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Old sayings and slang our grandparents used in the early 1900s—old sayings and slang our grandparents used when they were young!
Have you heard any of these phrases from the Greatest Generation - Do you remember the meanings of these old sayings?
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This is phrases our grandparents used back in the day
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Our grandparents grew up in exciting times. Not only did they grow up on a farm, but they were introduced to the automobile
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And they would see airplanes as a means of travel. This generation known as the greatest generation
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It is followed by the lost generation. It is usually defined as people born from 1900 to 1930
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This generation was shaped by the Great Depression and World War II
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The greatest generation are the parents of the silent generation and the baby boomers
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As of April 21, 2018, the greatest generation is the earliest generation with living members
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Now let's get into the sayings. Gams comes from yams, which is from South Africa, which can look when harvested like a human leg
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Not to be confused with what we call yams today, sweet potatoes
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Get a load of them gams on Louise. Her legs are like the stock market. They go up, up, up and up forever
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The greatest generation lived through Prohibition. So it's not surprising that there are a lot of different phrases and slangs for alcohol
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Biflicated at the gin joint and wisely invested all of our money in the stock market. Whose roaring performance will surely continue to the 30s, 40s and 50s
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Then you have giggle water, which is any drink with alcohol. I'm ruined. I need me a giggle water, quick
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And then you have fried, which simply means wasted on alcohol. The cat's meow. This was a saying that was very popular in the early 1900s
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America's economic performance is the cat's meow, I tell you. And with so many changes, the cat's meow got used a lot
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And that brings us to dew dropper, a young man without a job. What malarkey. Now everyone will think I'm a no good lollygagging dew dropper
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Applesauce. It was used like a slang word. Oh, will you marry me
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That's so funny. Oh, applesauce. The big sleep. Make my own big sleep? It sounds crazy, but I have nothing left to lose
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The step of death is something that all humans have to take. The greatest generation came up with the big sleep
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To know one's onions simply means that somebody knows what they're doing
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This FDR fella sure seems to know one's onions. I'm sure he'll turn the economy around liggety split
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Ducky. Which simply means everything is great. This new deal sure is ducky
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And now that everyone recognizes the wisdom of long term economic planning, the economy will be ducky forever
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Another popular saying was in the swim. I don't crave this spot
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When I'm in the swim, I want to be with a goldfish. The greatest generation was introduced to silent films and then films with sound
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This really influenced popular culture. Dough. As in I gotta get some dough
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Money. Dough was used for a slang word for money in the early 1900s
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Now 100 years later, most people would use bread instead. So it took 100 years for the dough to change into bread
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Another popular slang for money was clams. And how was very popular in the early 1900s
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It was made popular by Hollywood. And how. It was used in a way to express to the other party that you wholeheartedly agreed with what they said or did
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And how has not been used much since the 1940s. Another popular saying in the early 1900s was putting on the Ritz
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The title putting on the Ritz derives from the slang expression to put on the Ritz
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Meaning to dress very fashionably. To express one's wealth. This expression was inspired by the opulent Ritz Hotel in London
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Rag muffin was a slang term for someone who looked ragged or dirty
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Tomato usually pronounced to-mah-to meaning something ready to be picked. To-mah-to was a slang word referring to females whom they wish to approach and possibly have a serious relationship with
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A wet blanket was a very popular term in the early 1900s
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Someone that was referred to as being a wet blanket was someone who would dampen the mood
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And as hot was a term used to describe a great time a wet blanket would put out a fire
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Hot. The party was hot. Meaning full of energy. If a party was full of energy and people had a good time the slang used was hot
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Not to be confused with a hot piece of merchandise. There were plenty of pickpockets in the early 1900s
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And if a watch was stolen it was considered to be hot
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Eventually making whoopee became a euphemism for intimate sexual relations. Making whoopee is a jazz blues song first popularized by Eddie Cantor in 1928
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The musical whoopee. The heebie-jeebies was very popular in the early 1900s
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It meant to be uneasy or nervous. It was also the title of Louis Armstrong's famous hit
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Heebie-jeebies first appeared in print in the US originally in the 1920s
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Barney Google cartooned by Billy DeBeck. He's also accredited with inventing the word horse feathers
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It was a slang in the early 1900s that meant a quality that attracts the opposite sex
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It went on to mean star power in Hollywood. You had to have it to be a Hollywood star
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When someone was popular in their social circles instead of identifying what made that person popular
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Instead of identifying what made that person popular. They would simply say she has it
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Another saying we don't hear nowadays is the bump off. We're simply meant to kill someone
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When Hollywood started making mafia and gangster films. The bump off became popular
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I'm so scared he's trying to give me the bump off. Cheaters a slang for glasses
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I remember when I was seven or eight. My grandma asked me to help her find her cheaters
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I didn't know what she was talking about at first. Then we found them on her head
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The greatest generation was truly a great generation. From the Great Depression, World War II, and the first automobile
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The first airplane ride, silent films, motion pictures. Do you know some of these sayings that we should bring back from this great generation
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