Old words that are dying out (part 2)

As I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, language changes and some old words eventually die out. According to a survey by Perspectus Global, many words which were common just a few decades ago are disappearing from the vocabularies of younger people.

Here are a few more words that people aged 18-30 have never heard of:

1) Boogie (28%)

Silhouettes boogieing.

I tend to associate the word 'boogie' with the generation before me, so perhaps that explains why some of the younger generation have never heard of it. Anyway, for the benefit of the 28% of 18-30 year olds who don't know what 'boogie' means, it means to dance, specifically to pop music.

I think it may have been quite a cool word back in the day, but obviously if you said 'boogie' nowadays you'd probably sound like you were old and unfashionable, unless you said it ironically for a joke.

True or false: Old fashioned insults (part 2)

It's National Insult Day in a few days' time*, so that means it's time for another insult themed true or false quiz! Take a look at the following insults, and see if you can guess whether they're genuine old fashioned insults from the olden days, or whether I've just made them up.

* October 28th, to be precise.

In the olden days, if someone was talking
flibbertigibbet, they were talking nonsense.
But is that true, or is it flibbertigibbet?

1) Flibbertigibbet

As I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, if someone is talking nonsense, then in China you might exclaim, "Dog fart!" to indicate that they're talking rubbish.

In the olden days, they didn't have any insults quite as amusing as "Dog fart!" but they did have the rather cool expression of 'flibbertygibbet'. To elaborate, in the olden days if you wanted to accuse someone of talking nonsense, you might say, "That's flibbertygibbet!"

Real insult or fake insult?

Old words that are dying out

A few years ago one of my work colleagues was feeling annoyed with her doctor, so I told her about a clueless doctor I had once seen called Dr Burke. I joked, "Burke by name, berk by nature!" The girl I worked with was confused by my comment and it turned out she had never heard of the word 'berk'.

An old typewriter for typing old words.

For the benefit of anyone else who has never heard of the word 'berk' it means an idiot, but anyway I was shocked to discover that apparently berk is a word that some younger people have never heard of.

As it turns out, my former work colleague isn't the only one to have never heard of some older words. According to a survey by Perspectus Global, here are a few more words that people aged 18-30 have never heard of:

1) Balderdash (27%)

When I discovered that 27% of 18-30 year olds have never heard of the word balderdash, my first reaction was, 'That's balderdash!"

For the benefit of anyone in the 27%, balderdash means nonsense. It's not a word I've ever personally used myself, but I think it would be cool if more people used it, because it has an amusing ring to it. It's the sort of word that just makes you smile by the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Balderdash!

I tend to associate the word 'balderdash' with posh people, so maybe it's not just a generational thing as to why so many younger people have never heard of it.