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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask for words and phrases you no longer say?

213 replies

namezchangez · 21/02/2026 11:24

Not really an AIBU, but I wanted a good list! DH and I were talking about words and phrases we used to say frequently as children in the 80s and which now we rarely use or hear. Some of these refer to things that no longer exist, or which have become rare, some have fallen out of fashion, some now seem tasteless or prejudicial. Would love to hear some more! (And doesn’t need to be from the 80s.)

ozone layer
polystyrene
crybaby
wicked (as a term of approval)
teacake
space race
Indian summer
gooseberries

OP posts:
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CapilanoSuspensionBridge · 04/03/2026 23:26

Hydro = hydroelectricity (water-generated energy to supply electricity). Used to refer to electricity or utility bill.

CapilanoSuspensionBridge · 04/03/2026 23:22

Gwenhwyfar · 04/03/2026 20:12

I've never heard homo milk or hydro for electricity.

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May I present (full fat or whole milk) aka . . .

To ask for words and phrases you no longer say?
FullOfFresias · 04/03/2026 22:27

hashtaghooray · 21/02/2026 12:18

Mine is “dead to the world” after Bobby from home and away

Oh my god yes! I remember that episode and never used that phrase again.

Silverbirchleaf · 04/03/2026 21:41

Gwenhwyfar · 04/03/2026 20:12

I've never heard homo milk or hydro for electricity.

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I presumed it’s ‘hydroelectricity’, as in energy generated using a water source.

Homo milk - homogenised milk?

I

Gwenhwyfar · 04/03/2026 20:13

ChuckJacksonIvegottheNeedNSoul · 21/02/2026 20:11

Oh thanks ..what a horrible expression though.👍

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Yes, but I see it as recent rather than old.

Gwenhwyfar · 04/03/2026 20:12

CapilanoSuspensionBridge · 28/02/2026 22:29

awesome
cool
retard
demented
Red Indian
homo milk
hydro (for electricity)
scatterbrained

I've never heard homo milk or hydro for electricity.

Gwenhwyfar · 04/03/2026 20:10

Wordsmithery · 25/02/2026 08:33

And also from Jackie, "heavy petting". 😂

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Heavy petting reminds me of the swimming pool poster. I don't remember it being used apart from that in my youth.

CapilanoSuspensionBridge · 28/02/2026 22:29

awesome
cool
retard
demented
Red Indian
homo milk
hydro (for electricity)
scatterbrained

Silverbirchleaf · 28/02/2026 21:47

Wuss , as in ‘you wuss’

StopThePigeonNow · 27/02/2026 12:21

I don’t think this one has been said but the Green Cross Code. Is there even a modern equivalent?

StopThePigeonNow · 27/02/2026 12:17

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2026 14:44

Could it have been Titty Flo? For obvious reasons, this is a tricky one to google, but I found this. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/366823/origins-of-the-phrase-titty-flo#:~:text=Ask%20Question,flo%2C%20lets%20go%20now..

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Thank you. I’ve tried googling myself before but as you say it’s tricky. They say it on an episode of The Royle Family only Titty Fallal, which is different to what I’ve heard (although we’re South Yorks). I wonder if it has come from that name but different areas have adapted it differently. I even put the subtitles on the episode to see how they had spelt it but they just miss it out.

Gwenhwyfar · 25/02/2026 19:02

Onelifeonly · 21/02/2026 13:06

Making love
Snogging
Going out with

Plenty of homophobic slurs / anti sex postive statements about women that I won't repeat here

Going out with is disappearing? What do people say now then?

Gwenhwyfar · 25/02/2026 19:01

Sorry, haven't RTFT so probably repetitions: wireless for radio and pictures for cinema and courting for going out with someone. Not words I used personally, but older people did when I was a child. Young man for boyfriend. Now I have a middle-aged man, but it doesn't sound as good.

I remember posting here before that it's probably only the over 40s who now understand why the name John Thomas is funny, but you'd probably have to be over 45 now.

Not a word, but whistling as an action/sound seems to be dying out.

I obviously still say teacake for a teacake, but I wonder if in OP's area it's used for any bread roll and that's what's dying out.

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 25/02/2026 18:56

OSupergran · 25/02/2026 16:09

Are you sure you weren't mishearing Petits Filous?!

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Nope! It was in connection to actual titsGrin

OSupergran · 25/02/2026 16:09

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 25/02/2026 15:46

Tittyfaloo? I've heard that one before. No idea how it's spelt!

Are you sure you weren't mishearing Petits Filous?!

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 25/02/2026 15:46

Tittyfaloo? I've heard that one before. No idea how it's spelt!

Silverbirchleaf · 25/02/2026 14:59

I wondered whether it was a Ken Dodd saying. I quick search found he used to say ‘tattyfilarious’ meaning funny.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2026 14:44

StopThePigeonNow · 25/02/2026 14:09

I always used to hear my nan call someone titty fellore (or something very similar). I’ve heard other people of her generation say it but I haven’t heard it since about the 90’s.

Could it have been Titty Flo? For obvious reasons, this is a tricky one to google, but I found this. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/366823/origins-of-the-phrase-titty-flo#:~:text=Ask%20Question,flo%2C%20lets%20go%20now..

StopThePigeonNow · 25/02/2026 14:09

I always used to hear my nan call someone titty fellore (or something very similar). I’ve heard other people of her generation say it but I haven’t heard it since about the 90’s.

StopThePigeonNow · 25/02/2026 14:04

NotMeAtAll · 25/02/2026 09:31

Living in sin.
Unmarried mother.
Common law wife/husband.
Illegitimate.

Living over the brush.
Being a kept woman.
In the family way.
Not being ladylike.

Zanatdy · 25/02/2026 12:16

Gordon Bennett!

ChuckJacksonIvegottheNeedNSoul · 25/02/2026 12:12

Wordsmithery · 25/02/2026 08:33

And also from Jackie, "heavy petting". 😂

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And swimming pool rules poster..no bombing ,no heavy petting as a kid learning to swim at the local baths no idea what that meant

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 25/02/2026 09:42

losttheplot25 · 21/02/2026 12:58

Going to the Pictures
now everyone seems to say cinema. My dad mid 70s used to call it the Flicks.

As long as Brits don’t call it a ‘movie theatre’, I don’t care.

In my long ago, miss-spent youth, we went to the pictures.

ginnitonic · 25/02/2026 09:33

CrayonCritic5 · 22/02/2026 18:54

Well I’d say that public discussion has shifted to talk about “climate change” and “global warming” more generally and so not specifically referencing the ozone layer.

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Probably because the initial panic back then was about depletion of the ozone layer causing more UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface causing skin cancer etc. rather than the affect on heat being trapped by the atmosphere by CO2 as well

NotMeAtAll · 25/02/2026 09:31

Living in sin.
Unmarried mother.
Common law wife/husband.
Illegitimate.