Words we don't use any more

Magenta8

Does anyone still have high tea? If I remember rightly it was a sort of lunch/supper, eaten late afternoon or early evening. A bit like brunch only at the other end of the day.

Often served for children too young to stay up for dinner. My mum always called it 'nursery tea'

Does anyone still have high tea? If I remember rightly it was a sort of lunch/supper, eaten late afternoon or early evening. A bit like brunch only at the other end of the day.

I still call a duvet a puffin due to the fact that the first ones we had back in the early to mid 1960s were trademarked Puffin

"Put wood in'th 'ole" was regularly used in our house for shutting the door behind you.

‘Well, I’ll go to thre foot of our stairs ‘ .
.’ To express amazement at something,

Almost spot on GoldenAge. Although I was born and brought up in London. My grandmother born 1885 and my mother born 1920 both lived in Oldham until the whole family moved to London some time before WWII.

"Oh my giddy aunt" said by my Dad in consternation about anything. I actually find myself sometimes saying it too.

Magenta8 - you must be from Lancashire! All of those words were used by my grandmother and mother (born 1896 and 1926 respectively), and I still use wind cheater because that's what the jacket is supposed to do.

What's on the other side?
What station is it on?
Bloomers (knickers)
Bun in the oven (pregnant)
I've got my auntie (on a period)
I've got the painters in (on a period)
Spuds (potatoes)

My mum always wore a pinny when cooking

Gumboots for wellies

I still use "blowsy" with family - a blousey greetings card is the sort of Hallmark wordy sentimental sort and a blowsy woman is, in my mind fluffy-minded and superficial. Some too-frothy clothes may be blowsy too.
Men are not blowsy - but they could be dressed in a blowsy way. I'd probably say they were shallow - or superficial.

I do think that it was originally a different meaning - a female beggar.

My husband referred to a ‘continental quilt’, and my children thought it was hilarious. The term has well and truly been replaced by ‘duvet’.

So much to add!

My mother always used to say "five and twenty past* or * five and twenty to*. Of course, now I live in Germany, we talk like that anyway, but it was old-fashioned even in the sixties. We still sang "four and twenty blackbirds" though!

As for our grandchildren not knowing some of these old words, my grandson (11) amazed me when we were in a museum together by pointing out an anvil. I asked him how on earth he knew that word (especially as English isn't even his first language). The answer: "Minecraft"!!!

The word frock was frowned upon in our house when I was growing up. Our Dad was in the rag trade and I'm not sure if it was a trade tradition or if he personally just didn't like it. I find it an ugly word anyway, sounds like "frog".

Oreo

Batchelor and confirmed Batchelor ( sp?)
Antimacassar
Doily
In the buff
Up the duff

Some years ago my teen American niece (having heard it in a Yorkshire accent from a cousin) thought ‘up the duff’ the most hilarious expression ever, and vowed that she was going to popularise it across the pond.

I'm still working my way through the 9(!) pages of this thread but was surprised to see "shenanigans" and " pantry" listed as obsolete as I still hear them used plenty, by younger generations as much as anyone. Most American houses seem to have a pantry and they call it that. In the house I grew up in we had one but we called it a larder. Now that's a word no one uses much any more.

My grandmother used the word "stout" too, but it was something to drink!

The word that seems to really have gone out of fashion is "railway station" . It grates on me every time I hear it.

OK - back to reading the rest of the thread.....

‘She looks like the back end of a bus’.
We were also told off for being chopsy if we answered back when an adult spoke to us.

Its a road haulage firm .
I just googled it.
I think its when we asked mum to take us, or some stuff somewhere.

Never heard that one, have you tried googling Carter Patterson?

Carter Patterson. I've no idea what it was relating to, but it was definitely mentioned by my mum.
"Standing there like Carter Patterson...." or sonething

Liberty Hall

Scribbles

Rocketstop2

Blousey !!! A brash woman

I always understood the word to be "blowsy" and that it means showy but past its prime, like an overblown rose.🤷‍♀️

That’s what I thought too.

ROMILO

Words that my Grandmother used.
Ginnel -any narrow passageway outside.
Smashed to smithereens - anything that got broken.
Threepenny bit- something you were given to spend if you were good. Sixpenny bit if you were very good.
In her last years if she was under the weather (there's another one I still use) she would eat ' pobs' if I remember this was bread and butter squares in hot milk!

Threepenny bit- something you were given to spend if you were good. Sixpenny bit if you were very good.

Two and sixpence aka half a crown. That was a week's pocket money.
Sometimes my dear Great-uncle would give me two bob (two shillings) and sometimes I got a ten bob note in a birthday card!

Pantry I would love to have a pantry, MickyD!

I say plonker too and gallivanting (not so much now though).

Oh, I'd never thought to look it up.
Thank you.

Well that's a surprise I always thought of the 'court' as being the legal variety.

"Casey's Court" originated as a popular British music hall, comedy, and circus act created by Will Murray around 1900, running until the 1950s. It was a chaotic "gang show" featuring children, with Murray playing "Mrs. Casey," and it served as a starting point for famous stars, including Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.

Doodledog

MissAdventure

Casey's court was the saying for chaos in our house.

Yes! that was another of my mum's numerous sayings

Yes my mum said that too, and say it quietly so do I 😂

I wonder where it comes from, off for a google.