bigger than a breadbox...
Aug. 21st, 2008 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
milktreeHow many people under 40 have actually ever used a breadbox?
Damn few I bet, yet we all know (roughly) what the phrase means.
There's this sound that has come to mean, "big interruption in an alarming manner". Everyone knows what it means, and everyone knows what it sounds like, but how many people under 30 have actually ever scratched the needle across an LP? How many under 20 have even seen an LP? "like a broken record", "dial a telephone" (where's the dial?) "beat a dead horse" (that one is somewhat more obvious, but nobody uses horses for anything other than sport anymore)
I guess it's not any different than upper-case and lower-case letters (when typesetting with lead type, the big letters were in the case on the top, the small letters in the bottom case) Interestingly, I couldn't find what lower-case letters were called before typesetting. Upper case letters are called capital or majuscules (didn't know that before looking up lower case) I know two people who actually set lead type, and they're married.
"get the lead out" is another one. It's from typesetting too, the lead was used as a spacer between lines. "get the lead out" means (or meant) "stop filling space with nothing" and is not a reference to lead pencils.
I bet there's a huge book about stuff like this. I'd buy it.
Damn few I bet, yet we all know (roughly) what the phrase means.
There's this sound that has come to mean, "big interruption in an alarming manner". Everyone knows what it means, and everyone knows what it sounds like, but how many people under 30 have actually ever scratched the needle across an LP? How many under 20 have even seen an LP? "like a broken record", "dial a telephone" (where's the dial?) "beat a dead horse" (that one is somewhat more obvious, but nobody uses horses for anything other than sport anymore)
I guess it's not any different than upper-case and lower-case letters (when typesetting with lead type, the big letters were in the case on the top, the small letters in the bottom case) Interestingly, I couldn't find what lower-case letters were called before typesetting. Upper case letters are called capital or majuscules (didn't know that before looking up lower case) I know two people who actually set lead type, and they're married.
"get the lead out" is another one. It's from typesetting too, the lead was used as a spacer between lines. "get the lead out" means (or meant) "stop filling space with nothing" and is not a reference to lead pencils.
I bet there's a huge book about stuff like this. I'd buy it.
