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What is something only old people say?
(lemmy.world)
Boy, I sure love owning a house.
Hey, I'm heading into my late 40s and I haven't been able to say that yet lol
So not old, cool
"Kids these days don't want to work."
After living with my grandma for so long I started saying "god willing" and people keep telling me it makes me sound old lol
Say inshallah instead
“Which was the style at the time…”
I keep saying that to my boy, but even the reference goes over his head it's so old.
“Back in my day”
Ouch! I must have slept wrong.
"I'm not THAT old, but ..."
"moderate Republicans"
pulling myself up by my bootstraps
You kids, get off my lawn!
"People don't have pensions anymore?"
No, Mom, we don't.
"Here, have a Werther's."
I'm in my 20s and have for years had a stash of these...
Tight timeline, but I guess you could be a grandparent.
Define "Old People"
Whatever you think is an old person. Im trying to figure out if i say these things.
Speak up Sonny.
"Knee high to a grasshopper" (short)
"Beyond the pale" (outside social norms, I think. Maybe just strange)
"Dance maven"
"I'll just do that in my copious free time..." (sarcastically, because you are too busy)
"Copacetic" (it's all good)
"Heavy" (meaning important, grave)
I learned all of these thirty years ago from a man in his fifties. He was full of interesting expressions.
If the question is things "only" old people say, you have to exclude phrases old people say that were repopularized through media.
"Heavy" (meaning important, grave)
For example this is a really quotable line from Back to the Future, so kids would pick it up.
Heavy? Is there something wrong with the earths gravity??
The strange thing here is that Marty McFly is using the slang "heavy" and Doc Brown doesn't understand it. Yet the use of heavy to mean "profound, serious" started in Jazz in 1937. So Doc would have grown up with the word, and by the 80's I wonder if it was really all that popular anymore. McFly is using 50's slang in the '50s but the guy from the '50s doesn't get the slang. Maybe because he's not hip.
40 year old movies are not really a major influence on slang & pop culture...
Lmao, k
I've started saying "beyond the pale" and "copacetic" after playing Disco Elysium
The only time I have ever heard the word copacetic and only reason I know it exists is because of a song that probably only dinosaurs and hipsters listen to anymore: Bound For The Floor.
Other than that, I've never heard it used in any context. So I'mma agree that it's definitely an old person word ( or a pretentious "I'm BeTtEr ThAn YoU" kinda word ).
Copacetic has an interesting history. I heard about it in a video I can't currently find, but this article gives some history: wordorigins.org
You just don't get it, you keep it copacetic..
I couldn't remember the song title Pink Pony Club and called it Hoke Pokey Unicorn the other day.... so that
In my day.
Let me just talk for a while, you'll get some
“Nobody wants to work any more” or “kids aren’t disciplined anymore”, and “millenials…something something something” to refer to any generation younger than them.
Dad gum
Shaking like a dog shittin’ prune seeds
My knees hurt.
My dad called rootbeer floats “boston coolers” and called BigBoy’s restaurants “Manners”
Im trying to keep boston coolers alive.
What should I do with my savings today?
The other day someone told me "bamboozle" is something only old people say
'Like watching a monkey try to fuck a football'
'About as useful as a wooden dick on a sawhorse'
Etc.
“Do you want to go to the pictures?”
Something I once heard my sister say to our grandniece, "I saw the Beatles live."
Television set.
"Are you ready to rock?"
“Nobody died in Tiananmen Square”
"Yes I remember vine"
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this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
43 points (93.9% liked)
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