२१ डिसेंबर, २०१३

Blast-off.

What word originated in the year you were born?

For me, it's blast-off.

Via Metafilter, where folks are a bit younger, since they're getting things like air guitar or downloadable.

"Blast-off" as a noun signifying the launching of a rocket doesn't appear in the NYT archive until March 1952, but there are many instances of the word pair "blast off" before then, mostly to refer to storms — "a blast off the Greenland coast" — and hits in baseball — "a blast off the right-field wall." The 1952 article is titled "'Space Fever' Hits the Small-Fry; If your boy talks gibberish or hisses like a boiler, don't worry -- he's just cosmic."
The hissing represents rocket-ship take-off, and the gibberish is space-ship argot.

In apartment-house elevators, space-talk breaks out in commands like "Blast off!" when a lift starts upward, and "Brake your jets!" as an elevator comes to a landing. On auto rides, small-fry lean out alternate windows shrilling "Blast the port tube!" and "Blow the starboard rocket!"...

The space-conscious don't say "Scram"; They say "Blast off, chum!" They don't call a companion "screwy"; they say "Steady your gyros." A reproof or tongue-lashing draws the remark: "Boy, did I get my tubes scorched!"; and anyone who wanders off the point is told, "You're way out of your orbit."

२५ टिप्पण्या:

Tregonsee म्हणाले...

And for "Calm Down," "Cool Your Jets!"

For me, I get "TV" as the word of my birth year. Sigh.

sinz52 म्हणाले...

I was born in 1954, and the word that originated that year was:

Nowheresville: An unknown or uninteresting place; limbo

Ron म्हणाले...

Mine is Photocall.

Meh!

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

Lift off--blast off's replacement, a classic and utterly successful example of Orwellian linguistic brainwashing.

George M. Spencer म्हणाले...

Lift off--blast off's replacement, a classic and utterly successful example of Orwellian linguistic brainwashing.

Guildofcannonballs म्हणाले...

For 1979 the word is bagsy. I wasn't born that year however I checked out the term for that year.

People called bagsies back then.

I suspect they got slapped upside their noggin and quit using the overly British therm.

Amexpat म्हणाले...

"Nitpick" for me. I can't find anything wrong with that.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

These are all British culture word creations, not that there is anything wrong with that.

1945 is "mobile phone". Does that mean a walkie-talkie radio for police cars that broadcast to all in an area listening on a frequency band? It certainly was not a cell tower based computer linked relayed phone# to phone# of the 1990s origin.

अनामित म्हणाले...

All of mine are in Olde English.

Peter

chickelit म्हणाले...

"Bouffy" (1960) is a thoroughly bouffy word in this list-a-bouffy list.

Beldar म्हणाले...

I am almost exactly as old as the Space Age, having been born in the few weeks of late 1957 that the first artificial satellite was orbiting the earth.

Obviously my word is "Sputnik."

peacelovewoodstock म्हणाले...

What fun! I'm 1953 and some of mine include "hippie", "pussy-whipped", and "synchronicity".

BTW there is a non-paywall site you can use ... wordorigins.org ... search on your birth year.

Beldar म्हणाले...

^^^ This, by the way, is my conclusion, made without reference the OED list.

अनामित म्हणाले...

I'm 1953 and some of mine include "hippie", "pussy-whipped", and "synchronicity".

Of course pussy-whipped is a tragically obsolete term today. Unless it's by reference to one of those hairless Sphinx cats. God damn it.

Peter

Paddy O म्हणाले...

I'm as old as "internet".

That makes me feel young!

a psychiatrist who learned from veterans म्हणाले...

Outa my way queue jumpers!

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

Bagsy? Was I born in a parallel universe where people use this word?

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

Bouffy. Meh.

I like the next year: Chocoholic.

William म्हणाले...

I'm the bee's knees. You can be so dated as to appear fresh.

readering म्हणाले...

Very surprised that nitpick is no older than me.

T J Sawyer म्हणाले...

It's my wife's birth year, 1949.

Edmund C. Berkeley published
Giant Brains, or Machines That Think
which was well-reviewed in the NYT.

The term "Electronic Brain" persisted in the popular press for many years as a result.

Michelle Dulak Thomson म्हणाले...

I got "mockney." A word I encountered today for the first time. Evidently bogus cockney accents were all the rage in 1967.

Will Cate म्हणाले...

1960 = "Bouffy"

I am underwhelmed.

I Have Misplaced My Pants म्हणाले...

Foodie. 1980. Yeah!

Anga2010 म्हणाले...

1966 = Computernik

Never heard or read that word.