Words

Living long enough we see things going away from everyday life. That is mainly because the changes in technology. Yet the expressions stay with us and only us, oldtimers really appreciate their origins.

I am listing a few words that are still part of our vocabulary. I am sure there are many more but these are the ones that come to my mind.

Sailing         When they used ships with sails, many years ago this word was associated with their movements. Moved by the force sails projected to the ships. But today every ship, might that be an aircraft carrier powered by nuclear energy is using the terminology of sailing.

Dialing        Many years ago telephones had rotary dials. In order to call out we had to dial. That meant sticking one finger into the correct number, one by one and turn the dial. That was how we called in the "stone age". The word remained. Todays telephones are all push button operated but the expression remained. When prompted we have to dial the number.

Dial tone     This is the same as dialing. When the phone is activated, we are listening to the dial tone. That sound prompts us to "dial".

Hang up     Wall mounted telephones were used, to finish a call the caller had to hang up the phone. That is place the phone on a hook that automatically disconnected the line. In today's technology we do not hang anything up but still use this expression to finish a call.

Shipping     Before air transport became popular or overwhelming trans oceanic package transport was done by ships. Thus, the word shipping. Today this word remains and is being used for any kind of commercial transport.

cc                 In the days of typewriters in order to make copies carbon copying papers were placed between the sheets typed on that way producing carbon copies. In correspondences if carbon copies were sent to other parties the designation cc were used to indicate that fact. Today we do not create carbon copies. But email still has this designation (cc) if we want our emails to go to other addresses than just the original.

Now, writing this does not mean that I have too much time on my hands, it just means that I was thinking, and these interesting facts came to my mind.