I could have sworn that early on we had a great thread on old-fashioned words, but I can't find it. I looked and looked for quite awhile because I know there were some good ones there. I did find, in my searches, mentions of old-fashioned words, such as Victrola and Fridgidaire and ice box in one of my favorite early threads...Morgan's thread on Wives. Have fun with it!

The reason I was looking was because I was getting my hair cut today, and the lady before me insisted on having her hair care person (what are they called now? Beautician is way too old-fashioned) "rat" her hair ("back-combing," for our younger members). So what other old-fashioned words have you heard lately?

I caught a conversation the other day where one person said, "I'll get back to you later. I have to get my shoes from the cobbler." I didn't see the person who said it but they must be OLDER than I am. I can't recall the last time I heard a shoe repairman called a cobbler.

Reminded me of the executive who left shoes to be re-soled but then was away on business around the globe for almost twenty years. When he finally returned to his home town, he was unpacking and found the stub for the shoes wedged inside his suitcase.

the next day, on the way to work, he passed the store and was surprised to see it was still in business after so much time had passed. So he went in and handed the owner, much older but still active, his ticket. The old man went into the back room and the exec could hear shoes being tossed around for many minutes.

Finally the old man came back and said, "They'll be ready Thursday."

The beauticians, barbers, hairdressers, and coiffeuses of old are probably hair stylists now. I used to go to a barber shop. Now it is a chop shop. They still cut hair rather than serve meat, but rely far more on clippers instead of scissors and straight razors.

Kalleh, I suggest you avoid the tonsure, as most women I know can't pull it off.

So, Myth, if you go to a barber, does that mean you're a man? I always thought so, but others here seem to think you're a she.

One might think I, as a Wordcrafter, would have known the word tonsure, but I had to look it up. It's a useful word! I am not tonsured (is that how you use it?), but my son is. I hated it when I first saw it, but I am used to it now. He's actually kind of cute.

quote:

if you go to a barber, does that mean you're a man?

Not necessarily; my mother used to go to the local barber. She hated long hair, and reckoned that a ladies' hairdresser never dared to cut her hair as short as she liked it.

I thought the only ladies who went to barbers were bearded

Barber and Beautician are titles given (so my friend, who is a Barber, tells me) based on one's training. You can go to Barber School or Barber College and learn to use scissors and clippers and all of that, or you can go to Beauticians' School and learn to also do coloring and "hair-dos" and so forth. Barbers cut hair and give shaves, while Beauticians do all sorts of other things, apparently.

I'm a SHE and when I go get my hair cut, I usually go to a Barber - they're cheaper. Better yet, I just hand some good shears to my sister and say "take off about an inch" and she cuts my hair for me.

Here's an old-fashioned word: telegram. When was the last (or the first) time you got one? I've never received one in my life. I think Western Union only exists now for the sole purpose of transferring funds between individuals in distress.

Western Union

Western Union discontinued its telegram service in 2006 (link). Seems rather late to me. I never received a telegram, but I did send one in 1980 from Moscow, Russia, to Boyes Hot Springs, CA. It read: "From Russia with love James B." The women who sent it was not amused, but I had to find something to do with my rubles. I still have the telegram my father sent from Boston informing my grandmother that he had arrived safely from the UK after the end of World War 2.

Seems that the British still believe in telegrammaticality: (link). Telegram Online was spun off from British Telecom.

So far as I knew, telegrams were discontinued many years ago. I'd never heard of Telegrams Online, but I see they they deliver by post, not even by special courier. Delivery is next day, not same day, as well.

I never received a telegram either. It used to be the custom for the monarch (or, rather, a minion on his/her behalf) to send a congratulatory telegram to citizens on their 100th birthday but that stopped several years ago as well.