do you catch yourself
If you use these words, you will slowly but surely grow old
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“Hey diggah, everything Gucci?” Lucky that language is evolving! While other words used to be quite normal in everyday language use, today there are so many new designations that sometimes make us feel pretty old, don’t we?
The youth word of the year will soon be chosen again, last year “cringe“. By the way, that means something like “embarrassing” or “unpleasant”. Anglicisms dominate the language of today’s youth – if someone regularly speaks ‘Denglisch’, they are probably totally in vogue. But beware! If an older generation is doing it, it’s apparently “cringe”. Can you do anything right then? Today we’re taking a little trip back in time to the words that were as common thirty or forty years ago as “cool” is today. And when you use those words , are you getting older for better or worse – well, and we’re actually quite happy about that, aren’t we?
These words are no longer up-to-date
“Sweetheart, put on your anorak!” – well, who has their parents’ or even their grandparents’ voice in their ears? The denouement, for everyone from Gen-Z: “Jacket” is another word for “jacket” or “waistcoat”. This beautiful term, which is hardly used anymore today, originally comes from the Inuit of Greenland: “An-nuh-raaq” means something like “something against the wind”.
It used to be the “listener“, now it’s the “mobile phone” or maybe the “telephone”. And what do you say when you hang up?”Speak to you soon“? Nowadays probably not anymore. Now a quick “Tschss” has become common to say goodbye. It’s actually funny that we use the word “hang up” retained in this context, right? After all, we no longer have telephones where you really have to put the receiver down to end the call. Do you sometimes still start your sentence with “listen…”? This is also a nice linguistic relic from an earlier time. But it actually sounds quite nice.
If you use these words, you will slowly but surely grow old
“There’s so much advertising in these newspapers!” – “advertisementSaying “instead of “advertising”” is perhaps a bit “old school” to pick up on the youthful slang. Incidentally, this word was taken from the French: “réclame” means “to raise an objection”. In German it refers to advertising for goods. While “advertisement” is hardly ever used in everyday language, “reclaim” remains an integral part of our vocabulary – the verb also fits the original meaning of the word much better.
“One, twothree, four!” – what is still frequently used in the Bundeswehr is no longer quite up to date in private use. Just like the term “Juno” for “June” and “July” for “July”. All three terms used to be used for the same reason: On the phone, it was often difficult to tell whether the person you were talking to said “two” or “three”, or “June” or “July”. This is probably due to the quality of the voice calls at that time. Since apparently almost no one makes calls anymore anyway, only “texts”, such a linguistic renaming has become superfluous. And “text” “to chat“or also”Whats app” don’t come from a much earlier time, but are still not hip anymore. By the way, just like the word “hip“. Children, how time flies.
No matter which words you like to use – don’t let anything and nobody stop you! Being retro is back in fashion anyway. And who knows, maybe one or the other designation will soon become modern again. After all, if there’s one thing we’ve learned in fashion, it’s that everything comes back. Why not also in language?