What words have people stopped using?

I visited my uncle at the pokey last week. Can you guess where he is?

When I asked my daughter to put her blouse in the hamper she laughed and told me it was a shirt and said nobody says blouse anymore.

“Girlfriends” when you’re talking about a group of your female friends. My mother and grandmother used to always say stuff like, “I’m having lunch with a girlfriend tomorrow,” and my sister and I would be like, “you’re dating her??”

My grandmother also says blouse and pocketbook.

Haven’t heard anyone mention a rumble seat in a coon’s age.

I have a friend who always calls sandals thongs. But that is more reappropriating.

Good question. I feel put on the spot but can’t wait to see more answers.

@Unbroken My mom calls sandals “thongs”; I tried to get her to stop saying it >.<

@JLeslie I didn’t know what “flatware” was. Heh. I guessed, though, and I was right, but it’s not a term I hear very often.

Words like “divan”, “chesterfield”, and “chifforobe”. Family Guy made a joke about it once. It’s true, I didn’t know what any of those meant, though I knew they were furniture.

Armoire, lanai maybe this is used more often in the south but I recall having to look the word up and have heard it very seldom since, ice box, parlor, den is being replaced by family room honey bucket still used around here but much less common.

It’s not a word but a part of speech that has me worried. Adverbs are slowly dying out. They are endangered, I believe.

Oh and unmentionables.

Fisticuffs
Pantaloons
Please
Thank-you

Yesterday a guy told me he puts his galoshes on the heat register to dry.

Great answers.

I still use a lot of those terms, or hadn’t even realized they are not understood by the masses anymore.

I still say girlfriends regularly, you will see I have used it all over fluther if you do a search.

I still say blouse, but also use shirt, t-shirt, and top. A blouse to me is blousy (I’m not sure if blousy is a real word) while a shirt is more tailored and structured. Although, I agree shirt and top can be used as umbrella words.

Rumble seat is a good one. Coon’s age isn’t used in most parts of the country either because coon is deragotary.

About the thongs. Sandal and thong is not synonomous. Thongs are what we now call flip flops or slip flop style. Are you saying they use thong for sandals that don’t go between the toes? That makes no sense to me.

Regarding adverbs I have listed this as one of my top three pet peeves regarding the English language in the last ten years. People seem loath to add ly to the end of words. It drives me crazy. The lack of adverbs seems to be worse in the midwest and southern states, but that is just a subjective perspective, and the majority of the people who I know personally in the midwest and south still use them, but we are pretty old. LOL.

Den to me is an office, other parts of the country use it for family room. That is very regional. Recently, I saw an architect write on a floor plan den instead of the commonly used term study. In the memohis area they did not use the term family room, they called the room off the kitchen a hearth room and the living room a great room. Made no sense to me to call the more formal area a great room. The hearth rooms were generally too small and everyonenwould crowd in there, because we know everyone congregates in the open kitchen area if there is one. Lanai is used more in the south. It is on the floorplan I am considering right now. In the northeast we use patio. People don’t seem to use terrace much anymore, I hear balcony more often. To me a balcony is very narrow, while a terrace can be rather large and off the side of a structure or on the roof top. Balcony can be inside or out for me.

I don’t think most people even know galoshes exist, let alone know the name. I think they are used more by people who live in very urban places or way out in the mountains. Suburbia is more likely to just wear a different pair of shoes or not worry about their shoes because they drive to wear they are going and often can even part indoors. Maybe I am wring about that though. I vaguely remember people calling the rubbers also.

Register is a funny one. I guess most everyone says vent now?

Register reminded me of the term venetian blinds. I don’t think anyone under the age of 40 would have a clue why I put the word venetian in there.

Please and thank you :). Fisticuffs I had to look up. I wonder if that was ever commonly used in America? Since I am not one to be around any sort of fighting maybe that is why I am not aware of the word.

“Great answers” ...so where’s mine then eh?

My apologies. All taken care of now.

Gee golly gosh, fankyou from the bottom of my heart.

Fräulein.

Davenport

I hardly ever hear flatware or cutlery. I’m young and know what they mean, but if you asked my husband for flatware, all you’d get is a blank stare. He wouldn’t even say silverware (though he certainly knows what it means); he’d say, “Could I get a fork?” My simple country boy.

Most people down here still say pocket book way more often than purse or handbag. I had to get used to that, because I never heard that term in Chicago.

Girlfriends to describe female friends, as someone mentioned, seems to be on its way out. Blouse, too.

Hmm…how about britches or trousers?

@livelaughlove21 I still say trousers and hear it also.

Interesting that they still say pocket book where you live. I thought that was really on its way out.

I say fork when I need a fork, especially at home, but if I am at a restaurant and they failed to provide me with a fork and knife; no place setting at all; I usually would use the term flatware.

I guess since the general population is more aware of lesbians, saying girlfriend will be dead soon. To me saying girlfriend to describe my closest freinds who are female indicates a very close freindship. I guess now they use BFF and Besty? It’s different to me though. I guess now that gay has gone from meaning happy to homosexual, the gay people can be blamed for changing more than one word in the language. LOL. The religious right can add in changing the word marriage. Oy. Personally, I do not agree it is a change in the word. I define marriage as the joining to two people or things.

Flibbertigibbet
Bounder
Floozy

@JLeslie I can honestly say I’ve never heard someone under 65 use the word “trousers.”

@livelaughlove21 I am not doubting you. You do know me, so you can say one person.

@ucme floozy. I might revive that one. I used tart the other day, as in she is dressed like a tart, and I am not sure my husband had hear it before.

Another one is smart to describe someone dressed well. My grandma used to use that. I still use it sometimes, but I almost never hear it.

@JLeslie Yeah, I think there’s a lot of US/UK differing definitions when it comes to words.
We all say trousers over here, a woman’s business suit is known as a trouser suit.
Pants are underwear, purse is handbag & don’t get me started on fanny :)

I do like floozy. And I always thought blousy was a word.

Sweeper for a vacuum.

We use handbag here as well. Panties are underwear (for women) but pants are trousers or slacks. Some older people say long pants or short pants, but it is rarely used. Actually, I think slacks is probably the least used to refer to trousers now that I think of it. I bet people uder the age of 30 have never heard slacks. I could be wrong. We say pant suit. Trousers is more commonly used to describe men’s apparel, but it is used for women also.

@Unbroken Sweeper is still used a lot in parts of the midwest. In other parts of the country they have never heard it used at all.

@JLeslie I’ve definitely heard slacks. I most often hear “dress pants” for both men and women, though. Pant suit is one I haven’t heard in awhile.

Yes, dress pants. I think we often further describe the type of pant, rather than use the terms pants, if they are casual. This just reminded me that I sometimes use pant not pants, and I am pretty sure it should always be the plural. I say scissor also, which is incorrect. Casual pants we say things like, jeans, khakis, etc. would you agree?

Whch reminds me of another not so much used word anymore; dungarees. I don’t even hear the term denim used that much, people often say jean material.

@JLeslie Yes, I’m definitely more likely to say “jeans” than just “pants.”

I’m not sure what “dungarees” means. I’ve never heard it.

I use denim when referring to a jacket or a skirt made of that material. People in fashion use the word “denim” quite often.

Dungarees are jeans. I would assume the term dungarees was used way before jeans. Jean or denim used to be referred to as the material dungarees were made from. At least that is how I think of it. I never did any specific research on the words.

@JLeslie Yeah, sorry, I meant “flip-flops”. My mom calls flip-flops “thongs”. :P And I agree about the loss of adverbs. Also the loss of the subjunctive as in “If I were wealthy…” vs. “If I was wealthy…”

As for “register”, I always thought of that as a technical term for a vent that blows air out, but a vent that sucks air in could still be called an “intake vent” or something like that. I’m no HVAC expert…

I never really thought about the direction of air flow, but I too primarily think of a register as being air blowing out.

Not sure if it is a loss of the subjunctive, or just people not knowing whether was or were is correct. I get confused myself. My husband asks me about the subjunctive at times and I have forgotten rules since high school and sometimes try to go with what sounds right, and realize I sometimes don’t even know what sounds right, because I hear the wrong thing so often. Sometimes I ask him for the Spanish and can better guess the English. It doesn’t always work though. Learning Spanish definitely helped me identify parts of speech and some other language related things.

I’m always shocked when people on TV actually use me for the object of a preposition. I feel like most people use I.

Yeah, the subjunctive only has vestiges in English like “Peace be with you” and “I suggest that he go to the doctor”, etc. It can be very hard to tell from the non-subjunctive, so it doesn’t surprise me that it has been disappearing a bit.

As far as I know, “me” is supposed to be used for an object of a preposition: “you heard it from me”, “look behind me”, etc.

Right, people get the me correct in sentences like that. It’s when the prepositional phrase includes another person the mistakes happen. For example: the ball rolled between Dom and me. A lot of people would say Dom and I. I can understand while when speaking it might get messed up, I mess it up also sometimes I’m sure. But, A lot of people simply have no idea what the rule is. It’s not that my English is so great, I know it isn’t, so I am not saying my grasp of the language is so mich better than most, I am only pointing out mistakes I notice often.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Well, he’s in the Big House, the Hooch, of course.

Groovy. :(

ganja, hooch, giggle stick, joint, reefer, doobie, roach, roach clip, bogart, lid, baggie,

Tea Party (at least not when referring to sitting around smoking pot).

Suicide doors, leisure suits.

Bumbershoot