Old terminology

[Buick35]

Why do we still say floor board and glove compartment? I've seen everything else but gloves in our cars.

[John_S_in_Penna]

Simply put:  Words last much longer than

certain aspects of technology.

 

Another example:  If you ship something from

Maine to Massachusetts, it almost certainly 

no longer goes by ship.

[rocketraider]

But it might travel halfway across the country and back before it arrives!

 

My experience is most glove (or map, seen that terminology too) "boxes" or "compartments" are no longer big enough to keep a pair of gloves in by the time you stuff owners manuals, maintenance and fuel logs, spare fuses and lamps ad nauseam ad infinitum in them.

 

My 1984 TransAM had a neat vinyl "map pouch" on passenger dash where glove boxes used to dwell. The actual glove box was in the console. Neither was big enough to keep a Rand or Delorme road atlas in!

[pmhowe]

Here is another: We still say "dashboard", and that term pre-dates the automobile. World Wide Words states "The sense of dash is the one that refers to the “violent throwing and breaking of water or other liquids upon or against anything”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. The dashboard was a wooden board, or a leather apron like the one that the article mentions. It was placed at the front of a carriage, sleigh or other vehicle to catch the mud or water thrown up by the horses’ hooves and stop it from soaking the driver and his passengers. We would now call it a kind of mudguard." World Wide Words notes that the term dates from the second decade of the 19th century. Now my iMac has a dashboard. It's fun to speculate how appropriate that usage is.

[TAKerry]

I am pretty sure I have heard the term 'mud guard' used for a motorcycle fender.

[Terry Bond]

1 hour ago, TAKerry said:

I am pretty sure I have heard the term 'mud guard' used for a motorcycle fender.

British I believe.  That opens another can of worms - bonnet, hood, wing, spanner, dizzy, dickey seat, nearside/offside......

Terry

[Larry Schramm]

Floorboards are easy.  The floors in old cars were boards.  All of my brass & nickel vehicles have boards for flooring.

 

Just legacy nomenclature. 

[Tom Boehm]

Another old term still in use is "unleaded gas". Gas has not had lead in it for 40 years. When will it just be "gas" again? 

[ply33]

19 minutes ago, Tom Boehm said:

Another old term still in use is "unleaded gas". Gas has not had lead in it for 40 years. When will it just be "gas" again? 

Before I was old enough to drive I and all gas stations were full service, I recall my dad telling the attendant to “fill it with Ethyl”. I think that was probably archaic terminology even then as by the late 1950s and early 1960s all gas had tetraethyl lead. Maybe not all gas, I vaguely recall Richfield advertising boron and apparently a chain back east (Atlantic?) was known for unleaded gasoline. At least the "ethyl" terminology for the premium gas has disappeared.

 

Odd when you think about how you say something you can start second guessing your automatic self. I am pretty sure that I just call the 87 PON stuff “regular”. None of my cars need the mid-grade or premium grade gas.

[plymouthcranbrook]

Wasn’t unleaded gas called “white gas” in the past.  I remember getting white gas from the hardware store back in the 1960’s.

[oldcarfudd]

A related topic is retronyms; compound names for things that used to be called by simple nouns.  Steam train.  Propeller plane.  Film camera.  Tube radio.  A century ago, what other kind of train, plane, camera or radio was there?

[Mark Shaw]

26 minutes ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

Wasn’t unleaded gas called “white gas” in the past.  I remember getting white gas from the hardware store back in the 1960’s.

What Is White Gas? (reference.com)

 

[edinmass]

Just for the record, cars have glove boxes. Automobiles such as a Rolls Royce have a dash cabinet. 
 

 

End of lesson.  🥸

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by edinmass (see edit history)

[pmhowe]

44 minutes ago, oldcarfudd said:

A related topic is retronyms; compound names for things that used to be called by simple nouns.  Steam train.  Propeller plane.  Film camera.  Tube radio.  A century ago, what other kind of train, plane, camera or radio was there?

"Aeroplane"?

[Buick35]

2 hours ago, oldcarfudd said:

A related topic is retronyms; compound names for things that used to be called by simple nouns.  Steam train.  Propeller plane.  Film camera.  Tube radio.  A century ago, what other kind of train, plane, camera or radio was there?

Or a movie theater

[Buick35]

Not car related but I remember going to the dime store when I was a kid,my mom said I used to call it the diamond store.Now they're dollar stores but I don't think for long.I remember calling the fridge an ice box,I don't know why.

[hidden_hunter]

And then you have even more variation when you get to Australian English

[pfloro]

Regarding:  "Fill it with Ethyl":

 

In 1933, the Hollywood Paramount writers for "Duck Soup" penned this dialog for Groucho Marx:  

 

"To the palace...!  Ride like fury...!  If you run out of gas, get Ethyl...! If Ethyl runs out, get Mable...!  Now step on it...!

 

********

Groucho had hurriedly gotten into the motorcycle side car and squawked the above commands at Harpo, who is the driver. When Harpo takes off, the side car carrying Groucho gets left behind...  Groucho's character name was Rufus T. Firefly.

 

Paul

 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by pfloro (see edit history)

[Frank DuVal]

1 hour ago, Buick35 said:

I remember calling the fridge an ice box,I don't know why.

Because they used to contain ice as the cold making substance. Just look at Laurel and Hardy movie where they are hauling ice up a steep hill in Los Angeles. And why ice houses made blocks of ice instead of cubes like today. Ice boxes were typically wooden cabinets with galvanized steel linings. They still sell ice boxes as decorator elements/cabinets, just without the galvanized steel. Later we called the refrigerator/freezer the ice box since that's where the ice was made and kept.

 

My father always asked me if my cars(s) had enough alcohol when the weather got cold. For a major part of his life he had used alcohol and the term stuck. People today do not know where the term "permanent antifreeze" comes from, since everything they use is permanent. 

 

Ethyl of course! Growing up in Richmond, we had the Ethyl Corporation's home office, so it was part of of daily word use also. My best friend's mother was secretary to Mr. Gottwald. I always thought it was quite similar to the Flintstone's tycoon, Mr. Gotrocks.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Frank DuVal (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

7 hours ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Simply put:  Words last much longer than

certain aspects of technology.

Everyday English if full of these...

 

How about "going off half cocked" or "lock, stock & barrel" - both of those likely go back to the 17th century and refer to muzzle loading guns that have not been "current" for nearly 200 years. That's reasonably modern. There are others that go back hundreds of years more.

Edited December 7, 2021 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[oldcarfudd]

Look at the road sign: "Hang Up and Drive".  How do you hang up a cell phone?  But back in the day, you spoke into the microphone while holding the receiver to your ear.  When the call was over, you hung up the receiver on the set next to the microphone, and that shut down the circuit.

[ply33]

2 hours ago, Buick35 said:

Or a movie theater

Hmmm. There are a number of theaters near us that have nothing but live performances (usually plays but sometimes concerts). And we have different theaters that only have movies. I refer to the former as “theaters” snd the latter as “movie theaters”. So I think “movie theater” still has a valid usage.

[Hudsy Wudsy]

Someone on these forums has used "jockey box" for glove box. I Googled that and it seems that name came from Idaho and other western states.

[Bloo]

27 minutes ago, Hudsy Wudsy said:

Someone on these forums has used "jockey box" for glove box. I Googled that and it seems that name came from Idaho and other western states.

 

Could be. As a Washingtonian, I have heard that one all my life. I'm not sure it is any more common than "glove box" but it is definitely used here.

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Billy Kingsley]

11 hours ago, pmhowe said:

“violent throwing and breaking of water or other liquids upon or against anything”,

 

Although I'm sure it helped for rain, the real thing it was trying to stop was what came out of the horse pulling the wagon. 

 

Riding shotgun means riding in the front passenger seat. That comes from the days of stagecoaches who employed men to sit next to the driver as a guard weilding a shotgun. 

[ryan95]

I've heard that the term condenser is an out of date term for a capacitor. According to Google, it went out of fashion in the 1920's I've never heard anyone say that they installed a new set of points and capacitor.

[Restorer32]

My wife insists on saying "tuna fish".  

[hook]

8 hours ago, oldcarfudd said:

Look at the road sign: "Hang Up and Drive".  How do you hang up a cell phone?  But back in the day, you spoke into the microphone while holding the receiver to your ear.  When the call was over, you hung up the receiver on the set next to the microphone, and that shut down the circuit.

When was the last time you saw or used a dial phone? Yet, all advertisements and notices say "dial such and such number" "dial 911", etc. I guess it just doesn't sound right to say "punch 911" or "press 911"

[Guest]

My recently purchased car that sat For 60 years had a pair of white gloves in the glove compartment!

[John_S_in_Penna]

46 minutes ago, hook said:

When was the last time you saw or used a dial phone? 

Yesterday.  Unlike newer products, it is very

well made and lasts indefinitely.  I'll probably have it

20, 40, 50 years from now.  But your point is good.

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[hook]

24 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Yesterday.  Unlike newer products, it is very

well made and lasts indefinitely.  I'll probably have it

20, 40, 50 years from now.  But your point is good.

 

[Restorer32]

Maybe slightly OT but when did "I'm down with it" and "I'm up for it" come to mean the same thing?

[hook]

1 minute ago, Restorer32 said:

Maybe slightly OT but when did "I'm down with it" and "I'm up for it" come to mean the same thing?

Yes, like "Fat chance" and "Slim chance"

[60FlatTop]

15 hours ago, Tom Boehm said:

When will it just be "gas" again? 

Someday that term will just evaporate.

[Restorer32]

"Parking lights" has a long and interesting history.

[Frank DuVal]

2 hours ago, hook said:

When was the last time you saw or used a dial phone?

Everyday at work. I took a black one in years ago, then I found a red one so they sit next to each other. They are on different lines. People do ask if the red one connects directly to the president.🤣

[58L-Y8]

The lexicon continually acquires words and phrases through common coinage and usage.  Those continue in the general vocabulary long after their original purpose seems to have passed into history.  

[Buick35]

It's funny how referring to people as cats or dogs have changed.I'm the 60s you might be a cool car but now it's what up dog?

[Pete O]

Another anachronism is "hub cap".    Even the plain dog dish  hub caps from the 1940s onward were not really hub caps.  Cars like Model T Fords, with the brass (or later nickle) caps that screwed onto the hubs had hub caps.  You can still find the actual hub cap tapped into the hub to prevent the bearing gease from spraying everywhere under the dog dish hub cap.

[John_S_in_Penna]

Slang is a very informal, very short lived, part of

any language.  Good English is the opposite, and

one can read English from several hundred years ago

and still understand it.  And it can be poignant, 

moving, and beautiful.