Reader comments
You're a pill? Old-fashioned words sought
31 comments | Read story
Get today's headlines via email
Afternoon edition
Deseret News Family Deals
In Life
Across Site
- Talk of 'tornado tourism' stirs anger...
- Italy's greatest gift to the world:...
- Universal Orlando plans daily parade,...
- Battling misconceptions: Faced with...
- Americans changing how they consume...
- Judge says lactation issue not sex...
- Steve Eaton: Home alone experience...
- Company brings parenting to Facebook
- Book review: 'Fa$t Money' a nice...
- Book review: 'Under the Never Sky'...
In Life
Across Site
- Battling misconceptions: Faced with...
- Vai's View: Vai's View: The power of...
- Steve Eaton: Home alone experience...
- Film Review: 'The Vow' is not a...
- Working at home improves employee...
- Americans changing how they consume...
- Controlling parents raise...
- Two simple Valentine's traditions...
- Company brings parenting to Facebook
- Book review: The USS Enterprise sails...







I don't hear the word, "smart allick" anymore. That one was also used on me quite often. It might've even been written on my report card.
Glad you got your column out. Take a break and ice that wrist.
XO
old: How come you weren't at school yesterday were you home sick?
new: That's the sickest things I've seen in a long time.
Gay -
really old: She is very nice and gay.
semi-old: That is so gay.
new: I bet he's gay.
Retarted
Old: we all know what it means
New: not allowed anymore because of political correctness
which brings me to a phrase I heard the first time the other day spoken by my son and his friend...
"that is sick gaytarded"
... is the politcally correct pendulum starting to swing back the other way
or is this just early teen rebellion?
all I know is that I'm not cool, hip, in, sick or whatever they call it now a days ... and I'm happy I'm not.
I'm just "old" at 46.
"G Whil Liquors" (Say it out loud)
Both my 10 year old grandson and I got it, but my husband did not. How's that for irony? By the way, for you youngsters, it's an old-fashioned phrase meaning, "Oh my gosh", or similar
Crimenentalies! (a mild oath, a variation of "crimeny")
Gee whiz!
nifty
swell, and it's variation, swellegant
keen, peachy keen
juvenile delinquent (now they're "troubled teenagers")
To brush up on more archaic terms, you might watch reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show".
One of my grandma's favorite terms, used to describe her state of mind, was "punk" - "feelin' a little 'punk' today," she'd whisper as we dropped by for the first time in a week or more.
Then there were "Mormon" slang terms like "flip," which has now been substituted with "Omiheck." Missionaries often returned from the near-east or Far West with that classy expression embedded in their vocabularies!
Descriptive terms have changed, too, but so have the objects they described. The "beta" haircut - a precursor to the Beatle haircut that featured long, swooping bangs but short above the ears. A "D.A." or "ducktail," worn by "greasers," was a long, greasy haircut that swirled into a curl in the middle of the forehead and a kinda up-sweep in the back. (Of course, there was a girl's version of the ducktail, too.)
I must add was VERY young when I heard all these fun words!
I guess dukes are fists.
May I have my extra credit now?
As a word lover, let me add these:
"Hullabaloo." Which is to say, big loud fracas (there's another old word), total chaos.
"Shindig" for a big party.
My 81-year-old mother recently was talking about one of her friends who SHAMELESSLY chased a widower until he gave in and began courting (another old word) her. My mother said "Well, she sure had her cap set for him."
And finally...I met a group of my old high school friends for a "sleepover" this week at a Park City condo. We haven't seen each other in years. We got a little crazy. My hubby Ted said: "Sounds like you really had a 'smoker.' Ha. Isn't that some sort of old fraternity word for a big party? Back when they swallowed goldfish?
Just a few of my favorites. Love ya Annie!
When I moved to Utah as a teenager in 1969, I couldn't believe how many of my behaviors were "ignernt".
"gnarly" = very, very cool
"fer shure" = okay
"gag me with a spoon" = I can't believe it
"garbage" = a "clean" expletive
My 18-year-old daughter uses:
"pop a squat" = sit down somewhere
"give him props" = congratulate someone
"You bet"
"You betcha"
"Fer cryinoutloud"
"Bad" (meaning good, of course)
"Rad" (I guess this is radical)
"Rap" (to talk, converse)
The Wilson snipe, contrary to what you may have heard, is one of Utah's game birds. About the same size as a dove, it hunts flying insects by swooping in low over the water in swampy areas and flying in a very erratic zigzag pattern that makes for a very difficult target to shoot. Thus, back in the day when some people made a living hunting and selling game to butchers in the village market, if you made a living hunting this bird, it was a great compliment to your prowess as a marksman to be known as a sniper.
Another is you are "in a pickle" - no idea what a pickle had to do with it but you were in trouble......and how about "well dog my cats!" HUH?
And my mother slways said "Land-agoshins", which was something like "Oh my gosh!" I never really understood what that was about