Tag: old expressions

  • Old Tyme Sayings (we should bring back!)

    Old Tyme Sayings (we should bring back!)

    As I continue to type Dad’s letters, smiling all the while (because it’s fun to imagine my Dad writing them as a 20 year young man), I’ve been gathering remnants of the lexicon that was fashionable in the forties. I will add to this list as I come across sayings we rarely hear nowadays (and please feel free to add ones you might hear from your great, great relatives!):

    • The old duck (a 74 year old European story teller)
    • Chum around together [hanging with your peeps]
    • t’other [as in, you take one, I’ll take t’other]
    • I’m back in the chips again [after being paid]
    • Pretty classy [I suppose we’d say ‘stylish’?]
    • Weather is wetter than babies’ diapers [how’s that for a simile?!]
    • Those so and so’s [i.e., sonsofbitches]
    • Fair to middling [feeling only okay]
    • Full of vim and vinegar [fiesty!]
    • Get dolled up [so you’ll be looking fine for your babe]
    • Terrific [used to express excess or something horrendous ]
    • You’ld think… [an unusual contraction]
    • Methinks… [perhaps he was trying to be “classy”!]
    • ___ will come in mighty handy [fill in, “the dollar you sent”]
    • I’m a’raring to go [so look out, world, I’m ready!]
    • That fellow is really tops [and is probably a swell chap!]
    • Spry young man [lively, energetic, fun]
    • Stepping out [hitting the town, looking for action!]
    • Perchance [quite the elegant way of saying ‘perhaps,’ or ‘maybe’]
    • The laundry “did me dirt” last week…[didn’t come back dirty because it didn’t come back at all! Our much more crass saying today would be, “screwed me over”]
    • Gaily decorated tables [the word “gay” continues to evolve from the original meaning of “bright” or “cheerful”]
    • Someone ‘put us wise’ to an empty barn…[now we might say “schooled us” or “told us about”]
    • So I can’t kick too much [can’t complain too much]
    • On the blink again [not working quite the way it should]
    • All the Gilder Snerds and Vander Snoots of the town…[the upper crust of society–and perhaps “upper crust” is slowly becoming obsolete!]
    • Swell…as in, “You’ve done a swell job on your homework, Jimmy,” or, “The dollar you sent in your last letter was swell!”
    • No soap! [for “it’s not happening,” or “no way”]
    • Umpteen times [I now use the word “kajillion” for large numbers]
    • Here I am hale and hearty [and probably feeling “swell”]
    • Bitching to beat hell [what the fellows did when unhappy]
    • Fellows [dudes]
    • Jalopy [a car which needed lots of TLC to stay running]

    I’ll keep my eyes peeled (yuck!) for more swell saying!