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30 Times People Realized Some Parts Of Their Vocabulary Went Out Of Fashion And Shared It Online
To make the perfect historical movie or TV series, it's not enough to build a flawless set or hire an interior expert to stand behind your CGI artist. It's not enough to give the actors makeup in the spirit of the era and dress them in authentic costumes, sewn using the technology appropriate to the time.
There will always be something that is the most difficult to fake. Language, or rather slang. Perhaps the most accurate mirror in the world, reflecting the specifics of any time. Language lives with us and changes no less often than, for example, fashion, with words coming in and out of vogue. And this viral thread in the AskReddit community is dedicated to examples of such slang words considered 'outdated'.
More info: Reddit
Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)
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#1
I was unaware sweet was out of date. I said sweet to a customer and the tweens thought it was hilarious. Dad said dude. I said sweet. Dad said dude... back and forth until we laughed. Made my day but the tweens looked so confused. #youhadtobethere
RagDollLali 1 year ago
Lol it's from a 2000 movie "Dude Where's My Car", dumb as hell but funny
Bill Swallow 1 year ago
Hey, everybody in this thread! Check out the movie 'Ball of Fire' (1941), with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia (Gary Cooper is researching the topic of 'Slang', a major plot element) while living in a Manhattan mansion take in a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover. Howard Hawks directed this very entertaining modernization of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.
LizzieBoredom 1 year ago
I dated a guy from Boston years ago. I spent a whole summer saying "wicked" instead of "bitchen".
RELATED:
#2
I was at a grocery store a while back and the person working the register was a young 20’s woman. She said something and I responded with “Right on” and she responds with “Oh, I love old timey sayings!” So I guess that’s my old timey saying that I still use.
#3
Dude. I say it all the time...so much so that when my son was 3, he called me either "mommy" or "dude". I ctfu once at the grocery store when we were checking out once and my son said, "Dude, can I have candy?" Cashier looked at me and said, "Did he call you Dude?" Yup.
Tracy Wallick 1 year ago
"Dude" is like the "yall" of southern California, it doesn't go out of style. It's a permanent member of our lexicon.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
My daughter (34) and I (59) call each other 'dude' constantly. It's a fantastic all-purpose address/exclamation that changes meaning depending on the tone of voice in which it's said. 'Dude' will never be outdated.
Yes, it is slang that most accurately reflects the dynamics of the development of any language - because the academic norms of linguistics clearly don't keep up with the rapid fashion for words. Especially with the development of the internet. It is not surprising that it was in 1990, a year before the emergence of the worldwide web, that the American Dialect Society began to determine 'The Word of the Year' in the United States.
#4
Cool beans.
Karin Maritz 1 year ago
Me too, and I'm getting people to copy me because they are so used to it
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#5
I finish every sentence with Man, and I call everyone Dude. 🤷
Leigh 1 year ago
I call everyone dude too. A girl said I'm not a dude to me and I always saw it as a gender neutral word.
Tracy Wallick 1 year ago
I start all my sentences with man/dude/bruh, but that's because I'm from southern California.
JayWantsACat 1 year ago
I call everyone dude. Some people make fun of me but I grew at the beach in SoCal, it's in my blood. lol
#6
I've been known to use the word "copacetic" on occasion.
Comfortably Numb 1 year ago
And you learn to accept it, but no, we're copacetic
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
I used that word in class, and one of my students raised his hand and said "Sir, I don't think all of us are copacetic with that term."
Richard Graham 1 year ago
The origins of "copacetic" are a bit murky. However, the word was popularized by Cab Calloway and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in the late 1930s. So you are in excellent company!
Bill Swallow 1 year ago
That's the spirit! Maintain a copious vocabulary, and switch it up at random intervals! (Keeps 'em on their toes, as Daffy Duck would say.) Also, check out https://phrontistery.info for lots more weird verbiage!
By the way, the history of words and expressions that became 'The Word of the Year' over the time perfectly illustrates the evolution of our lives. For example, in 1994 it was the word cyber, in 2003 - metrosexual, in 2009 - tweet, in 2020 - Covid, and in 2023 - ens**ttification (the pattern of decreasing quality of online platforms that function as two-sided markets). At the same time, some 'words of the year' are so irrevocably a thing of the past that it's difficult to remember their meaning without the appropriate context.
#7
"thingy" "thingamajig"
David 1 year ago
Of course! You use the thingamajig to fix the thingy by sticking it into the dookicky to get it work
Bender Bending Rodríguez 1 year ago
What how is this obsolete. I use it to describe thingamajigs like every hour.
Anna Drever 1 year ago
My friend, who is several years younger than myself, and I use thingy far tooooo much.
#8
Negating a sentence by end the sentence with “not”. For example: I trust Social Security retirement to be there for the young workers today, not!
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
Wayne and Garth got there way before Borat.
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Michelle Hasenkamp 1 year ago
Once you make $168,600 you no longer have to pay social security taxes, up from $160,200 for 2023. Thank you, not
#9
Okey-Dokey
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
I usually use okey-doke but it does remind me of the tv series I watched as a kid, Oakie Doke
“Any language is truly a living, constantly changing structure, especially when it comes to slang,” says Oleksiy Arkhireyev, a Ukrainian copywriter and novelist, who was asked by Bored Panda for a comment here. “And everything really depends on our perception. For example, in the '60s the word 'boomer' was perceived as the personification of everything young, progressive, full of energy, but now it has quite logically changed its meaning.”
“On the other hand, we stop accepting new words in the language where we feel comfortable, and if someone considers, for example, the words 'cool' and 'okey-dokey' to be outdated, then this is not at all a problem for people who actively use them in their speech. In any case, each generation, each year brings us more and more new words - only for them to, after some time, also 'go out of fashion.' This is an objective process - and that’s what makes linguistics so wonderful,” Oleksiy ponders.
#10
I’m the only person I know who responds to something with “Nice!”
Eastendbird 1 year ago
Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool cool! I miss Brooklyn 99.
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Mariele Scherzinger 1 year ago (edited)
In Germany, young people love to do what I refer to as Denglish. It's German with as many English catchwords thrown into it as possible. (It sounds maddening). "Nice!" is superpopular at the moment.
Michelle C 1 year ago
I’ve done the same regularly since I was a kid and still do it! My students use this term exactly the same way as well.
#11
heavens to murgatroyd!
Der Kommissar 1 year ago (edited)
That was Snagglepuss's most famous quote, the other being " Exit, stage left ". Last time I mentioned Snagglepuss was the first gay cartoon character and got some downvotes.
RabidChild 1 year ago
Just recently discovered I have a long lost great uncle named Homer Murgatroyd. I love him wherever he is.
Blyss Blyssylb 1 year ago
My late husband used to imitate Snagglepuss' voice along with pretty much all of the cartoon characters!
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
So... break that phrase down.. "St. Peter on a popsicle stick! " What's that gotta mean....
Load More Replies... #12
Dope Edit: especially feels weird now that I’m almost 40 and use it to describe mundane things like salad dressing.
PeepPeep the duck 1 year ago
Millennials - always over hyping the mundane 😂 I love how we do that
Astro 1 year ago
Me too 😂 I have absolutely described salad dressings as “dope”
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Auntriarch 1 year ago
I only found out last year that it isn't always an insult
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It’s interesting that in this collection I personally found about a dozen words and expressions that I regularly use - and which other people perceive as outdated. Interesting experience, by the way - so please feel free to scroll this list to the very end, read all these stories about 'archaic slang' and maybe add your own examples in the comments below.
#13
I still use "cool" and refer to my close friends as "dude"
Hey! 1 year ago
I say cool all the time when I see something cool, which is all the time. I'm 59. My adult children just roll their eyes.
Luanda1986 1 year ago
I'm like you but I'm 38. I didn't know It's uncool. :(
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PattyK 1 year ago
“Cool” is still — well, cool. It began being used as slang in the 1930’s and has never really gone out of style (according to the National Endowment for the Humanities).
Hey! 1 year ago
My late father was born in 1928 and NEVER used that word. I don't think it was even in his vocabulary. I'm surprised it comes from this far in history.
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Peta Hurley-Hill 1 year ago
I say cool, groovy, nifty, Noice, dude ,Mostly Harmless,dig it,groady,gross,eew,Cat,woohoo,wooo and many more lol
#14
Now we’re cooking with gas Good grief I refer to people as cool cats and good eggs
PFD 1 year ago
I say "now we're cooking with charcoal". I didn't know where I'd picked it up and had no idea the original idiom was with gas till I came across a discussion of it a few months back. I started wondering why I said charcoal, and simultaneously realised no one else used this idiom.... It turned out to be from a Terry Pratchett book.
Karin Tate 1 year ago
I was recently teaching a class and said "now we're cooking with gas" and asked the students if they knew that saying. Most of them did! I was surprised - there's hope for the younger generation yet : )
nottheactualphoto 1 year ago
I think "gams" is the preferred nomenclature.
Load More Replies... #15
Wicked.
Michael Fernandez 1 year ago
I still say wicked, and with the same inflection I used in junior high in 1973.
Rinso the Red 1 year ago (edited)
My roommate my freshman year in college was from Japan and I warned him it was "wicked cold out today" and he was flabbergasted. "Like witch?" Had to explain that in, in New England, it's pretty much a different version of "very".
Load More Replies... Michelle C 1 year ago
This was still super popular when I was growing up and I hear it once in a while , too!
Kate 1 year ago
Not being from Boston, it's not something that I ever heard regularly.
Load More Replies... Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
If you're a Masshole, 'wicked' is never outdated. You just pass it on to the next generation.
Kathleen Pearlman 1 year ago
I tell my cat she has wicked long claws. She seems to know what I mean.
Crybabyartist 1 year ago
Someone down voted you but i though what you said was pretty keen!
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#17
Nifty Legit had someone ask where I was from one time.
Peta Hurley-Hill 1 year ago
I love nifty.Like...Ooh that's a nifty little whatsit.... "like" is probably one too lol
#18
Awesome sauce. I’m 49. I nearly fell over when my 17yo employee said it. She got it from her parents.
Celtic Pirate Queen 1 year ago
Had never heard it until a bank commercial. Guess you're never too old to learn (61f)
Sierra Tide 1 year ago
🤣 I just commented that phrase near the beginning of this post. Awesome sauce!!
#19
Groovy
Mark Alexander 1 year ago
Groovy will never die as long as the memory of Ash, S-Mart, The Evil Dead, OR @GroovyBruce lives. KLATU BARATA NICTAP&achoo ... so be it. Ahem.
TTorrest Author 1 year ago
I started saying "groovy" ironically years ago, and since then it just... stuck. Part of my everyday vernacular now.
#20
I still use jank/janky/janked a lot, which I feel is a bit outdated. And the occasional 'bite me'.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
As someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I use both of these terms XD I also manage to still slip "your MOM!" into the occasional convo with friends.
CrazyKnitter 1 year ago
I was never a huge fan of "your mom" jokes but they can be funny with the right crowd. I also use bite me a LOT and I probably say janky more than I think
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Lotekguy 1 year ago
That will never go out of our jargon. Too useful to let slide into the archives.
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Odette Boisvert 1 year ago
bite me dough boy is still one of my fave!! this and OH THIS CUTIE PATOOTIE!!!!
#21
Grody instead of gross
Michael Largey 1 year ago
This word was popularized by George Harrison using it as short for "grotesque" in A Hard Day's Night.
Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
I'm sure he was using "grotty" which was 60s slang for grotesque... Zappa grew up with that and it softened to 'grody' in America.
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Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
hate to burst your bubble, but "grody" came from 60s slang "grotty" which is short for 'grotesque'.
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Georgia Ireland 1 year ago
Grody was my siblings favorite word when they were 2ish. I remember saying that word just to make them laugh! That word still brings a smile to my face.
#22
Bee’s knees.
Mrs.C 1 year ago
I heard 'get away sticks' one day and I've never forgotten it. My fave slang for a woman's nice legs.
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Hippopotamuses 1 year ago
I still hear this one occasionally. It seems to be a 'dad' (as in dad joke) expression.
#23
10-4
Mario Strada 1 year ago
Is 10-4 an american thing? My radio manners are from NATO training in Europe and we never used it. I still remember (and use regularly) the phonetic alphabet, and I remember some terms we used (like "five by five") but I have forgotten many. We also used to make stuff up on the fly as our radios were not encrypted and the Yugoslavs (that's a word gone by the wayside) liked to play tricks during our maneuvers close to their border, so each unit developed their own, shifting lingo.
LAWLAWLAW 1 year ago
It's a large building where they send sick people, and stop calling me Shirley
Load More Replies... Lotekguy 1 year ago
Yep. I can still hear the gravelly voice of Broderick Crawford whenever anyone says it.
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Bill Hankel 1 year ago
I was born on October 4th and was a teenager during the big CB radio craze in the 70's, so I heard my birthday a LOT!
Celtic Pirate Queen 1 year ago
My brother always says "roger that",, probably because he was the first mate on several fishing vessels -oh, 35 years ago. But I picked it up as well.
#24
Mondo, tubular, groovy, totally colabrafo, radical. I'm basically a Ninja Turtle.
shanila.pheonix_ 1 year ago
ohmigosh i love using ninja turtle slang! 80's surfer dude slang never goes wrong
Kate 1 year ago
Ugh. Never met an actual surfer who talked like that, despite nearly 40 years in Southern California.
Load More Replies... #25
Are the kids still saying yeet these days?
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I think the word yeet is hilarious. I wish more people used it in daily conversation. :)
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Yes, they are. I hear it at least once a week at work from primary school kids.
Katrina Anderson 1 year ago
I realize I could just look it up, but what does yeet mean? … I’m 41…
#26
"take it easy" is my go-to goodbye. I've been told that's outdated.
Leigh James 1 year ago
"Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.. Lighten up while you still can, don't take a lot to understand ......and take it easy." The Eagles
GirlFriday 1 year ago
We have mountain folk in our family and they say "Be Safe" as a good bye. Even over the telephone when all I am doing is sitting on the couch. Aunt Vernamae will say, "it was nice talking to you. Love you bunches and be safe."
#27
Oh snap
Wysteria_Rose 1 year ago
Saying "oh snap" but because you learned about it on "That's So Raven"
#28
I’m big on gnarly and solid. I was not around during the timeframe they would’ve been popular. I have no idea why I say them
BarkingSquirell 1 year ago
Used in recent times during the 60s and 70s. I learned it from Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
#29
sick. boss. rad. dude. bro. bruh. half of these i started saying ironically because i hated them, but it turns out i was the douche all along and now they won't leave my vocabulary lmao what a twist for the many people talking about how un-outdated some of my list is: can you not already see i am a dumba**?
allow me to live, brü. i am a 34yo woman/alien and idk what the hell is ever going on lmao EDIT: PLEASE LEARN TO READ LOL i have already said some of these are apparently not outdated!! i wish your reading comprehension was the same BRÜ
Michael Largey 1 year ago (edited)
What I want to know is how did "like a boss" become a compliment?
Load More Replies... Nicky Shrimps 1 year ago
"half of these i started saying ironically because i hated them,..." Who has the time?!
A. Starhawk Hunt 1 year ago
When I was a kid, I thought country singer Mel Tillis was funny, because of his stutter. I started imitating it. Guess who is 60 and still stutters?
#30
What’s crackin
Lotekguy 1 year ago
That won't improve with age. Standing up sounds like milk being poured on a bowl of Snap, Crackle and Pop.
Load More Replies... LinkTheHylian 1 year ago
For reference: See "Dara O'Briain: Craic Dealer".
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#31
Lately Ive been saying sheesh again and I dont know why
#32
I say “brb” out loud a lot
WindySwede 1 year ago
brb (as in, have you have about the word? But withough i, and using Internet spelling) or as b.r.b? 🤔
Privacy Much 1 year ago
I assume "be right back". Early gamer short hand. I.e. "gotta pee, brb"
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#33
Stoked!
#34
Rad
Luke Branwen 1 year ago
This one can be iffy since "rad" is being appropriated by "radfems" (a hateful transphobic cult with no ties to actual feminism, also known as TERFs)
Pedantic Panda 1 year ago
Don't think you should receive down votes for providing a definition/clarification. Have an upvote.
Load More Replies... #35
Man alive
Richard Graham 1 year ago (edited)
Announcer on a 1939 radio show "Man alive, it's jive arrived. It's swing, it's zing, it's everything! It's boogie-woogie. It's honky-tonky. It's Tommy Dorsey playing 'Zonky'"! I love it!
Captain McSmoot 1 year ago
This reminded me of that episode of "Comedians in cars getting coffee" with Norm MacDonald. That man was coming out with some old, old sayings. God rest his hilarious soul.
#36
Totes McGotes
#38
Coolio when I mean cool. Although I'm not sure that was ever mainstream or just Sarah Chalke on scrubs.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I still use this too. But only when talking to myself. Yes, I do that a lot. :)
#40
Gimme five bees for a quarter
#41
"Fetch"
Nicky Shrimps 1 year ago
When my dog brings me a toy to throw but will not drop it I say "Stop trying to make fetch happen." If he still does not drop it I say "None for Gretchen Wieners! Bye!"
Jerry Diplo 1 year ago
Scandalous. Fetch is a curse word… around Salt Lake City and at the Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, NY…
#42
I still refer to people as "Dog." It started ironically at work, and somehow found its way into my every day speech. I don't even realize I'm doing it anymore.
#45
When telling a story I call other guys “that cat”
What do you think ?
wowbagger 1 year ago
"Geez Louise" and "okey-dokey" are the ones that creep into my language. Good lord, I also said "scuttlebutt" the other day, and I was like, where the heck did that come from? I use "cool" a lot, too, but I don't see it on the list. If it's not outdated, it must be one of the most long-lasting slang words ever.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
Cool may not be cool but it's definitely mainstream now
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Der Kommissar 1 year ago (edited)
Great Gosh-A-Mighty. Lawdy mama. Lawd have mercy. Dad nabbit. Golshdarnit. " Swell " ""as in if you could come to the party, that would be swell. ""
Libstak 1 year ago
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Also, bless you when I really wanna say good riddance.
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Bill Swallow 1 year ago
Hey, everybody in this thread! Check out the movie 'Ball of Fire' (1941), with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia (Gary Cooper is researching the topic of 'Slang', a major plot element) while living in a Manhattan mansion take in a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover. Howard Hawks directed this very entertaining modernization of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.
wowbagger 1 year ago
"Geez Louise" and "okey-dokey" are the ones that creep into my language. Good lord, I also said "scuttlebutt" the other day, and I was like, where the heck did that come from? I use "cool" a lot, too, but I don't see it on the list. If it's not outdated, it must be one of the most long-lasting slang words ever.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
Cool may not be cool but it's definitely mainstream now
Load More Replies... Der Kommissar 1 year ago (edited)
Great Gosh-A-Mighty. Lawdy mama. Lawd have mercy. Dad nabbit. Golshdarnit. " Swell " ""as in if you could come to the party, that would be swell. ""
Libstak 1 year ago
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Also, bless you when I really wanna say good riddance.
Load More Replies... Bill Swallow 1 year ago
Hey, everybody in this thread! Check out the movie 'Ball of Fire' (1941), with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. A group of professors working on a new encyclopedia (Gary Cooper is researching the topic of 'Slang', a major plot element) while living in a Manhattan mansion take in a mouthy nightclub singer who is wanted by the police to help bring down her mob boss lover. Howard Hawks directed this very entertaining modernization of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'.
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