People mock me for referring to my athletic footwear as “sneakers.” Apparently that is an old fashioned term. I am told the correct term is “tennis shoes” even if the athletic shoes in question are not designed for use on a tennis court. This seems wrong. If my athletic shoes allow me to “sneak” someplace without making noise, and are unsuitable for playing tennis, I say they should be called sneakers.
I was reminded of this the other day at the movies. The theater asks customers to silence their “cell phones.” This already seems old fashioned to me. I only own one phone. It’s in my left front pocket all the time. It’s my home phone, my work phone, and my cell phone. All of those terms will be old fashioned in your lifetime. Your kids will simply have a “phone.”
Do you remember when computers were “multimedia”? That word went away as soon as every computer could handle sound and video. The descriptor “high definition” will evaporate in about ten years too. And you won’t have to talk about “downloading” music because that’ll be the only way to get it.
Recently a friend joked about going to the library to help with his son’s school project. He said it felt like going back in time, to pre-Internet days. I wonder if libraries have an expiration date on them. I’m guessing yes.
I also wonder when the “e-“ will disappear from e-mail. I’m trying to remember the last time I wrote the kind of letter that requires a stamp. I’m guessing it was about seven years ago. I don’t even check my physical mailbox daily. I only check it when I think it might be too full for the mailman to stuff more crap in there.
Do you have any soon-to-be-old-fashioned words to add?
NAYS
Two words I never want to hear again> "President Clinton"
Four words I never want to hear> President Obama / President McCain
YAYS
You're Welcome (NOT 'No Problem')
Posted by: El Roberto | March 07, 2008 at 08:08 PM
NAYS
Two words I never want to hear again> "President Clinton"
Four words I never want to hear> President Obama / President McCain
YAYS
You're Welcome (NOT 'No Problem')
Posted by: El Roberto | March 07, 2008 at 08:04 PM
:P
Posted by: satılık daire | January 21, 2008 at 12:10 AM
I noticed the change from starting off a telephone conversation with, "How are you?", to "Where are you?". I am one of the last remaining people who have chosen to not own a cellular telephone, or any personal mobile device. If you called me on my home telephone line, I am at home, genius.
I grew up in a home environment where we used a party line- we shared the same telephone line with our neighbours. My current home telephone is not "portable", in that it requires a wire to make it work, and I don't use caller identification. What can I say, I guess I am old fashion.
Posted by: Angela | September 12, 2007 at 06:41 AM
I'm really shocked that you think libraries will somehow expire. Your view seems to be promulgated throughout the media, but is rooted in ignorance. A common misconception about libraries is that they are just storage facilities for physical items, like books, CDs, DVDs, etc. Most available electronic information from scholarly journals, newspapers, magazines, books, and other resources is not available for free online. Libraries nowadays subscribe to thousands of electronic periodicals and databases, providing users with a vast amount of electronic information they otherwise would not have access to. Additionally, many people don't really know how to effectively and efficiently find, use, and evaluate information. Libraries offer classes in information literacy and research skills. Visit most libraries, and you will see vibrant places of diverse activities: people on laptops using wireless Internet, children's storytime, classes in business research, and so on. Your view that libaries are antiquated and, I infer, increasingly unnecessary, isn't supported from the statistics of how many people are actually using them (including university libraries, public, special, corporate, archives, public, etc.) for a variety of reasons.
Posted by: Devin Zimmerman | September 04, 2007 at 09:11 PM
Sadly, once they merge with computers, "television" will go the way of the Victrola and the mimeograph machine.
More sad still, "book" may eventually strike our grandkids as a funny old word. I hope I'm dead first.
Posted by: David Eisenberg | July 27, 2007 at 04:17 AM
the 60's it was "Hey Man...Bummer" Today "Hey Dude...Killer"...Tommorow ..."Hey ......
Posted by: rob lind | July 11, 2007 at 11:54 AM
When my father uses his PVR, he still calls it "taping the show".
Posted by: Chris S | July 04, 2007 at 12:35 PM
You know those stuff r oldies and bullshits. add me at friendster.........
Posted by: Rodmhar | June 27, 2007 at 04:18 AM
AstroTurf (copyright?) is now just Turf which used to mean real grass; that's why the manufacturer added ASTRO - so now 'astro' is gone and 'turf' means 'fake turf.'
And that's why an athletic field, etc., is referred to as having 'real grass.' .... which is actually just grass or TURF!
... Does this type of musing make me an official geezerette? ...
Posted by: jane nearing | June 20, 2007 at 09:35 AM
Also from Ireland, I wore "runners" but friends wore "trainers" -comes from living in what was known as "West Britain"
As for old fashioned words, what about "one man bus"?
I made a suggestion to that Retronym site - "Wide Area Network" - remember _WHY_ they invented the ARPANET?
Posted by: tony | June 11, 2007 at 09:07 AM
What about diplomacy? Minus our brief stint with Kissinger a few decades ago, what used to be the largest part of foreign policy now only exists in the life or death testosterone fueled mutation popular on 24.
Hopefully a new administration will realize the importance of discussing the possibile outcomes like blowing each other up before the US invades another country or threatens to. Apparently this administration no longer believes in peace talks or diplomacy. That was one thing Clinton actually did right!
How about this? What if world leaders all had a facebook account and formed a group. Daily communication like "wuz up ahmedinejad? just sitting around the oval office" could drastically reduce the impulse to attack each other. That'd be the day...facebook saves the world. Face it, it's better than a red telephone with every world leader. I guess communication has gone out of style.
Posted by: Stephen | June 10, 2007 at 05:33 PM
They are sneakers.
Posted by: daedalus | June 10, 2007 at 06:39 AM
Call me old-fashioned, but I enjoy curling up with a good book on a lazy day. I like to see the words printed out on an actual page as opposed to a screen. I love that I can tell you when a book was approximately published and how well it was cared for based on its smell and appearance.
I also enjoy the pop-hiss that emanates from a record player. It thrilled me to watch my father's face light up when he saw that I had a record player. I liked that my mother gave me some of her old 33's, as they brought back memories of when I was 8 learning to "do the twist" in 1985.
Posted by: jodie | June 07, 2007 at 07:51 AM
How about 'dialing" your phone... back in the days of rotary phones they had a dial... which you rotated.... to get that lovely pulse sound... now its well... a keypad... so what would the new term be? Imputing? who knows...
I just blatantly showed my age...
Posted by: Ronni | June 05, 2007 at 06:55 PM
Computer. Or PC or Mac. Think about it - if you want to eMail, you get a Blackberry or cellphone with keyboard. Printers are becoming self-contained for printing photos. Cellphones and PDAs show webpages. And there's now devices that burn the MP3s right off the CD into your portable player. Watching DVDs on a laptop is just lame, although they look great on the Apple 20 inch display I'm looking at as I type this. Eventually the only place you'll see a desktop PC is your job or your grandma's house, and with the USA economy going like it is, they'll have to be donated from Asian schools.
Posted by: le Big MAC | June 05, 2007 at 10:19 AM
I didn't read all the way through to see if anyone else posted a comment about the following, but I think "off the hook" as in leaving your phone off the hook to give callers the busy signal, and phones being "busy" will all be replaced with "screening calls" or just not answering. It seems like no one has a phone that is even capable of being left off the hook anymore.
Posted by: Danielle | June 05, 2007 at 07:39 AM
The word "fashion" can go and fade away.
The whole concept is elitist: like there really was some group of people in a position to tell what words should I use, what music should I listen, what color to wear.
In the words of the mighty Trump: "Fashion, you are fired!"
Posted by: Tomi Itkonen | June 05, 2007 at 06:55 AM
hmm.. how about "cream rinse"
cream rinse vs. conditioner
my mom had said that one day, and i accidentally repeated it in a conversation I was having with friends the next day, and they all freaked out at me
it was great
Posted by: Kathryn | June 04, 2007 at 04:50 PM
I don't know about the "e" in e-mail but you are already welcome to drop the hyphen and start using "email". Your spell-checker will be happy to comply - try it.
Posted by: Thiago Figueiro | June 04, 2007 at 02:21 PM
What about "Hi-Fi", and in songs all those references to "record machines"? Cracks me up!
Posted by: Theresa | June 04, 2007 at 02:02 PM
The problem with the disapparition of "physical" books would be mainly that virtual stuff can be forged.
¿Remember the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984?
Other than that, I think some of us are just a bunch of romantics whom love the smell of books, but that doesn't mean that if all physical libraries were closed tomorrow it would necessarily mean the end of civilization or anything.
Posted by: Alejandro | June 04, 2007 at 09:41 AM
A friend of mine dropped "prowler" in a conversation about old-fashioned words once. It's been a favorite of mine ever since.
Posted by: Jameson | June 04, 2007 at 08:38 AM
Wow. Did all of you who joke about libraries being obsolete not go to college? Or ever need to look up something in an academic journal? Yes, they are available online. No, they are not free. However, they're free to YOU if you use a library.
Reading for fun and pleasure isn't going away either and not everyone can afford to buy all the books they want. Public libraries offer a whole world of both entertainment and education to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience it.
I don't mean to sound preachy. I'm just seriously astounded when I realize that there are people who don't see the value in libraries. Including you, Mr. Adams!!!
Posted by: INTPLibrarian | June 03, 2007 at 07:40 AM
i love public libraries, but i too wonder if their days are numbered.
will all books eventually be totally digitalized (or perhaps beamed directly into our brains?)?
will future children never know the joy of curling up with a bound stack of dead tree slices?
Posted by: pc | June 02, 2007 at 09:39 PM