Even if you try to remain youthful in your outlook and dress sense, there comes a time when you can’t control the things that mark you out as an old codger. One of these is the phrases that unthinkingly slip out and make Generations Z and Alpha cringe due to their utter lack of aura points, as the kids would say.
Over on the AskUK subreddit, user AlephMartian posted this:
What phrase that you use inexplicably brands you as ‘old’? I suggested to my teen kids that we could go to ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’. They laughed at me as if I’d called a radio a wireless or something. Apparently it’s never called that any more. In fact they didn’t even know that it used to be called that?!
And it turns out they weren’t the only one whose phrasing harks back to the days when Snickers were called Marathons.
1.
‘I go out of my way to use antiquated phrases just to wind people up. One of my favourites is ‘motorcar’ instead of just ‘car’. Bonus points for ‘electric motorcar’.’
–hurricane_97
2.
‘My dad calls podcasts ‘iPod radio’.’
–Majestic_Clam
3.
‘Claire’s Accessories has apparently lost the accessories.’
–BreqsCousin
4.
‘My mum just told me she’s listening to a compact disc of show tunes. She also ‘tapes’ programmes to watch later. She’s 93 – I’ll let her off.’
–Suzytazzy
5.
‘Is it still hip to say groovy?’
–Esoteric_Prurience
6.
‘The fact I record things at all, rather than just stream them, is apparently hilarious to my nephews.’
–One-Prior3480
7.
‘Referring to EDM as dance music and calling a track a banger. Apparently, that makes you so old you might as well be dead.’
–No_Cut5297
8.
‘I have been mocked by my children for the words ‘telephone’ and ‘television’ instead of ‘phone’ and ‘TV’. I am right, I don’t care if they think I’m ridiculous.’
–TheCotofPika
9.
‘I get a similar response when I refer to a certain rural soap as Emmerdale Farm.’
–Birdman_of_Upminster
10.
‘Apparently youngsters no longer go to the pictures. The newfangled term for the big building that shows films is ‘the cinema’.’
–Commercial_Reward_78
11.
‘I was making a big batch of mash potato at work the other day so started singing the Bodger and Badger theme song, to be stared at in bemusement by a younger colleague.’
–Awkward-Tax102
12.
‘Telegraph pole instead of telephone pole, which makes no sense because I’m nowhere near old enough to have used a telegraph.’
–Douglesfield_
