A listener reports that when riding with him in a car, his young daughter asked him to scroll the window down, which struck him as a creative combination of old and new — the old-fashioned expression roll down a window, and the newer scrolling, meaning “to move text or images” down a glowing screen. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Scroll the Window Down”
We got a tweet from Willem Terrace who said,
On a recent road trip, my eight-year-old daughter asked me to scroll the window down. It made me smile hearing how language is changing with the times.
When asked, she said, because you scroll with your finger on your phone, and you use your finger for the window.
Right. You pressed a little button. And down the window goes.
That’s right. It makes perfect sense. Absolutely logical.
No more rolling down the window, right? Scroll the window down.
Thank you for that new language. We’ll take your new words on Twitter @wayword or on our toll-free line in the U.S. and Canada, 877-929-9673.
