Words that are going out of fashion / usage

Timcito

Tannin said:

^ Ahh. Thankyou. Yes. 

Of course, as a well-educated bigoted native-born English speaker, I don't regard anything speakers of foreign languages such as American say as being relevant to our language. (Except when it creeps into and pollutes real proper English  as she is spoke - which is pretty much all the time these days.)

Not sure what the purpose of your irony is here; I wasn't passing judgement, just commenting on the use of adjectives instead of adverbs. It is what it is - there was no suggestion of British superiority in this regard.

jonnyburgo

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

guitars4you

ghettoblaster

Jimbro66

Timcito said:

Tannin said:

^ Ahh. Thankyou. Yes. 

Of course, as a well-educated bigoted native-born English speaker, I don't regard anything speakers of foreign languages such as American say as being relevant to our language. (Except when it creeps into and pollutes real proper English  as she is spoke - which is pretty much all the time these days.)

Not sure what the purpose of your irony is here; I wasn't passing judgement, just commenting on the use of adjectives instead of adverbs. It is what it is - there was no suggestion of British superiority in this regard.

I think maybe @Tannin is out of touch with changes to the English language in Britain (or certainly England) over the past decade or two. In some sections of society the adverb has all but disappeared to be replaced with adjectives.

Why? I'm not sure, but obviously there has to have been some influence rather just being illiterate. Foreign football managers of top English teams often use adjectives in place of adverbs so did the trend come from them? Who knows.

Tannin

^ Very likely, @Jimbro66. I see the same here in the antipodes. @Timcito, no irony intended. It's just the truth: our language is being rapidly swamped by illiterate Americanisms. The French have laws to prevent this sort of thing. Sadly, we do not.

Tannin

guitars4you said:

ghettoblaster

Hmmmm .... 

i-pod
Blackberry & PDA
Fax machine
Wristwatch
Wireless
Walkman

Supportact

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

Litterick

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

 Legend has it that someone at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was shouting the name, calling for a friend or a dog, and the crowd took it up as a chant. The Wally chant was repeated at almost every large rock concert in Britain in the seventies, including Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979.

Litterick

Tannin said:

Kurtis said:

Tannin said:

Dominic said:

What is always interesting is the etymology when a language has been left behind in a colony or former territory and becomes frozen in time as it doesn't evolve colloquially .....
My Greek friends laugh at the 'Greek' spoken by my Cypriot friends because it's almost a form of 18th century Greek that they speak.
I have a lot of Indian ( from India not UK ) friends and clients who speak " Indlish " which is their Victorian English legacy ;some of the phrases are very old/stilted .......
" We must do the needful" , something is never good ;it's "most satisfactory "
An old girlfriend's father was Bengali from Kolkata ....he would exclaim "Oh my goodness gracious,Golly-Gosh "

Just so.

Many of the weird things our American friends say are actually perfectly normal English expressions from a bygone century. The rest of the world has forgotten them, and when we hear Americans say them we think they are kooky. 

My Croatian sister-in-law grew up there, moved to Oz when she was 13 or so, then moved back to Croatia after she retired. She says people there laugh at her Croatian because it is so rural and old-fashioned. In contrast her husband (my Australian-born-and-bred brother-in-law) speaks perfectly modern Croatian, albeit somewhat limited as he only started learning it a few years ago at age 50-something. 

Is Australia not the same? 

Logic would suggest that it ought to be, though I cannot think of any examples. Perhaps an English-born expat living here might notice things which I don't see myself. Most (all?) of the Australianisms I can think of are home-grown. 

The verb 'fossick' is used in New Zealand an Australia, meaning to search for something by rummaging. It is an archaic Cornish word, meaning to prospect for gold or precious stones.

Supportact

Litterick said:

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

 Legend has it that someone at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was shouting the name, calling for a friend or a dog, and the crowd took it up as a chant. The Wally chant was repeated at almost every large rock concert in Britain in the seventies, including Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979.

I did not know that! Good fact. And pleased to know it's probably not something that will upset people. Except maybe people who are actually called Wally, but you don't get many of them these days. 

guitars4you

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

Does 'Gordon Bennett' come from a similar thought 

Supportact

guitars4you said:

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

Does 'Gordon Bennett' come from a similar thought 

You could use it in the same way for sure. No idea who Gordon was though. 

Kurtis

The first Australian I could think of is g'day sport (maybe that's not something Australians actually say?). You don't hear people saying good day much. 

HAL9000

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I once worked with a man whose unfortunate name was Wally Pratt. He (legally I think) changed his name to Jeff East (or something equally nondescript).

Reverend

Reverend

Kittyfrisk

Litterick said:

Supportact said:

jonnyburgo said:

Wally, as in "Oi Jenkins you Wally, come here!"

I still use 'wally'. Because it sounds quite mild these days, if someone does something really awful or stupid and you refer to them as a wally, it's almost as if the understatement emphasises the fact. Also no one can really take offence (don't think so anyway, although I'm not sure where it comes from). 

 Legend has it that someone at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was shouting the name, calling for a friend or a dog, and the crowd took it up as a chant. The Wally chant was repeated at almost every large rock concert in Britain in the seventies, including Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979.

Was certainly thriving at the Weeley festival in 1971 

icu81b4

‘Fab’ & ‘Gear’ was used by the Fab Four quite a lot.

HAL9000

Something else I think are disappearing are the old adages and sayings like ‘A stitch in time..’, ‘Many hands make light work’, etc. Used to hear these a lot from my parents and grandparents but hardly at all recently.

Offset

Kurtis said:

Fud. 

Elmer?