Lost Words ... - Thorn Tree travel forum

Lost Words

Replies: 35 - Last Post: 31-Oct-2009 05:25 Last Post By: elliedee

jump to

Posted
21-Oct-2009 22:33
by: VinnyD

Posts: 21,683
Registered: 06/10/04

Lost Words

In the 16 October TLS there's a squib about a recent book called Lost Words by Chris Roberts. J.C. from the TLS says "Mr Roberts thinks that dolly bird, donkey jacket, eiderdown, fancy goods, flicks , and galoshes are lost words. J.C. apparently thinks not. (Roberts and JC are both British.)

I know what an eiderdown is although we've never used the word in the US. I think I asked for opinions about galoshes (and also overshoes and rubbers) when I was inquiring about words that have disappeared in my lifetime. If I had thought of the flicks, and if my list had included slang, I would have put that on the list.

The rest of them are unknown to me here on this side of the Atlantic, although I think "dolly bird" may have crossed my field of vision at one time or another.

What do they mean, and do you think they are lost? How about the lost/nonlost status of flicks, eiderdown, and galoshes?

Meet VinnyD.

Posted
21-Oct-2009 22:47
by: stormboy

Posts: 2,148
Registered: 03/03/02

1

dolly bird, donkey jacket, eiderdown, fancy goods, flicks , and galoshes

All of these are familiar to me (from London), except 'fancy goods', which appears (from very quick Google search) to be a retail-specific term.

'Dolly bird' (or 'dollybird') (young/attractive/glamorous/'tarted up' woman) and 'flicks' (cinema - 'pictures' when I was younger) are used by older people - my mother (late 60s) always talks about 'the flicks' rather than the cinema.

I don't use 'eiderdown' (duvet, quilt) but it doesn't strike me as odd/archaic when I hear other people use it.

'Donkey jacket' (heavy jacket used by, for example, workmen) is still current - I can't think of an alternative.

'Galoshes' is familiar although I can't remember the last time I saw a pair or actually heard anyone use it - it sounds like something from Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five', or Winnie-the-Pooh - or again, something my mother would use.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 00:59
by: bjd

Posts: 4,105
Registered: 13/01/05

2

I always thought 'galoshes' was more N American -- the equivalent British expression being wellingtons or wellies. I guess 'dolly bird' would have been a word used in Britain in the Swinging Sixties. Didn't they call girls 'birds' in those days?

I say eiderdown but perhaps I am a dying breed. It must have been used in Canada, since I say it, but I think people generally say "duvet" (doovay) now.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 02:24
by: nutraxfornerves

Posts: 10,666
Registered: 09/06/01

3

I've run into "fancy goods" but I'm pretty sure it was only in novels written by UK authors--probably old murder mysteries.

There's a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip about galoshes.

Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data

Posted
22-Oct-2009 03:13
by: stormboy

Posts: 2,148
Registered: 03/03/02

4

I always thought 'galoshes' was more N American -- the equivalent British expression being wellingtons or wellies.

I thought galoshes were something you wore over normal shoes in wet weather - but I've never worn them and don't know if I've ever seen them on sale. Wellies are rubber boots that you wear instead of shoes (when it's raining, for gardening etc.).

Posted
22-Oct-2009 03:16
by: NorthAmerican

Posts: 4,425
Registered: 26/02/02

5

Well, VinnyD, it seems that the word "galoshes" isn't dead; it just changed its meaning.

I was surprised to see bjd say that Wellingtons are their equivalent. No way!

But then I did an image search on Google, and waded through hundreds of images without finding any that showed the type of galoshes I wore as a child. They were of black rubber and came about halfway to the knee. The equivalent of a shoe's tongue was, instead, a sort of accordion-fold or pleat, so that once closed the entire thing would be waterproof. There were about six metal clips that were inserted into fasteners, then snapped back to lock them in place.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 03:18
by: NorthAmerican

Posts: 4,425
Registered: 26/02/02

6

You're right, stormboy; galoshes were worn over one's shoes.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 03:42
by: bjd

Posts: 4,105
Registered: 13/01/05

7

I just looked on Google images too, only to discover that what are called galoshes now are indeed like wellingtons. In my earlier post, I meant the kind that go over shoes.

When I was a kid in Canada, in winter girls wore galoshes (always black or dark brown rubber ones) over their shoes. There was only one fastening and it was fashionable to leave it unfastened. Boys had to wear rubber boots and sit in class in their thick socks. But those galoshes disappeared by the early 1960s and were replaced by leather boots in winter.

A couple of weeks ago in Rome, we saw young women wearing rubber boots for the style. It must have been for the style since it was warm and sunny. Despite Google images, I called them "rubber boots" and not galoshes.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 03:51
by: NorthAmerican

Posts: 4,425
Registered: 26/02/02

8

But those galoshes disappeared by the early 1960s....

I suppose that the kind I'm thinking of must have disappeared even earlier.

About leather boots versus galoshes: In Chicago, where I grew up, galoshes were only worn in extremely bad weather: rain or sleet, for example. On a winter day when you were only walking along sidewalks that had been cleared of snow, you wore "high tops," leather boots with very long shoestrings. If your parents could be persuaded to do so, they would buy you a pair that had a little pocket on the side of one of them, complete with a pocketknife. Kids played with knives in my day.

Well, "high tops" of the kind I wore don't show up in an image search. They were not loose-fitting, but tied tight around the leg. In the photo at the following link, you'll see four boys on a Chicago sidewalk in 1945. The oldest boys are wearing knickers and long stockings. If they were wearing "high tops" the boots would have come up as far as the stockings, but would have fit as snugly as a glove.

Knickers, in the American sense

Edited by NorthAmerican

Posted
22-Oct-2009 06:56
by: anolazima

Posts: 310
Registered: 06/09/01

9

'flick' a slangy term for 'movie' seems common enough. One often sees it in the expression 'chick flick' a film such as Sex in the City, made for and marketed to female fans.

Il faudrait essayer d'être heureux, ne serait-ce que pour donner l'exemple.
-Jacques Prévert

Posted
22-Oct-2009 07:02
by: VinnyD

Posts: 21,683
Registered: 06/10/04

10

#2 -- British contemporaries of mine used "bird" but I think "dolly bird" is a generation older.

We had NorthAmerican-type galoshes in the fifties but I think we just called them boots or rain boots. I knew the word galoshes but never used it.

The word and the thing were new and considered twee at the time of James Joyce's The Dead (c. 1910?). Gabriel Conroy is teased about wearing them.

In the 1960s (maybe earlier) "Wellington boots" in the US described a kind of leather boot with low heels, squarish toes, and no laces or other fasteners. I think that's what it meant when the Great Duke originated the fashion.

Meet VinnyD.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 07:11
by: VinnyD

Posts: 21,683
Registered: 06/10/04

11

#9 -- Yes, but this wasn't "chick flick" it was "(the) flicks", which I haven't heard in 30 years or more.

Meet VinnyD.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 07:45
by: nutraxfornerves

Posts: 10,666
Registered: 09/06/01

12

Unbuckled galoshes were a fad with 1920s flappers. See cartoon A1922 NY Times article FLAPPERS FLAUNT FADS IN FOOTWEAR; Unbuckled Galoshes Flop Around Their Legs and Winter Sport Shoes Emphasize Their Feet.

If you are observant, you will nave noticed within the last few weeks that there has apparently been an increase of forgetfulness on the part of that portion of the feminine pedestrians in Broadway and Fifth Avenue which is classified as flapper. You will have noticed that they apparently had forgotten to buckle their overshoes and you will have noticed that they had taken to wearing overshoes without sufficient provocation on the part of the weather.

In fact, the origin of the term "flapper" is sometime said to be from the "flapping" of the galoshes, but that is rather discredited as the term was i use before the fad. .

Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data

Posted
22-Oct-2009 10:43
by: sneaker_fish

Posts: 18,971
Registered: 30/12/01

13

Eiderdown is very common here. Used in place of quilt or duvet (NZ doesn't use the Australian word 'Doona' for the most part). I wouldn't say it's the most popular term but I wouldn't be surprised at its use

Flicks and pictures is reasonably common as slang (maybe by older people?). I also use the word 'talkies'. But that's because I like it.

I just realised I have seen movie festivals with the word 'flicks' in promotional material. Recently my work put on one and certainly used it. So maybe there's an expectation that the slang is still used or recognisable by some people.

Wahoo! I found out how to put in a signature! Sharp as a marble.

Posted
22-Oct-2009 10:58
by: mazgringo

Posts: 1,117
Registered: 28/09/04

14

Out in the uncivilized west, overshoes, also called galoshes, were still being worn in the fifties, but I don't believe I've seen one since. And what about the "rubbers", those form-fitting rubber overshoes for dress shoes? It's been at least as long since I've seen a pair of them.

Whoever travels to a new land is always a child. Orson Scott Card

Subscribe to the latest messages in this branch.

Your Recent Threads

Announcements

Merry Christmas and Happy...
Posted By: VenessaP -- 24-Dec-2009 18:13
How would you improve Thorn...
Posted By: VenessaP -- 09-Dec-2009 17:01

Latest Community News

	Speaking in Tongues Messages: 67,304 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 13:32
	On Your Bike Messages: 29,553 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 09:05
	Travel Tech Messages: 28,289 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 12:52
	Kids To Go Messages: 25,960 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 09:09
	Like a Sore Thumb Messages: 22,559 Last message posted at: 23-Dec-2009 20:21
	Trekking & Mountaineering Messages: 22,088 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 08:05
	Travel on a shoestring Messages: 21,070 Last message posted at: 27-Dec-2009 10:40

Destinations

WorldGuide is our online guide to the world - you name it, we cover it. Explore the richest source of global travel content on the web and let it fire your imagination.
more »

Shop Online