There are some words our family used when I was growing up that, for some reason, I didn’t use with my own kids. So much so, that when we would visit my parents and my parents would use one of the words, my kids would look at me as if to say “WHAT?”
Some of these words I did use with my kids but kids I interact with these days do not use them anymore.
What we read, what we watch, what we hear and where we live changes the way we use language in our daily lives.
Here are some words that either aren’t really used anymore or the meaning has changed. Some others will only be familiar if you are from a certain province.
- chesterfield – our couch or sofa was always the chesterfield. Not sure why
2. porch -in our house the inside entrance area where we kept our coats and boots
3. rubbers– this was the term used for our rubber boots or dad’s rubber covers for his shoes. Today the word means condoms.
4. front room – our living room was always called this but it more specifically it meant the part of the living room that faced the street.
5. thongs – no, not the string type panties. In our house they were what are now called flip flops.
6.scraper – a rubber spatula was always a scraper
7. camper – a trailer for going camping. For us it was a renovated school bus.
8. vestibule -entrance area of a building or the boot room at school
9. kitty corner – the corner diagonal to where you are
10. Vi-co and Beep – in school we could order choc milk (Vi-co) or Beep (sweet orange flavoured drink). I think each was only 25¢. Anyone remember??
11. mickey – 375ml bottle of booze that people would sneak into the movies
12. klick – kilometer
13. babushka – what you look like all bundled up like an old Russian woman
14. deep freeze – my parents refer to the large chest freezer in the basement as the deep freeze
15. Freezies – Mr. Freeze ice treats
16. housecoat – a robe worn around the house
17. long johns– what we called today’s long underwear; we also enjoyed doughnuts with this name
18. gotch or gonch or gitch -from Ukrainian word gatky for men’s underwear or today’s tightie whities
19. John Thomas – when our eldest child was born this was going to be his first and middle names. I was informed by the males in my family that I could never do that. Some males referred to their penises as that.
20. cutlery – to people in some provinces, it is utensils
21. bunnyhug – any hooded sweatshirt with pouch in front (SK)
22. runners – more commonly called running shoes, shoes or sneakers (Nfld) today
23. pop – referred to as soda in some provinces
24. coat – nowadays if it has a zipper it’s a jacket or if it is a hooded sweatshirt it’s a sweater
25. toque -kids just say hat
Every generation has words or phrases they invent as expressions or slang. The words for objects take a bit longer to be phased out but, as you can see, it does happen.
Anyone remember any other words from their childhood that are no longer used??
For me, babushka, is more a kerchief covering the whole head to keep hair in place.
#10…chocolate milk was called Crimko or Krimko, not familiar with the orange drink or #’s , 18, 19, or 21.