Obsolete Expressions/Have you Used Them?

Hmmm - from the number of times I see the expression "foul swoop" used, I assume many folk do not know that the correct "fell" swoop comes from the fell (deadly) swoop of a bird of prey upon its victim.

Idiomatic archaeology is one of my hobbies, so of course my mind is absolutely blank right now.

I'm listening.

I used once the word "to maffick" either on A2K or on Abuzz; some of the people were surprised that this word still existed and was known to people outside U.S./Commonwealth.

Certainly I do so in German ('you have a scatch on your record' is my equivalent to yours, Phoenix).

When being in Britain, I sometimes fall back in 60's terms (in English), which must be quite funny for some.

Doing the crossword, I was reminded that "buck" (for dollar) used to indicate the price of a deerskin (buck or doe) in Colonial times. The hides were shipped to London and tailored into skin tight pants for the Regency Bucks.

Of course, you can use "buck" for "dollar" without knowing why.

For forty years, I've been able to exasperate children by saying, "Here's a nickle--go buy a candy bar."

I did baffle a long-winded telephone caller by saying, with a shrug, "It's your dime."

Coin clipping is long gone, but "two bits" is still common currency. I understand a "nickle bag" can now cost as much as $25.

Oh, Brave New World.

One expression that has long intrigued me is "cut your water off". I recall my stepfather using it a few times, and a few other older grownups. In the record album "Dustbowl Ballads", Woodie Guthrie sings - "the wind so cold; boy it cut your water off." I don't know if it derives from the range wars for water or something else.

I'm surprised that "broken record" is considered obsolete. I have never played a record but that expression is still very common in my world.

Craven- Don't know if it is considered "obsolete", in that it may be still in use, but I think that many people would not understand the reference!

edgar

'Cut the water off' is/was a common German sentence as well.

Edgar--

I think a stiff, icy wind turns most bladders very coy.

ah ha- as in "drain your radiator"

My parents used the expression "happy as a clam". Every so often I use it without thinking, and people look at me like I'm crazy.

I use happy as a clam. Also, so-and-so would try the patience of an oyster.

My first wife used to refer to our stereo record-player as a 'victrola.' Go figure. (I suppose that should be a capital V since the old record-playing machines were manufactured by the company which eventually became RCA-Victor.)

Once in a while she'd call it a 'gramaphone.' Weird. This is in the 1960s I'm talking about. Her mother was president of a recording company, of all things.

My grandmother had a Victrola. I used to play my 78s of Stan Freberg's St George and the Dragonette and Ray Anthony's Dragnet on it. She would ask me to leave it alone, but I played it anyway, sneaking, kind of.

This is not an expression but body language. When I am playing charades, or if I want to indicate talking on the telephone, I will automatically put my right fist to my mouth, and my left fist to my ear. I also use the expression "to drop a dime" on someone. Merry Andrew, I'll bet that you "get" that one!

Walter
I suppose the phrase might have been brought over. Makes as much sense as anything else I can come up with.

Phoenix, I sure do get it. And do you realize that today's generation has no idea what it means to 'dial' a number on the phone? The TV game show 'Dialing for Dollars' and the Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder would leave them clueless.

Heck, I can remember when you had to dial '0' to make a long-distance call, before area codes. And in many rural and even suburban communities you had to call 'central' to make any call. There were no dials on them there old wall sets. (My grandma's, as I recall, was actually wooden. But that was back in the Old Country. Back in the city, I recall when I was about six, my dad had a nifty black dial telephone with the earpiece and mouthpiece actually all of one lucite piece. Boy, I was impressed after seeing granma's dingus.)

In Australia, I do not believe that grandmas HAVE "dinguses"!!!!!