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Terms Which Have Disappeared

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
In Canada 'caker' has a different meaning. It comes from the Italian 'mangiacake' and is used to describe a certain type of anglo saxon Canadian. I'm sure the Italian version comes from the English cake eater and was adapted for their use.

Here is a website devoted to Caker cooking which will be familiar to many of you especially if you have ever attended a church supper in Minnesota.

http://cakercooking.blogspot.ca/

I have never heard this term before! I'm familiar with the dishes of course, but did not know there was a term for it.
 

Snortman45

Familiar Face
Messages
68
Location
South Carolina
I heard my mother in law use the term "shadetree mechanic" last week. Apparently a term that used to be used a lot, but not so much anymore.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
I assume we've covered this one somewhere in our 127 pages, but if not: "Johnny Come Lately" is one I used to hear my parent's generation use, but rarely if ever hear it now. Also, while it means - or I heard it used to describe - someone who buys into an idea or plan after most other people already have, I have no idea of its origins (cue Lizzie).
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,715
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
"Johnny" was simply a common name for the common man in 19th century slang, sort of the equivalent of "Joe Blow" or "Joe Doakes" in the Era. If some generic man was being referred to, he was "Johnny." Hence "Stage Door Johnny" was a man who loitered outside stage doors waiting to put the make on chorus girls, "Johnny On The Spot" was always the first guy on the scene of whatever was going on, and "Johnny Come Lately" was the fellow who jumps on the bandwagon long after it's started rolling.

A more recent reappearance of the genericized Johnny was a notorious incident in the last decade, when then-Red Sox pitcher Keith Foulke, the target of cheap-seat jeers for his poor performance, dismissed the average Sox fan as "Johnny from Burger King."
 
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
"Johnny" was simply a common name for the common man in 19th century slang, sort of the equivalent of "Joe Blow" or "Joe Doakes" in the Era. If some generic man was being referred to, he was "Johnny." Hence "Stage Door Johnny" was a man who loitered outside stage doors waiting to put the make on chorus girls, "Johnny On The Spot" was always the first guy on the scene of whatever was going on, and "Johnny Come Lately" was the fellow who jumps on the bandwagon long after it's started rolling.

A more recent reappearance of the genericized Johnny was a notorious incident in the last decade, when then-Red Sox pitcher Keith Foulke, the target of cheap-seat jeers for his poor performance, dismissed the average Sox fan as "Johnny from Burger King."

"Johnny from Burger King" gotta love that. He wasn't going to win the fans over with that one, but he clearly spoke his mind. Holy Cow.

Nice explanation of the history - thank you.
 

Capesofwrath

Practically Family
Messages
780
Location
Somewhere on Earth
Or Johnny or John Chinaman which was very common in the UK and the US from around the early to mid nineteenth century. From calling Chinese men John it then entered the London vernacular, and right up to very recent times some people used the term John in the same way Mack was used at one time in the US. “ You got a light John?"
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,715
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
There was also the old American habit of referring to all railroad porters as "George." This was supposedly derived from George Pullman, founder of the Pullman Company, but it was a habit widely despised by the porters themselves, who took it on the same level as being called "boy." There even existed in the Era an organization called "The Society For The Prevention of Calling Pullman Porters 'George.'"
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
There was also the old American habit of referring to all railroad porters as "George." This was supposedly derived from George Pullman, founder of the Pullman Company, but it was a habit widely despised by the porters themselves, who took it on the same level as being called "boy." There even existed in the Era an organization called "The Society For The Prevention of Calling Pullman Porters 'George.'"

30s movies.
I often hear the word “boy” used with regards to either a porter on the train
or the bellhop at a hotel even though they are older men.
Regardless of whether they are black or not.

The short film comedies, “The Little Rascals” & the manner
the characters were portrayed, to give an example.
Among the first comedy “talkies”, (Our Gang).
The sounds of animals or train whistles was considerate very
funny & probably was a great novelty for the times.

I have read that Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry,
better known as "Stephin Fetchit”, had a successful career
portraying a certain character.
 
Last edited:
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
There was also the old American habit of referring to all railroad porters as "George." This was supposedly derived from George Pullman, founder of the Pullman Company, but it was a habit widely despised by the porters themselves, who took it on the same level as being called "boy." There even existed in the Era an organization called "The Society For The Prevention of Calling Pullman Porters 'George.'"

A horrible example of the blatant racism of the era - I can't cite the movie, but I believe I'm heard porters referred to as "George" in movies of the era.
 

Haversack

One Too Many
Messages
1,194
Location
Clipperton Island
Referring to a male servant as 'Boy' used to be common in other languages as well as English. In French, 'Garçon'. In German, "Knabe". (The latter is a cognate to the English 'Knave'.) Don't use either word to call a servant today.
 

Haversack

One Too Many
Messages
1,194
Location
Clipperton Island
LizzieMaine wrote: "A cake eater is an effette young man who sits languidly around a woman's parlor eating cake and admiring the crease in his trousers while all the real men are out wrestling bears or something. While it wasn't quite the same thing as calling a man a pansy or a nance, it did have a definite edge of dismissing the target as un-masculine."

That's rather similar to a term that used to be used among the officer class in the British Army. A "Poodle Faker" was an officer who was thought to be over-attentive to women. Not exactly a ladies' man or gigolo, but someone who enjoyed ladies company socially in preference to games and sport. (Sport meaning hunting, shooting, and fishing.) I think the term gradually fell by the wayside after Indian Independence in 1947.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,715
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Referring to a male servant as 'Boy' used to be common in other languages as well as English. In French, 'Garçon'. In German, "Knabe". (The latter is a cognate to the English 'Knave'.) Don't use either word to call a servant today.

It was common in the USA in the Era for a lot of these workers to actually *be* "boys," as in teenagers or even children. Bellboys, messenger boys, office boys, newspaper copy boys, bowling-alley pin boys, and so forth were often minors who'd left school in order to work to support their families, hence the common use of "Boy!" to summon somebody to carry your bags in a hotel. This use of "boy" overlaps with, but does not derive from the same source as the racial use of "boy" which was most common in the Southern states, but did find its way North after the Civil War.
 

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