Terms Which Have Disappeared

There are some pretty dark imaginings of what Charlie Brown and company would be like today if they'd aged in real time. Probably too dark to post here, but they're out there for those who want to know.

 

"manifold" is rarely heard, these days in Germany.

 

I can't say as though I've used the term in awhile, but how would it be most commonly used by a German? I dare say in common American parlance very few would use (or even know of) the term as a synonym for many or multiple. Most know it as part of a motor.

 

Yeah, synonym for "many"/"multiple", here.

 

That is one of the definitions in English for "manifold": "Many and various." But it's rarely used in that context, and most Americans would apply the other definition, that being "A pipe or chamber branching into several openings."

 

The two usages are actually the same if you think about it -- a manifold being a pipe with "manifold openings."

 

I think in American writings one would actually be more likely to encounter "...many fold..." though even that is a bit archaic.

 

Fascinating how language works that way sometimes.

 

Or it could be 'something to wrestle with,' as in, 'I had to wrestle with my intake manifold preheater tube so as to clear it of carbon buildup.'

 

The respektive German term is mannigfaltig, same meaning. Also alomost out of use here too...

 

"That doesn't cut any (or "much") ice with me, bub."

 

Anyone saying "Galoshes", today??

 

How about "that doesn't cut the mustard"?

and of course every grade school kid knows about "who cut the cheese?"

 

I've heard that occasionally over the years in this part of the U.S., but I've also heard them referred to as "rain boots", "rain shoes", "boots", and, of course, the double entendre "rubbers" which is also slang in English for condoms.

 

I've always thought the term galoshes comes from the sound they make when you walk in them.

 

"Breakfast like a Kaiser - lunch like a king - dinner like a beggar."

 

Yes. Not at all unusual among my people in my early years.

 

We wore dungarees growing up, not jeans.

 

The people a generation and two ahead of me used “dungarees” for blue jeans. And “brogans” for heavy work shoes. A quick search shows that a brogan is a specific style of ankle-high shoe, but the adults around me used the term more expansively. Pretty much any work shoe was a brogan in their book.

 

Right. Traditional brogans resembled what we might refer to today as a "Chukka boot", except a bit higher up the ankle and sometimes had a taller heel.