Does your vocabulary mark you as old or outdated? Certain words really indicate generational gaps, like chronological shibboleths. For example, are thongs panties or flip-flops? And what do women carry around — a pocketbook, a purse, or a bag? Your answer likely depends on when you were born. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Generational Gaps”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
In a recent episode, we talked about moments when the language we use is completely lost on someone from another generation. You say a word, a phrase, and then you get back this blank stare and you realize, oh my gosh, this person is not old enough to catch the reference I just made.
And we asked for your examples and one word kept coming up again and again. And it occurred to me, Grant, that it’s kind of a chronological shibboleth. It’s something that really tells you where you stand on either side of the generational divide.
Okay, which one is it? That word is thong.
Yes, thong. We got an email from Bev Clement of Fort Worth. She wrote that she’s been struggling to break herself of the habit of thinking of a thong as something rubber that you wear on your feet.
Right. She writes, my daughters insist that I not use the thongs word, which applies to panties now, not shoes. And then from the other end of the generational divide, Shannon Lawson wrote, my Uncle Mike told me that I need to check out my Aunt Cassie’s thongs. They have flowers on them. I was very concerned.
And he meant the shoes. Yeah, yeah. Well, there were a couple like that. Icebox is one that kept getting mentioned.
Icebox, definitely. But the one that struck me the most was this intergenerational progression from the grandmother who says pocketbook, the mother who says purse, and then the granddaughter who says bag.
Yep. Right. Yep. And it’s not so much a disconnect as it just shows this progression through language.
Right. Yeah. But pocketbook, purse, which one do you use? I tell you, when I was really small, I used pocketbook because my mother did. And then I graduated to purse. And now I hear people younger than me saying big. I just think of a piece of.
Nice big. I think of a canvas bag with a drawstring. I don’t think of like something fancy in leather that you bought on sale at Macy’s.
That’s interesting, right? Yeah. Interesting. Who knew? You know, we could talk all day about this. The response has been huge. We’re open to more of your suggestions of things that people say that you just don’t get or things that you say that they just don’t understand.
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