Tag: WWII

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!