What are old, weird names for things?
I was just looking at an ad for a mid-century modern Chesterfield, and it sent me back to hearing my grandmother talk about the Davenport. Those are both very old names for a sofa.
What are some old names for things that you can remember?
You get bonus points if you know the origin of the old word.
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42 Answers
Ezra.
Or Bertram.
Maybe Grover.
Guys with these names are usually so old they forget to send me flowers after a date.
Bastards.
^Those old coots better remember the roses the morning after, or there will be fisticuffs.
Thank you Jake (my hero) ;D
Chifferobe! I don’t know the derivation but I can give you the literary reference. Maybelle asks Tom to come in the house and bust up an old chifferobe in To Kill a Mockingbird.
@janbb,I think that was a derivative of chiffonier, which is what my mother used to call what I would now call a bureau. A blend of chiffonier and wardrobe?
I think my vocabulary still features some very retro words, but they’re not coming to mind at present, maybe because I’m still using them.
I remember the word chifferobe, but I used to work at a furniture store.
How about chaise lounge, long chair for reclining ?
Lazy Susan. I loved spinning them as fast as possible as a child.
Haversack for a backpack.
Oh, I forgot pantaloons.
Ezra, Bertram, and Grover all wear pantaloons. Because clothes make the man.
LOL “Coots” and “fisticuffs”. 8)
I was raised using the word davenport.
Icebox, cigarette butler
Jockey box (or jockey’s box) is the tool box on a wagon. And it is what I call the glove compartment on a car.
Donnybrook for a big argument.
There’s a film of the same name but I’m not sure of the origin.
Paddy Wagon for police van.
A racist term toward the Irish who were rounded up, drunk and disorderly from the bars, by the police.
A cumsluthe is a detective.
What, people don’t still say coots? I do. Guess I’m an old coot now too.
(Have you ever actually seen a coot? I have, on the coast of Maine. My grandfather used to say he liked nothing better than a fine mess o’coots. Reputedly disgustingly greasy and stringy. But my grandmother would cook them for him.)
I specifically came in here to answer “Davenport”. Curses!
Britches/Breeches for pants.
(In Medieval times, instead of trousers menswear used to wear single leg stockings tied up with laces. These left a gap at the top around the groin. To cover this gap men wore linen underpants, which looked like boxer shorts, but with a draw chord waist. These were known as breeches, because they breached the gap.)
Culottes for shorts (derived from the French word culot, meaning the lower half of a thing, the lower garment in this case.)
I remember lots of old dialect words from my childhood that seem to have died out in my lifetime:
Spaver is the zip at the front of a man’s trousers
Spurtle is a wooden implement used to stir porridge or soup
Cundie is the cover over a street drain ( I think this comes from the French conduit)
Skelf is a splinter of wood that had got under your skin.
Do they still refer to a flat file as a “flat bastard file”.
I haven’t heard someone referring to a quarter as “two bits” for a while.
Rumpus Room – A basement room From Rumpus meaning noisy
Square which now means lame, or perhaps something more current.
Far out—-> wonderful, fantastic.
Outtasight—-> ”, ”.
Going back about 700 years:
abhomynable….disgusting, detestable
abegge…to pay for
agaynward….back again
algate…continuously
besynesse…work
cheese…select
Although one might think that I learned these when I went to high school, I actually got them from a Chaucer glossary. :p
My Aunt used to brag about her “divan”. It was her old sofa. I’ve discovered that a divan is a backless sofa where pillows were lined up along the wall to form a back. It’s of Turkish origin so I’m not sure how she ever learned of it as she never stepped foot out of Alabama and didn’t have the internet back then
@Jeruba No, I’ve never seen a coot; didn’t even know it was a real thing. Is it a bird? I could look it up but wanted to give you the chance to explain. Did you ever try a bite when visiting your grandparents or was it before your time?
@smudges It’s possible that you’ve seen one but mistook it for a fat old duck. My parents didn’t enjoy duck, so I never tasted one
@SEKA ohhh ok…a duck-like thing. Yeah, I had duck at a restaurant once. The only memory I have of it is the fat, so much fat!
@jca2 Thanks! Gotta say it’s kinda cute.
:D hahaha Yes, a cute coot to boot!
Cute—did you check out those ugly feet? They aren’t webbed but look like really long, ugly toes
@jca2 I guess it depends on where you live how antiquated the word codger is. It’s a term of endearment here in northern GA. Everybody is called an old codger at least once in a day!!!
“Pedal pushers” (shorter slacks below knee) And ism’t that just “ducky”?
^^ My mom wore ‘pedal pushers’. LOL I’m guessing it had something to do with the shorter length not catching in bicycle chains, which was actually pretty smart.
@anniereborn When I was growing up, culottes were a replacement for our skirts. Technically they were shorts EXCEPT they had very wide legs & came down to our knees so they looked like a skirt until you started walking. Then you could see the pant legs that made up the skirt look. I loved them because they were so comfortable & I didn’t have to worry about the boys trying to look up my skirt!!! That style only lasted about 2 years as well as I can remember.
I thought of one this morning: Haberdashery. Isn’t it a great word?
Folderol and fiddly dee dee
Jiggery-pokery means trickery and deception.
When I was little, my mom and my grandmother would tell me not to lollygag. No lollygagging!
@jca2, I still say “lollygag.” “Quit lollygagging.”
@Tropical_Willie, recalling that you like G&S, I thought you were quoting R&H “Cinderella.”
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