Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

I was under the same assumption as you.

Looks like another example of meanings changing over time and space. What was meant in one context came to mean something else in another.

I'd imagine we can all recall incidents where a person said something he or she thought was quite innocuous but was received as anything but.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

How about the corruption of "I couldn't care less.", which I now often hear expressed as "I could care less.", exactly the opposite meaning?

 

[DNO]

Who said anything about rotary to touchphone?
What I mean is, when did the dial go away? This my prefered appliance.

The latest dial phone I have is a Northern Electric model 500 dated 1980. I suspect dials went out of production shortly after that. This one is my preferred phone:

 

[LizzieMaine]

The latest dial phone I have is a Northern Electric model 500 dated 1980. I suspect dials went out of production shortly after that.

You'd be surprised -- Cortelco, an independent manufacturer, was still making a licensed version of the WE 500 as late as 2007.

Somewhere around the mid-80s my mother broke the switchhook off her rotary-dial wallphone after slamming the receiver down on a bill collector with particular vigor, and Ma Bell came around and replaced it with a shiny new one of the same model. Touch-tone service didn't come to her town until the early '90s, and she still had the same wall phone until a few years ago. She tries to bang the receiver down on the fiddly-diddly one that replaced it, but the effect isn't the same.

 

[Shangas]

I was under the same assumption as you.

A 'confirmed bachelor' was basically the 'polite' way of putting it. As in, people had their suspicions about said character, and such.

Of course, there were legitimate bachelors - guys who just never wanted to get married for whatever reason. But I think 'confirmed bachelor' comes with the connotation that they ain't married, they don't wanna get married, and they won't ever BE married...hint-hint-nudge-nudge.

 

[Zombie_61]

How about the corruption of "I couldn't care less.", which I now often hear expressed as "I could care less.", exactly the opposite meaning?

That's a good one, and it's one of those misused phrases that almost makes me cringe every time I hear it. The one that really gets under my skin is "irregardless"; in my opinion it makes anyone who uses it instantly sound like a moron. Sadly, because of it's increasingly common usage, in recent years it has become accepted as a nonstandard form of the word "regardless". That's a concept I'm not in favor of: "Let's not educate people and/or correct them when they misuse a word or phrase, let's make it okay for them to be stupid!" :eusa_doh:

Another term that I believe has decreased in usage is "Cadillac", when used in reference to a product that is purported to be a benchmark of higher quality; i.e. "This is the Cadillac of refrigerators."

...But I think 'confirmed bachelor' comes with the connotation that they ain't married, they don't wanna get married, and they won't ever BE married...hint-hint-nudge-nudge.

Unless they live in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, the District of Columbia, or certain counties in New Mexico where same-sex marriage is now legal.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another term that I believe has decreased in usage is "Cadillac", when used in reference to a product that is purported to be a benchmark of higher quality; i.e. "This is the Cadillac of refrigerators.".

Overpriced, underengineered and more marketing than substance? Check and double check.

 

[dh66]

Another term that I believe has decreased in usage is "Cadillac", when used in reference to a product that is purported to be a benchmark of higher quality; i.e. "This is the Cadillac of refrigerators."

That's because Cadillac, sadly, is no longer a benchmark of higher quality. I think the Cimarron may have been the nail in that coffin.


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[dh66]

Exhibit A

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[Stanley Doble]

I saw a comment by the guy who was behind the Cimmaron project at Cadillac. He wanted a smaller luxury car to compete with BMW and the new upmarket Japanese Lexus and Infinity. He thought the new J car would fill the bill.

While he was pitching the concept to the top management, an older executive took him aside and said "Be careful, those guys don't know anything about cars and you are doing pretty well in there. If you get the go ahead, you don't have enough talent and GM doesn't have enough money to turn that thing into a Cadillac".

Turned out, he was right.

 

[rjb1]

My most cringe-inducing phrase is "One of the only...". Start listening for it and you will notice that even supposedly intelligent people say that (and sometimes it even shows up in print.)
One = 1
Only = 1
One of the only = Redundance

 

[tonyb]

How about the corruption of "I couldn't care less.", which I now often hear expressed as "I could care less.", exactly the opposite meaning?

I recently railed against that very phrase, but that was in a different thread.

I don't take it as a sign that the person uttering it is unintelligent or even generally inarticulate (although he or she might well be either, or both), but it is an indication that he or she isn't giving much thought to what he or she is saying, leastwise not in that moment.

A venial sin, I suppose.

 

[Shangas]

My most cringe-inducing phrase is "One of the only...". Start listening for it and you will notice that even supposedly intelligent people say that (and sometimes it even shows up in print.)
One = 1
Only = 1
One of the only = Redundance

What about a Free, Extra, Added Bonus?

 

[Zombie_61]

One phrase that should disappear is "new and improved". If it's new, it can't have been improved upon; if it's been improved, it's not new.

 

[Shangas]

If it's a new model of something that already exists, then I wouldn't worry. But if it's the first of its kind with no predecessors, then yeah, that sounds pretty stupid.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's still used quite a bit around here, and not just by this very satisfied Cadillac owner!

Another term that I believe has decreased in usage is "Cadillac", when used in reference to a product that is purported to be a benchmark of higher quality; i.e. "This is the Cadillac of refrigerators."

Let's not forget the 8-6-4 and the 4100 engines. Honestly, it's not all Cadillac's fault. The new regs on fuel mileage were coming down the pike faster than manufacturers could keep up and things like the 8-6-4 were pushed out too early and the 4.1 was meant to be a FWD engine for smaller models and thrown in a full-size.

As for the Cimmarron, there is no excuse for that gussied up Cavalier.

The final D-Body Caddies from '93-'96 were the last good ones built and besides the D-Body, Cadillac hasn't done much good since the fuel prices rose in the last seventies, just my opinion.

That's because Cadillac, sadly, is no longer a benchmark of higher quality. I think the Cimarron may have been the nail in that coffin.

 

[Fading Fast]

My most cringe-inducing phrase is "One of the only...". Start listening for it and you will notice that even supposedly intelligent people say that (and sometimes it even shows up in print.)
One = 1
Only = 1
One of the only = Redundance

Along the same lines, my ears nearly start to bleed when I hear "this is the most unique," or "this is very unique."

Definition of "unique" - being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else

Something can't be the most one of its kind or very one of its kind

Food shows are guilty of this one all the time. On almost every episode of any food show, someone will say, "this is the most unique chocolate cake," or "their fried chicken is very unique."

 

[Fading Fast]

I saw a comment by the guy who was behind the Cimmaron project at Cadillac. He wanted a smaller luxury car to compete with BMW and the new upmarket Japanese Lexus and Infinity. He thought the new J car would fill the bill.

While he was pitching the concept to the top management, an older executive took him aside and said "Be careful, those guys don't know anything about cars and you are doing pretty well in there. If you get the go ahead, you don't have enough talent and GM doesn't have enough money to turn that thing into a Cadillac".

Turned out, he was right.

That's great isight. I always wonder how disasters like that happen. While the Cimmaron might have been the nail in the coffin (as someone else just said), the phrase, which I remember well, "the Cadillac of X" was probably doomed anyway as luxury foreign cars entered the US market in mass in the 1980s and 90s. Until then, the pecking order at GM was clear with Cadillac sitting at the top competing only with Lincoln (and the US market was all about the Big Three). But with all these new-to-the-US luxury brands coming in, and many of them more expensive than Cadillacs, the phrase didn't stand a chance.

 

[tonyb]

"Cadillac" as adjective hasn't died quite yet. I still hear the higher-priced health insurance options referred to as "Cadillac plans."

 

[tonyb]

As to "confirmed bachelor" ...

I came across this in the Wikipedia entry on Noel Coward (lifted word for word):

...

Coward was homosexual but, following the convention of his times, this was never publicly mentioned. The critic Kenneth Tynan's description in 1953 was close to an acknowledgment of Coward's sexuality: "Forty years ago he was Slightly in Peter Pan, and you might say that he has been wholly in Peter Pan ever since. No private considerations have been allowed to deflect the drive of his career; like Gielgud and Rattigan, like the late Ivor Novello, he is a congenital bachelor."

...



"Congenital" certainly isn't synonymous with "confirmed," but in this context, the terms flirt with interchangeability.