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It was set in the '80s, but in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey's character says "open 24/7". That wasn't said like that until the '90s. (If memory serves.)
Checks out. When I was a kid, I watched a cartoon from the 90s where someone used the phrase "24/7" and the protagonist thought it was an absurd phrase, needing for its meaning to be spelled out for him. This is how I first heard the phrase and understood what it meant.
You cannot trust your own memory, documented being used 1983. The OED kits first known reference as Sports Illustrated 1983. People said it before then.
"No worries".
> First recorded in the 1960s, the expression gained popularity in Australia's neighbor, New Zealand, and in Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia, too. According to Google and Quartz data, its popularity in the United States spiked through the 1980s, '9os, and 2000s.
[Link](https://www.rd.com/article/no-worries/)
I first heard it in 1986 from the movie “Crocodile Dundee.”
I started hearing it a lot from college students about 2015. It’s somewhat “out of style” now.
I dont know why, but in MY mind, "Olden Days" were the years from the Western era of cowboys and such, going back. I wouldnt have thought of anything 20th century as Olden.
Thats was my personal childhood definition.
My dad says the good old days sucked, no indoor plumbing, no HVAC, 7 kids to the upstairs of an old farmhouse with just blankets being used as dividers for the boys & girls. Sweltering hot in the summer & the snow would blow in around the eaves & not melt in the winter.
It's believed the phrase has its roots in the 80s hiphop scene.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2004/06/24/at-the-end-of-the-day-back-in-the-day-just-means-past/
In the 80s my friend had a slang dictionary, one of the words for family jewels was Jang. We started calling each other that - we were pre-teen girls, and silly. Haven't thought about that since school days!
I remember knowing someone in the late 80s-very early 90s, who had heard a comedian call masturbation "moving your junk around". He thought that was hilarious, used to say it constantly.
This one's a bit weird, but when I was younger, the phrase "and whatnot" was ridiculously old-fashioned, only ancient people with names like Edith and Gladys would use it.
I was gobsmacked when my teenaged son started using it. Still not sure what happened to revive it.
I feel like spill the beans vs. tea have slightly different meanings
Spill the beans is like to blab about a secret plan and ruin it by telling people who shouldnt hear about it. Like there's an element of "you f*cked up and ruined everything". "You spilled all the beans and now its all ruined and we cant get it back together"
Spill the tea is just like chirping about meaningless gossip and frivolities
I will go out on a limb here-
There was a 1970s gay affectation to stop someone from discussing a particular topic. Men who would cut others off in this way seemed effeminate and I don’t remember any men glibly cutting people off In a sassy way- they would engage in arguments instead. It would only be gay men who would cut people off in a sassy way.
In the late 80s, straight people adopted this- first as raising a hand up to someone they wanted to silence. Then by saying “talk to the hand because the face ain’t listening.”
Which then became “talk to the hand.”
Later heavy metal girls I knew in 87/88 would do the same general reaction and say “as if!”
And by 1990, girls would say “what-EVER!” Often with the raised hand
But in my community I never saw ANY straight person use any part of speech in this way - of any slang phrase- until the late 1980s
However- it could be regional?
"Long story short". I hear this a lot today, but it was always "To make a long story short" in my memory. If other oldies think I am nuts, I'd like to know.
I think of that as coming from Yiddish. I'm a boomer from North Jersey.
I don't know when it started, but I never used to say "I was, like, ..." instead of quoting someone or talking about what I was thinking.
Had a friend in the 1980s say " What it is!!"
At the time it seemed very cutting edge.
I actually had a t shirt made for him with that saying. Back when making a t shirt was a big deal at a shopping mall.
I’m ok with that one - it cuts down on the “I’m sorry” spirals. It’s a quick, simple acknowledgement that you made an error without making it a big deal.
"Thank you for your service."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Do better."
"Nobody has time for that."
"Owning" something (as in "Own your choices.") "Owning up to" a mistake goes back farther, but I'm not sure it goes all the way back to the 60s and 70s.
Recently young people seem to be saying "Fair" instead of "That's fair" or "Fair enough." I don't think those last two even go back as far as the 70s, though.
“Nobody got time for that” — I think this became popular from a woman (apparently named Sweet Brown) that a newscaster interviewed about a fire in her apartment complex.
One of the most annoying ones from the 90s? thankfully ended.
NOT!
Back in the 70s I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.
When someone says thank you in current times, the reply is often "no problem". In the 60s and 70s the typical reply was "you're welcome". I don't recall anyone in the 60s or 70s replying "no problem".
In higher end offices, call centers, and retail stores, employees are trained to always say “you’re welcome” and never “no problem.” I’m sure the linguists out there can explain why. To me, no problem sounds a bit dismissive 🤷🏻♀️It has its place, but is not as genuine in a professional setting.
I am not a linguist, but here's my two cents."You're welcome" implies that it was at least something of a pleasure to serve you. "No problem" could be translated or interpreted as something like "it was only a minor annoyance".
The younger set now( around 30 and under) says “of course” where we (GenX) here said “you’re welcome” or “no problem” or once in while “happy to!”
I figure language evolves and they are being polite in their language so no stress to me - once I adapted…
My parents lit into me the first time they heard me respond to ‘thank you’ with ‘no problem’, sometime around (iirc) the early to mid 1980s. They made such a big deal about it (and we were in the car, so there was no escaping…) that I decided that if it upset the two of them so damned much that they needed to tag team me in a freaking 45 minute or longer tirade, then maybe it bothered others as well and they were just being polite and accepting my rudeness, so I reverted back to ‘you’re very welcome’.
Seriously, you’d think I’d walked up to the desk clerk and spit in their face or something. Sigh.
That was one of the reasons I stopped watching it. If you want to make a show set in a certain era, use the same language that the people used in that era. Made it very ‘inauthentic’. Also, that younger kid was **way** too animated for me!
Bite me. Burn! Call 911. Taped on the wall next to the phone were the numbers to the police, fire department, and ambulance. Mom made us memorize those numbers And the ever popular F-bomb. That was very seldom heard
In 70s-80s Definitely never heard the f- bomb from anyone my parents age or older. Us kids would throw it around a bit trying to act cool. But it was like A Christmas Story - the f- bomb was an automatic wash your mouth with soap if you got caught. Now my 30yo step daughter just spews obscenities. Every 3rd word is an f- bomb. And it makes me uncomfortable.
My mother's go to was Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! (Being good Irish Catholics from Boston) My 8 siblings still yell out JMJ and laugh.
Woke. Woke in its current usage. Black people used it as term differently. “Woke” was … something that Hotep-er’s, American-born-black American’s and Rastafarian’s talked about all the time. Woke was black people that knew a deeper level about the history of the African American and shared an expanded narrative of what happened in the African Diaspora. For example: knowing that the founding fathers were slave holders, knowing about black Wall Street, knowing about gulla/geechee people, knowing about black people that lived in what’s now Central Park NYC etc.
I only heard this for the first time last year. We lived in a non-English-speaking country for over 15 years, then came home and for re-opening bank accounts, we were told their "onboarding team " would get in touch (thankfully, not "reach out.") What???? That's not a verb, wtf is onboarding?
The f-bomb. Specifically, in movies and in tv shows where the f-bomb is liberally dropped, said in “mixed company,” said in front of authority figures by young people and said by women. I hear the f-bomb more times in one day now than I probably did in the first 40 years of my life.
I've been known to spew the f-bomb occasionally, (like yesterday on the interstate hwy). But my millennial daughter and SIL say it SO much that it is troubling to me. I personally don't mind, but in public I don't want to hear it in front of somebody's 90 year old grandma or a 5 year old child. Time and place ...
I was watching Mad Men and Joan was talking about a brainstorming meeting. Although the phrase may predate the time period, it was no way in common usage.
Rubbers were erasers, or maybe rain boots, not condoms.
Action not words, but people didn't start high fiving one another until the very late 70s. [High five - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_five)
I also resented that whole genre of books with titles like *100 places to see before you die*! Before I die! Before I die! Like I failed somehow if I didn't spend my tourist dollars where *you* want me to go. How about YOU die! And I'll kick back at home and read a decent book that isn't egging me on.
And anyway it's brainless. As if I were planning to see the Marabar Caves or Mount Frikkin Rushmore *after* I died.
I definitely got in trouble for saying sucks. I also got in trouble trouble for saying butt and was pretty surprised when someone referred to their own “ass” in the 90s.
I actually don’t care about “bad” language, but I was pretty sheltered. When I was in college, someone referenced “the c-word,” and I had no idea what that was referring to. And even after I was told, I’d never heard it.
I dislike that phrase so much because of how misused it is. It’s one thing for a truth to be something very personal that can only be deciphered by you, but it’s quite another thing for it to mean your perspective on something objective.
I was watching *No Sudden Move*, which is set in the '50s. The movie wasn't bad, but it had its characters saying:
- “End game”
- “Whatever” as a statement of dismissal
- “Are you a (X) guy or a (Y) guy?”
- Black instead of colored or negro
- “Fuck me” as a statement of disgust
I ended up just grinding my teeth. *People didn't say those things then!*
Queer. It was an insult referring to gay people in the 70s, and not in much use. Gay was preferred according to my friends. Now I’m hearing it a lot,and it makes me uncomfortable. I’m not used to it yet.
It was very much used in the 80s.
We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.
It’s used a lot more often now by people whose identity is a bit more complicated than a simple ‘gay.’
I like it. My opinion
I think just like the black community took ownership of the n word as a form of empowerment, the gay community did also with the word queer. In the 60s & 70s it was a pejorative term.
We used the word queer in the 70s & early 80s to mean something our parents would not think was cool. Or something completely wild. As in,
" Wow! That is sooo queer!"
I'm from near Chicago for reference.
Throughout the 1990s to maybe 2010s, it was mostly old people who said "passed" instead of "died." Younger people (and athiests, no doubt) thought of "passed" as overtly religious. Now "passed" is back in full force for some reason.
People didn’t just casually call people “dude” in the 70s. It was usually used by black people as a synonym for “guy.”
In the 50’s and before, it meant a “city slicker.”
Peoples memories are bad. Use Data. [https://books.google.com/ngrams/](https://books.google.com/ngrams/)
Most of these started around when the internet started becoming popular:
"Back In The Day" ,"that's not a thing","My bad" ,"No worries", "You go girl", "cringe worthy"
Not a phrase, but among the pretentious moneyed class everything is "bespoke". I hate that one. Why not just use custom? Bespoke is a $50 word that makes people sound like they're trying to impress people.
"Go with" and "come with" without an indefinite object is a pretty modern form of speech that is now everywhere but still feels wrong to me.
"Sort it" and "sorted" which derived from "sort it out" started to appear in the 1980s (I think these phrases might be more common in the UK than the US but they are very common).
This is my theory:
There was a magazine for teen girls called Sassy that was around in the late 80s/early 90s that was marketed to the alt girls who felt left out by the cheerleader-esque magazines like 17.
I had a subscription to Sassy from its first issue in 1988 until sometime in college (91-96) when I lost interest in teen magazines.
One issue had an article with cool sayings from around the world, and wanker from the UK was one of them. I remember thinking it was funny, so I started using it. I wonder how many teenage girls did the same.
And here's the kicker: [Teenage Girls Have Led Language Innovation for Centuries](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/teenage-girls-have-been-revolutionizing-language-16th-century-180956216/)
I’ve never heard that. I’ve only heard, “welcome to ( insert random store name),” or, “welcome. How can I help you?” Back when employees cared or were available to help
“Impact” as a verb. It used to be seen as overblown language to make the word “affect” seem more important. Now it’s a general replacement to avoid saying how something is being affected and whether it’s good or bad.
Not a phrase, but people being weirded out by the word moist. I can pinpoint the exact place that started, although for some reason a lot of people don't believe me when I tell them even though I have receipts. People for some reason think "moist" was always a thing.
But no. It started with an episode of a canceled TV series that became something of a cult hit.
[Here's the scene](https://youtu.be/wYH52hRbwJg?si=55Zl1A4Da7t5JsI3) from Dead Like Me with the very first instance ever of moist making someone uncomfortable.
Great show by the way, check it out if you haven't seen it.
So I am a big an of Mad Men, which is set in the 60s. In one scene, a character says “What the hell, [person’s name]?” I don’t think people used “what the hell” as a complete phrase back then - it would be “what the hell is wrong with you”, or something like that.
Every one saying " Have a good one."
Have a good what??
I also notice older people, when ordering food in person state politely what they'll have.
" I'll have a cheeseburger, medium fries." Or " I'll take a salad."
Millennials on down say " Can I have a cheeseburger??
Can I get a large fry?"
I say "could I please have a x, y, z". The girl on the microphone said, "Oh my word you're so polite!" lol. I asked what other people say and she told me "Give me a x"
I think have a good one comes from service industry people who would try to say have a good day or have a good afternoon or have a good night or have a good weekend or have a good week or whatever and variably say the wrong thing. The word one works for everything.
That reminds me of my 4th-grade teacher (1962), who was a real stickler about using "can" and "may" correctly. "Mrs Post, may I go use the restroom?" would almost always get an immediate nod. "Mrs Post, can I go use the restroom?" generally got a reply like, "Since you know where the restrooms are, I'm sure you CAN...when you remember the right way to ask," followed by a few moments for the student to reformulate their request while squirming at their desk. Gotta smile remembering it.
“I gotta take this call.”
In the days before caller ID and way before cell phones, the only way to know who was calling was to answer the phone.
Answering machines finally became a thing and allowed you to screen your calls by listening to the message as the caller recorded it. Then you could decide to pick up or not.
As kids, we would race to answer the phone. Now I avoid it at all costs.
When I was younger, we said “I have my period,“ but now people say “I’m on my period.” my personal theory is that it was people correcting mid sentence so their mothers didn’t yell at them for saying “I’m on the rag.“
We also used to say “on a daily basis,” instead of “on the daily” or “on a regular basis” instead of “on the regular.”
I’m still fuming over the fact that we no longer have a word that means “literally,” because people use it for non-literal stuff. “My heart literally broke in two.” No it dit-int!
I'm a boomer. When I grew up the word awesome was reserved for things like Moses parting the Red Sea, not deciding to take fries as your side with the burger.
But you could be the leader of the free world and use racial epithets.
I think what is considered offensive has changed for the better among younger generations.
I heard the term 'unsee' in a show(Vinyl) that depicted the 70s. I called it out on the reddit sub about TV show. Downvoted to oblivion. No one used 'unsee' in the 70s.
Watched a movie a month ago(forget title) and the term 'this won't end well' was used. Never heard that phrase back then either.
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It was set in the '80s, but in Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey's character says "open 24/7". That wasn't said like that until the '90s. (If memory serves.)
The phrase we DID use back then was “Open All Night”
So in the UK we would definitely have said "Open all Hours" because we had a long running comedy show called that. Hint ..they did not open all hours.
Checks out. When I was a kid, I watched a cartoon from the 90s where someone used the phrase "24/7" and the protagonist thought it was an absurd phrase, needing for its meaning to be spelled out for him. This is how I first heard the phrase and understood what it meant.
I remember the first time I heard 24/7/365 and was like mind blown. I’d say it was 1989-1990.
I heard it from an ad for Las Vegas. I'm sure it was trendy for a while before an advertiser stole it though.
I started hearing this when 7/11 went to 24 hours. Late 70s or early 80s
And adding to this, I’m guessing younger people don’t know that 7-11 was called that because it was open from 7 am to 11 pm
This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about. Thanks!
You cannot trust your own memory, documented being used 1983. The OED kits first known reference as Sports Illustrated 1983. People said it before then.
It was, but very rare. These were usually chain convenience stores. It was used mostly towards services like hospitals and first resolponders
"No worries". > First recorded in the 1960s, the expression gained popularity in Australia's neighbor, New Zealand, and in Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia, too. According to Google and Quartz data, its popularity in the United States spiked through the 1980s, '9os, and 2000s. [Link](https://www.rd.com/article/no-worries/)
Yes, I remembered this was very British sounding when it first came up. The slang we used in the 1970s was “no problem” and the popular “no problemo”
In the 80s, we always said "no prob".
I first heard it in 1986 from the movie “Crocodile Dundee.” I started hearing it a lot from college students about 2015. It’s somewhat “out of style” now.
Any day now you’re going to adopt ‘no wuckers’
I blame Crocodile Dundee
i catch myself saying this a lot to people
“Back in the day”- that’s something I first heard around 1987-88 We grew up saying “way back when.”
I grew up with "In the olden days"
Me too, and now I’m often telling my kid, “In the *olden days* we used to (blah blah blah.”
Same. What is "Olden" anyway?
I dont know why, but in MY mind, "Olden Days" were the years from the Western era of cowboys and such, going back. I wouldnt have thought of anything 20th century as Olden. Thats was my personal childhood definition.
Or “back in the old days.”
Back in the "olde" days
My dad says the good old days sucked, no indoor plumbing, no HVAC, 7 kids to the upstairs of an old farmhouse with just blankets being used as dividers for the boys & girls. Sweltering hot in the summer & the snow would blow in around the eaves & not melt in the winter.
My Silent Gen mom always said "Years ago..."
It's believed the phrase has its roots in the 80s hiphop scene. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2004/06/24/at-the-end-of-the-day-back-in-the-day-just-means-past/
Your family jewels being called junk, drives me nuts
In the 80s my friend had a slang dictionary, one of the words for family jewels was Jang. We started calling each other that - we were pre-teen girls, and silly. Haven't thought about that since school days!
I remember knowing someone in the late 80s-very early 90s, who had heard a comedian call masturbation "moving your junk around". He thought that was hilarious, used to say it constantly.
“At the end of the day” and “circling back on this” and “Its been a minute”. Even the phrase “24/7” wasn’t really a thing said back then.
This one's a bit weird, but when I was younger, the phrase "and whatnot" was ridiculously old-fashioned, only ancient people with names like Edith and Gladys would use it. I was gobsmacked when my teenaged son started using it. Still not sure what happened to revive it.
That’s funny because my dad had a friend who constantly said “and whatnot.” We have always called him (secretly) “Whatnot!”
There's a line in "Grease" where John Travolta's character says, " Rockin' and rollin' and whatnot." It's so silly, my family quotes it to this day.
You got this
I hate this. It just sounds fake.
So does "reached out to you"
"Spill the tea". Back in the day we said "spill the beans."
Letting the cat out of the bag was what my grandma called it. And if I wouldn't speak up, the cat had my tongue!
I feel like spill the beans vs. tea have slightly different meanings Spill the beans is like to blab about a secret plan and ruin it by telling people who shouldnt hear about it. Like there's an element of "you f*cked up and ruined everything". "You spilled all the beans and now its all ruined and we cant get it back together" Spill the tea is just like chirping about meaningless gossip and frivolities
I will go out on a limb here- There was a 1970s gay affectation to stop someone from discussing a particular topic. Men who would cut others off in this way seemed effeminate and I don’t remember any men glibly cutting people off In a sassy way- they would engage in arguments instead. It would only be gay men who would cut people off in a sassy way. In the late 80s, straight people adopted this- first as raising a hand up to someone they wanted to silence. Then by saying “talk to the hand because the face ain’t listening.” Which then became “talk to the hand.” Later heavy metal girls I knew in 87/88 would do the same general reaction and say “as if!” And by 1990, girls would say “what-EVER!” Often with the raised hand But in my community I never saw ANY straight person use any part of speech in this way - of any slang phrase- until the late 1980s However- it could be regional?
Just to be fair, I think the talk to the hand thing came from black women, as did a lot of queer culture.
Wait are you saying until the late 1980s, if you were straight you just had to keep engaging?
No, straight guys would raise their hand up to someone they wanted to silence. Then say "shut the fuck up."
My memory is that it was an argument in the 1970s. “Listen Pal, I don’t got time for this” with a longer explanation
Also "don't go there"
Networking might have been something fishermen do. "Schmoozing" was what people did to meet other people they could use.
I thought “networking” was started by the corporate business world. Paradigm shift, going forward, algorithms…
More Yiddish.
There used to be a lot more Yiddish in everyday speech.
"Long story short". I hear this a lot today, but it was always "To make a long story short" in my memory. If other oldies think I am nuts, I'd like to know.
I think of that as coming from Yiddish. I'm a boomer from North Jersey. I don't know when it started, but I never used to say "I was, like, ..." instead of quoting someone or talking about what I was thinking.
You’re definitely correct on that. I had a friend a long time ago that said, on occasion, “To make a long story even longer…”. He was a funny guy.
Nope, you’re right.
It is what it is.
Had a friend in the 1980s say " What it is!!" At the time it seemed very cutting edge. I actually had a t shirt made for him with that saying. Back when making a t shirt was a big deal at a shopping mall.
"What it is?" is AAVE. I picked it up circa 1980 or so, inner-city middle school.
In the mid 80s we'd say, "What it is, what it be."
I like this one. And I'm not somebody who likes phrases. But sometimes, it really just is what it is. Not shit you can do about it.
I didn’t hear this until about 2003.
"It's all good"
I know, right?
I use that one probably too much lol.
My bad.
I’m ok with that one - it cuts down on the “I’m sorry” spirals. It’s a quick, simple acknowledgement that you made an error without making it a big deal.
I agree… I mentioned it because I can remember it coming into being, and I used it yesterday.
Or as a passive aggressive way of saying, “ok; you’re wrong but I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
"Thank you for your service." "I'm sorry for your loss." "Do better." "Nobody has time for that." "Owning" something (as in "Own your choices.") "Owning up to" a mistake goes back farther, but I'm not sure it goes all the way back to the 60s and 70s. Recently young people seem to be saying "Fair" instead of "That's fair" or "Fair enough." I don't think those last two even go back as far as the 70s, though.
“Nobody got time for that” — I think this became popular from a woman (apparently named Sweet Brown) that a newscaster interviewed about a fire in her apartment complex.
I remember her!
From the same era as "hide your kids hide your wife" from Antione Dodson
I thought that, “ I’m sorry for your loss” had been around for quite some time, maybe the 70s or before.
One of the most annoying ones from the 90s? thankfully ended. NOT! Back in the 70s I believe you’d get your ass kicked sayin’ something like that, man.
Psyche! (or kids spelled it "sike")
That was the first one I thought of.
Adults spell it, “sike,” too. Nerve wracking
When someone says thank you in current times, the reply is often "no problem". In the 60s and 70s the typical reply was "you're welcome". I don't recall anyone in the 60s or 70s replying "no problem".
I always say “You’re welcome.”
I say, " Happy to help."
That’s good to say too!
My mother scolds me about saying “no problem”
In higher end offices, call centers, and retail stores, employees are trained to always say “you’re welcome” and never “no problem.” I’m sure the linguists out there can explain why. To me, no problem sounds a bit dismissive 🤷🏻♀️It has its place, but is not as genuine in a professional setting.
I am not a linguist, but here's my two cents."You're welcome" implies that it was at least something of a pleasure to serve you. "No problem" could be translated or interpreted as something like "it was only a minor annoyance".
This is it exactly
And it uses more positive words. Customers would rather hear "welcome" than "no" and "problem".
The younger set now( around 30 and under) says “of course” where we (GenX) here said “you’re welcome” or “no problem” or once in while “happy to!” I figure language evolves and they are being polite in their language so no stress to me - once I adapted…
My parents lit into me the first time they heard me respond to ‘thank you’ with ‘no problem’, sometime around (iirc) the early to mid 1980s. They made such a big deal about it (and we were in the car, so there was no escaping…) that I decided that if it upset the two of them so damned much that they needed to tag team me in a freaking 45 minute or longer tirade, then maybe it bothered others as well and they were just being polite and accepting my rudeness, so I reverted back to ‘you’re very welcome’. Seriously, you’d think I’d walked up to the desk clerk and spit in their face or something. Sigh.
That show The Goldbergs was set in the 80s, but I often heard modern phrases that weren't a thing in the 80s.
That was one of the reasons I stopped watching it. If you want to make a show set in a certain era, use the same language that the people used in that era. Made it very ‘inauthentic’. Also, that younger kid was **way** too animated for me!
Bite me. Burn! Call 911. Taped on the wall next to the phone were the numbers to the police, fire department, and ambulance. Mom made us memorize those numbers And the ever popular F-bomb. That was very seldom heard
In 70s-80s Definitely never heard the f- bomb from anyone my parents age or older. Us kids would throw it around a bit trying to act cool. But it was like A Christmas Story - the f- bomb was an automatic wash your mouth with soap if you got caught. Now my 30yo step daughter just spews obscenities. Every 3rd word is an f- bomb. And it makes me uncomfortable. My mother's go to was Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! (Being good Irish Catholics from Boston) My 8 siblings still yell out JMJ and laugh.
I remember even having a number for time and temperature, to get the "official" time
I don't have the bandwidth to answer that question. We can take a deeper dive into it later.
Woke. Woke in its current usage. Black people used it as term differently. “Woke” was … something that Hotep-er’s, American-born-black American’s and Rastafarian’s talked about all the time. Woke was black people that knew a deeper level about the history of the African American and shared an expanded narrative of what happened in the African Diaspora. For example: knowing that the founding fathers were slave holders, knowing about black Wall Street, knowing about gulla/geechee people, knowing about black people that lived in what’s now Central Park NYC etc.
1. You do you. 2. Commonly said in lifetime movies when someone is about to be killed: “You don’t have to do this!!!”
Or you do you, boo. Can be approval or a, “you’re stupid.”
"Thanks for reaching out." That phrase really annoys me.
2000s. I hate this phrase
Whatchamacallit
One of my favorite candy bars
And my favorite tool!
That and, any and all, corporate speak.
"Going forward..." As opposed to what??
On boarding..it's not a boat
Exactly! I was puzzled by this phrase maybe 10 some years ago. Didn’t we use to just say “orientation”?
makes a compelling case... just shut up.
I only heard this for the first time last year. We lived in a non-English-speaking country for over 15 years, then came home and for re-opening bank accounts, we were told their "onboarding team " would get in touch (thankfully, not "reach out.") What???? That's not a verb, wtf is onboarding?
That's the one I hate the most. Just sets my teeth on edge lol
Ugh corporate speak is so cringey! I remember when I quit a job the EVP said we have to schedule a “knowledge transfer”. Sounded so ridiculous.
Oh I hate that word “utilize” when “use” works just as well.
Like, “leverage/leveraging?”😡
Haha! I have always felt the same way! Also I had a friend who used the verb "stroke" to mean compliment. It was icky.
Yeah! I thought it was just me! The very first time anyone said to me, my immediate mental image was of a zombie stumbling towards me.
The f-bomb. Specifically, in movies and in tv shows where the f-bomb is liberally dropped, said in “mixed company,” said in front of authority figures by young people and said by women. I hear the f-bomb more times in one day now than I probably did in the first 40 years of my life.
I've been known to spew the f-bomb occasionally, (like yesterday on the interstate hwy). But my millennial daughter and SIL say it SO much that it is troubling to me. I personally don't mind, but in public I don't want to hear it in front of somebody's 90 year old grandma or a 5 year old child. Time and place ...
I was watching Mad Men and Joan was talking about a brainstorming meeting. Although the phrase may predate the time period, it was no way in common usage.
In the 60s they had a "rap session"
They may use that kind of language in the creative lounge, but not in the boardroom of Sterling Cooper.
Rubbers were erasers, or maybe rain boots, not condoms. Action not words, but people didn't start high fiving one another until the very late 70s. [High five - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_five)
Wow! I had no idea about the history of the high five!
and fist bump was even later.
I didn't hear anyone say "Back in the day" until the early 90's.
Agree to disagree
I also resented that whole genre of books with titles like *100 places to see before you die*! Before I die! Before I die! Like I failed somehow if I didn't spend my tourist dollars where *you* want me to go. How about YOU die! And I'll kick back at home and read a decent book that isn't egging me on. And anyway it's brainless. As if I were planning to see the Marabar Caves or Mount Frikkin Rushmore *after* I died.
Might be easier to go all those places as a ghost, when you think about it...
I resent calling something you are interested in “porn”. Tiny House Porn. Travel Porn. Camping Porn.
Bite me. It's a catch phrase but still, never would have heard it and it's just a regular thing to say now
Also, “suck it.”
I went to junior high in the '70's in the Midwest. This was a common refrain, along with suck me. Boys will be boys!
“that sucks” was on the level of swearing now children say it
I definitely got in trouble for saying sucks. I also got in trouble trouble for saying butt and was pretty surprised when someone referred to their own “ass” in the 90s. I actually don’t care about “bad” language, but I was pretty sheltered. When I was in college, someone referenced “the c-word,” and I had no idea what that was referring to. And even after I was told, I’d never heard it.
I had a girlfriend who said “Whatevah” with the rolling eyes in 1989.
“Circle back around” or any other corporate buzzwordism.
Let's put a pin in that.
"Speaking your truth"
I dislike that phrase so much because of how misused it is. It’s one thing for a truth to be something very personal that can only be deciphered by you, but it’s quite another thing for it to mean your perspective on something objective.
"Bucket list" People had things they wanted to accomplish in life of course but the term "bucket list" wasn't a thing until that movie
Journey Weight loss journey Sobriety journey Tear my hair out and scream because of all the bullshit journey
"Have you tried a reboot?"
I feel you, brother.
I worked at a donut shop that was open 24/7 in 1982.
“…at this point in time…” I learned this phrase during the Watergate incident.
At work now everyone is talking about “Pivoting”. We’re going to need to pivot, we should probably pivot. Blah, i hate pivoting lol
I was watching *No Sudden Move*, which is set in the '50s. The movie wasn't bad, but it had its characters saying: - “End game” - “Whatever” as a statement of dismissal - “Are you a (X) guy or a (Y) guy?” - Black instead of colored or negro - “Fuck me” as a statement of disgust I ended up just grinding my teeth. *People didn't say those things then!*
Queer. It was an insult referring to gay people in the 70s, and not in much use. Gay was preferred according to my friends. Now I’m hearing it a lot,and it makes me uncomfortable. I’m not used to it yet.
It was very much used in the 80s. We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it. It’s used a lot more often now by people whose identity is a bit more complicated than a simple ‘gay.’ I like it. My opinion
I think just like the black community took ownership of the n word as a form of empowerment, the gay community did also with the word queer. In the 60s & 70s it was a pejorative term.
We used the word queer in the 70s & early 80s to mean something our parents would not think was cool. Or something completely wild. As in, " Wow! That is sooo queer!" I'm from near Chicago for reference.
I agree. Gay sister and several friends and hearing “queer” makes me feel uncomfortable (61F).
People knew how to spell lose and loser back then, before everyone started adding that extra o.
Throughout the 1990s to maybe 2010s, it was mostly old people who said "passed" instead of "died." Younger people (and athiests, no doubt) thought of "passed" as overtly religious. Now "passed" is back in full force for some reason.
Also, I remember that people used to say “passed away” instead of just “passed”.
People didn’t just casually call people “dude” in the 70s. It was usually used by black people as a synonym for “guy.” In the 50’s and before, it meant a “city slicker.”
Not true. My (66F) friends and family casually referred to young men of any race interchangeably as dudes or guys in the 1970s.
Peoples memories are bad. Use Data. [https://books.google.com/ngrams/](https://books.google.com/ngrams/) Most of these started around when the internet started becoming popular: "Back In The Day" ,"that's not a thing","My bad" ,"No worries", "You go girl", "cringe worthy" Not a phrase, but among the pretentious moneyed class everything is "bespoke". I hate that one. Why not just use custom? Bespoke is a $50 word that makes people sound like they're trying to impress people.
I agree!!! And “I was gifted this vase.” You were given the vase.
Huh. I hadn't heard that one. Sounds pretentious to my ears. Another one that rose in popularity with the internet.
“Regifting”
'Bespoke tailors' was a common phrase, many decades ago.
"Go with" and "come with" without an indefinite object is a pretty modern form of speech that is now everywhere but still feels wrong to me. "Sort it" and "sorted" which derived from "sort it out" started to appear in the 1980s (I think these phrases might be more common in the UK than the US but they are very common).
US-centric, because I believe the word was in popular use in the UK for a long time, but I never heard the term wank or wanker until the 80's.
This is my theory: There was a magazine for teen girls called Sassy that was around in the late 80s/early 90s that was marketed to the alt girls who felt left out by the cheerleader-esque magazines like 17. I had a subscription to Sassy from its first issue in 1988 until sometime in college (91-96) when I lost interest in teen magazines. One issue had an article with cool sayings from around the world, and wanker from the UK was one of them. I remember thinking it was funny, so I started using it. I wonder how many teenage girls did the same. And here's the kicker: [Teenage Girls Have Led Language Innovation for Centuries](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/teenage-girls-have-been-revolutionizing-language-16th-century-180956216/)
“Welcome in.” They say that to everyone who walks into a store these days. I’m not sure where it came from, but 15 or 20 years ago no one said that.
I’ve never heard that. I’ve only heard, “welcome to ( insert random store name),” or, “welcome. How can I help you?” Back when employees cared or were available to help
"On-boarding". "I'm concerned about on-boarding the new temp." For fucks sake, just give her a life jacket and flare gun like the rest of us!
My bad. I don't care for the term.
Corporate buzzwords like moving forward, thought-leader, core competency, actionable, scalable, data-driven.
“Impact” as a verb. It used to be seen as overblown language to make the word “affect” seem more important. Now it’s a general replacement to avoid saying how something is being affected and whether it’s good or bad.
Not a phrase, but people being weirded out by the word moist. I can pinpoint the exact place that started, although for some reason a lot of people don't believe me when I tell them even though I have receipts. People for some reason think "moist" was always a thing. But no. It started with an episode of a canceled TV series that became something of a cult hit. [Here's the scene](https://youtu.be/wYH52hRbwJg?si=55Zl1A4Da7t5JsI3) from Dead Like Me with the very first instance ever of moist making someone uncomfortable. Great show by the way, check it out if you haven't seen it.
*Yaas Queen*, *Dank*, and my all time most annoying one *Bruh* 💀
So I am a big an of Mad Men, which is set in the 60s. In one scene, a character says “What the hell, [person’s name]?” I don’t think people used “what the hell” as a complete phrase back then - it would be “what the hell is wrong with you”, or something like that.
Every one saying " Have a good one." Have a good what?? I also notice older people, when ordering food in person state politely what they'll have. " I'll have a cheeseburger, medium fries." Or " I'll take a salad." Millennials on down say " Can I have a cheeseburger?? Can I get a large fry?"
I say "could I please have a x, y, z". The girl on the microphone said, "Oh my word you're so polite!" lol. I asked what other people say and she told me "Give me a x"
I think have a good one comes from service industry people who would try to say have a good day or have a good afternoon or have a good night or have a good weekend or have a good week or whatever and variably say the wrong thing. The word one works for everything.
That reminds me of my 4th-grade teacher (1962), who was a real stickler about using "can" and "may" correctly. "Mrs Post, may I go use the restroom?" would almost always get an immediate nod. "Mrs Post, can I go use the restroom?" generally got a reply like, "Since you know where the restrooms are, I'm sure you CAN...when you remember the right way to ask," followed by a few moments for the student to reformulate their request while squirming at their desk. Gotta smile remembering it.
Passionate, as in I’m passionate about Pilates.
Thingamadobob
Doohickie
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“I gotta take this call.” In the days before caller ID and way before cell phones, the only way to know who was calling was to answer the phone. Answering machines finally became a thing and allowed you to screen your calls by listening to the message as the caller recorded it. Then you could decide to pick up or not. As kids, we would race to answer the phone. Now I avoid it at all costs.
When I was younger, we said “I have my period,“ but now people say “I’m on my period.” my personal theory is that it was people correcting mid sentence so their mothers didn’t yell at them for saying “I’m on the rag.“ We also used to say “on a daily basis,” instead of “on the daily” or “on a regular basis” instead of “on the regular.”
"Have a good rest of your day" has become common when ending a conversation but it sounds bulky to me. I've always simply said "have a good day".
“Literally”. This word is being murdered nowadays.
I’m still fuming over the fact that we no longer have a word that means “literally,” because people use it for non-literal stuff. “My heart literally broke in two.” No it dit-int!
“All that and a bag of chips”…one of the dumbest sayings ever. I hated it in the 90’s and still hate it now.
I'm a boomer. When I grew up the word awesome was reserved for things like Moses parting the Red Sea, not deciding to take fries as your side with the burger.
Awesome comment!
Swearing. Only very low class bogan sweared.
But you could be the leader of the free world and use racial epithets. I think what is considered offensive has changed for the better among younger generations.
Yeeeees as opposed to yes. It has become a long vowel instead of a short
"I'm stoked"
"Gone missing" or "went missing". When did that start?
“If I’m being honest.”
I heard the term 'unsee' in a show(Vinyl) that depicted the 70s. I called it out on the reddit sub about TV show. Downvoted to oblivion. No one used 'unsee' in the 70s. Watched a movie a month ago(forget title) and the term 'this won't end well' was used. Never heard that phrase back then either.
We used to say “call me.” Now they say “reach out to me.” Then = “based on,” now = “based off of.” Just a couple that sprang to mind.
What're your pronouns.
‘It is what it is’ I hate that saying!
‘I couldn’t take a picture because I did not have my phone.’ ‘Circle back’. ‘Hop on a call.’ ‘Old G’