Teenagers and old fashioned phrases

[No17CherryTreeLane]

Would the teenagers in your life know what you meant if you asked them
"Are you courting?"

Spent time with extended family over the last week and I asked my 18 year old niece this question.
She looked puzzled and then asked what I meant 😁
Before I answered, we asked her 14 year old sister if she understood the phrase, who said "Yeah of course I know. It means are you going out with anyone!" and looked at her sister in disgust 😂

Any other gems you've come up with, to be met with looks of total bafflement?
(I'm mid 50s by the way, which practically translates to being older than Methuselah!)

My Nan used to say ‘That’s the ticket’ when she was showing me how to do something and I got it right.

Doing a line now means something totally different but didn't know it once meant this! How funny.

I don't know if courting has fallen out of usage with teenager round here but if so then it's very recent and all he teenagers would know what it meansPromounced curtin' and the r is definitely in there. Can also mean kissing. As in - Did ye get the court last night?

Mind you all the teenagers in our neck of the woods know what all these expressions mean:

And will be going out courting this weekend when they've finished complaining about the wile weather and not being able to get any slurry out

In NI it’s all lemonade. And if it’s ACTUALLY lemonade, then it’s either brown lemonade or white lemonade, as we have both!

I’m old enough to remember when public toilets had a coin operated slot on each cubicle door that could only be opened by a large pre decimal penny.

If you were lucky the person ahead of you in the queue would hold the door open and not let it click shut and you could hold onto your penny.

Not to be confused with keep your hand on your ha’penny which was the advice often given by mothers to daughters when they were courting 😆

Same in NE Scotland. Ir's all lemonade - white lemonade, orange lemonade, red lemonade etc.

I also say fillim for film. Can't be doing with "movies"

I also used to go my mam's messages when I was little.

My kids love hearing all the old words.

My two 20 something DDs fell about laughing when I said I was putting the washing on the ‘clothes horse’! They wanted to know why it’s a horse specifically and I couldn’t explain it. I’ve since looked up the origins and a clothes horse was named after people who liked to dress up and change their outfits several times a day. Which takes us full circles back to my DDs! 🤣

DH actually said "When I was courting your mum" to the teenage DC a year or so ago.

Kids looked bemused and I laughed out loud. Quite sweet though.

My teens use the expression "You silly goose!" Which sounds incredibly old fashioned to me but do like very much!

Had to explain going to see a man about a dog to an 18 year old co worker

See also 'yanking someone's chain' - for pulling their leg/winding them up.

Mine didnt know the phrase "when my ship comes in"

The equivalent of " courting" here in Scotland would be " wenching". V old fashioned nowadays.
I recently advised dd to " drop him a line" about a relative who was unwell, and she said " a line of what?"

I was born in the mid 50s and never used or heard the expression 'courting' until I moved North in the late 80s and it was still being used.

When I was young you 'got off' with someone and either continued or 'chucked' them. My young adult grandchildren have a more complicated system starting with 'talking to' and progressing by stages from there.

@Hedjwitch I've never heard "wenched" before. In the NE we used to say "Going with" or more likely "Gan oot wi"

I grew up with many sayings you'll never hear again, because the sun has set.

'Empire made', or as my mum put it, "Hong Kong rubbish."

'Empire made' was a label on items that were made somewhere in the British Empire. Some of these items were very cheap - and cheaply made - that's what my mum and others, called, "Hong Kong rubbish."
Most of the time it actually said, 'Made in Hong Kong.' But my mum thought all cheap things made in the Empire were made in Hong Kong.

I loved Hong Kong rubbish because it made my half-a-crown pocket money go further.

We also kept a shovel by the back door to scrape up the horse shit in the street, 'for the garden'. It was a lucky day if a cart horse left you a gift. There'd be a lot of competition to get those droppings.

I'm older than most here, I think.

I use clothes horse also, but are aware that everyone doesn’t know what you are referring to, and not just the youngsters.

I didn’t what this meant and just had to look it up😕

I told my d about something 'That's the way the cookie crumbles' and she gave me the look! I also jokingly told her to 'get knotted' again, the look 😆

I remember Empire Made. I'd forgotten until you mentioned it though.

Tbf, I'm in my mid 50s and I'd be guffawing at that one like Finbar Saunders 😂

I'm Irish and never heard this, I've only ever heard 'doing a line with' in regards to cocaine!

My mother also dismissed anything "Made in Hong Kong" as cheap rubbish that wouldn't last 5 minutes.
To her the ultimate insult was to be given such a toy as a present.

Regional? Amused though I am to think of my octogenarian mammy and her sister snorting coke.😀

My DGMs would both be 100 now, and both said 'courting' and 'stepping out'.

I haven't heard cut your coat according to your cloth, but have heard cut your cloth to suit your purse - and just 'cut your cloth'.

I remember DGM talking to DM over my head when I was about 7 about one of her brother's dodgy friends being 'in clink' and I was so intrigued about what that meant that I still vividly remember it - which I'm sure is not what she was trying to achieve! 😂

DM is from the west of Ireland, it would have originated there for her anyway.

Dubs like myself would be thinking coke!

What about "shifting"? Do young people still do that at the discos?