36. "Conflict of Interests"

When is the last time you heard that one bandied around on the news?

[freeforall]

37. Please and Thank You

Don't hear much of these anymore from most people. They demand things and then say "Fuck you."

[FlaGranny]

39. Ice box - not actually a nick name for refrigerators

but the original name - when you had a box, first ones were made out of wood, in which you placed large blocks of ice (delivered by horse and wagon)to keep your food cold - hence "ice box." Refrigerator came later and some old folks continued to call the new electrical refrigerator contraption an "ice box."

Edit: Some more history on ice delivery in the old days. The turn of the 20th century and before were colder than they are now. Fresh water lakes all over the country froze enough that they were used to harvest ice in the winter. The ice was stored in large warehouses and kept insulated so that it lasted most of the summer. I can still remember when I was a kid in the 1940's, some of my neighbors did not have refrigerators yet. They still had ice boxes and the ice man still delivered ice several times a week.

[AlienGirl]

62. "Ice box" is not dead!

Several times I've caught my roomies using that term for our fridge. They say they've caught me doing it too, but they're wrong; I am more modern than them, Ph33r M3!

Lite Brite still exists, too.

How about Garanimals?

Tucker

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. Some more

pettipants
Orlon
Dacron
notchback car
"far out!"
"sharp!"
"simple"--used much like "lame" is used nowadays
IBM card
IBM Selectric
platen
"pocket books" for "paperbacks"
mimeograph
ditto machine
ditto stencils
shag haircuts
"swear to God!"

[DancingBear]

45. Ah, the lovely "platen"

Remember how you (or your service person) had to clean the platen with isopropyl alcohol, dressed up in a fancy packet and called "cleaning solution?"

[analogman]

54. And don't forget the Carriage Return key.

[Buns_of_Fire]

66. Carriage return KEY?

Nah. The real MANLY-MAN typewriters had a carriage return LEVER that you slapped with your right hand to move everything back over to the left (and make that little *ding* sound when it hit the stop on the other end). And the keys didn't have any electric assist, so you actually had to PUNCH the things to generate enough force to make the impression on the paper. And when you were REALLY REALLY going fast, you'd wind up with a couple of the keys trying to be in the same place at the same time and they'd jam and you'd have to reach up in mid-word to knock them back to their resting position (and then go for the White-Out so you could repair the wrong letter that wound up there. And we liked it that way!

It was, how you say, "groovy."

[dmr]

74. That's the kind of typewriter that my school used in typing class

Here's some more:

Saddle Oxfords
Can-cans
Penny Loafers
Patten leather shoes
In living color
Pin curls
Shirley Temple curls, or ringlets
A bob
Rouge (blush)
Dippity Doos
45s
78s
33s
Leggins
Girdles
Garter belts
Sanitary napkin belts
Nylons
Polyester Pantsuits
Leisure suits
Fish hotdogs (yuk)
Oleo
Milk in glass bottles
Pop in glass bottles
Tiddley Winks
Pinto

[NightTrain]

41. God help me, I've thought of more!

Computer punchcard
FORTRAN (Computer language, early '80s)
Pocket computer (early name for pocket calculators)
Reel-to-reel deck
Rotor antenna (TV aerial that turned via remote control)
Telex (Paleo fax machine)
Vacuum tube (Predecessor of the transistor)

[DancingBear]

44. Nix on vacuum tubes!

For any audiophiles out there (like me), vacuum tube amplifiers are the best there are!

Tubes are still really big in certain segments of the hobby - my stereo amps are both new tube amps - single ended triode, if anyone has a clue what that means... :)

[King_Crimson]

76. You're facing my brain into overdrive, 'Train...

cartridge for my turntable
needle for my record player
Chevy Corvair
Ford Pinto
Plymouth Barracuda
carburetor

[AmandaRuth]

42. well i did grow up in the 70's

Columbian
Acapulco Gold
lid
head shop

Don't indulge any more (kids), but I do remember the days.

[DS1]

43. things were "real" and/or "fake" when I was in high school -I loathed H.S.

[bleedingheart]

46. God you are making me feel so old....

I remember all of that...

[m-jean03]

47. My dad still calls the fridge the "ice box"

He is 60 and SECRETIVE about his age...Ha ha, anyone who heard him say "ice box" would know he's an old fart. :D Just kidding, Night Train.

And I still say unisex. Like, a unisex bike, or teeshirt or something, right?

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

58. So do I.

I was partly raised by my grandparents, so,...

[analogman]

52. It's a free country.

Apparently, our current elected? officials have forgotten about the Constitution.

[MidwestMomma]

55. I'm old, I'll try!

Candy cigarettes
Teeter totters
pedal pushers
smock tops
jungle gyms
banana bikes
clackers
penny candy
culottes
scooter skirts
training bras
saddle shoes
girdles

That's all for now...

[ashling]

56. First of all, my pet rock takes offense at your remarks

Ethyl was a lead additive used in gasoline. "Ethyl" was commonly used as an abbreviation for whatever grade of gas it was used in (all gasoline is the same, the particular additive is what affects the grade)

Ethyl was an extremely dangerous product to manufacture because of the lead. Workers had their blood levels monitored. My dad was a doctor who worked for a time as a consultant to the manufacturer of this additive back in 1959.

You haven't heard it recently because lead in gasoline and paint was banned sometime in the 70's. However, lead is still a problem in our water and air. Would somebody please check the lead content of W's water . . . on second thought

Its also my mother-in-law's name.

Well, I think I may be in the mood to end this post. . . let me check my ring.

Oh yeah, Gotta' go.

:nuke:

[NightTrain]

60. I stand corrected on the "ethyl" thing.

My only excuse is that I was rather young at the time, and my memories of the early '70s can be kinda fuzzy. :)

[msu2ba]

59. "You're welcome"......

.....replaced by "No problem"

[Insider]

61. how about a whole language?

high schoolers often took latin when i was coming up. i took it, and own of my brothers did too.

i don't think i know any teens or college students who take latin today.

[ChoralScholar]

63. Thanks for the reminders.

hehe.... I remember the McD.L.T! "Keeps the hot side hot and the cold side cold"

But.. on Phillips 66, we've got them wall to wall out here. I think theres about 6 just in Russellville. Probably 15 or so in Pope County.


Here's another one to remember... "Big Chief Writing Tablet" :)

[mitchum]

64. Ludes...

714- the favorite number of my youth!

[KittyWampus]

65. I Got Up To Change The Channel

Gee, you mean in the old days there were no remotes.

[doc03]

67. Made in U.S.A.

[ashling]

68. Maybe we need to break this down into categories

madison avenue- ex., Ipana toothpaste, "thatsa some spicey meeta ball"
historical events, place names, and references: ex.,ABSCAM, etc.
linguistic - i.e., lost or archaic word usages, such as "I must away"

just a suggestion

However, what I get bent out of shape about are usages of words or expressions that have come INTO our vernacular that are simply wors and phrases misused often enough that they are no longer misusages (but hey, I guess that's why English is not a dead language)

such as: "This point in time" I get especially mad about this one, because it became common mainly through its repeated use by Nixon's idiot Watergate thieves.
problem: Redundant. something either exists a this point, or at this time, but not both. Of course I guess in some theories of physics it could exist in 10 deminsions at the same time.

Enthuse (v.) This is still unnaceptable in formal writing though I saw it in an essay in Harpers Magazine yesterday

But then, maybe its just me.

:shrug:

[kodi]

70. leisure suit

made of course of 100% american silk.......aka polyester.

[NoPasaran]

71. "Go for it"

Hi Test (premium gasoline)
78's
NET (predecessor of PBS)
"Baby on board" (damn, those were annoying)

[maveric]

73. Penny Arcade, Penny Candy, Stingray Bikes, Party Lines.

Milk Box
Milk Money
Fallout Shelter
Metracal

[Insider]

77. freebase/freebased/freebasing

i don't anyway.