Five obsolete meanings of English words that have not been used in the United States for a long time
'08.07.2022'
Source: Oksana Dolinka on Yandex.Zen
Every language is dynamic. Expressions, words, letters, stress are changing. Nothing stands still. In your channel on Yandex Zen Oksana Dolinka analyzes 5 meanings of English words that have not been used in the USA for a long time. Further - from the first person.
The languages with which we communicate live according to the laws of nature. The strong defeats the weak. You can’t change anything here. Oddly enough, but words suffer from this.
I bet you have come across some of them. Almost everyone taught them at school. The teachers did not even think about the fact that these words were already outdated.
In English, such words are called with restraint, so as not to offend anyone: old fashioned.
Let's see what old-fashioned words can still be present in your vocabulary? These 5 meanings of words have long been forgotten in America!
pupil
This word, perhaps, can only be found in English lessons in Russia and the CIS countries.
It has not been used in the United States for a long time with the meaning of "student". They were driven out schoolboys и school girls... You may be misunderstood because of the context, but it is better to use schoolboy / girl or student.
In modern English pupil - the pupil.
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Telephone
The United States has been using mobile communications for so long that the use of this word can be intimidating.
No wonder, because a home phone for the zoomer generation is akin to a dinosaur or an era of witches. Yes, and for ordinary residents of the United States as well. After all, how many variations of the phone have already served their time.
Mobile phone - cellphone. But most people use a smartphone… So say phone. This will make it clear to everyone.
Form
Now it is a form. And once this word had another meaning. This was the name of the classroom level.
This word may come up somewhere in the English outback, but in the rest of the world the class (3rd, 8th, and so on) is grade.
Refrigerator
The very word from the first grade of the school that many children could not pronounce.
Window, table, oven and RE-FRI-GE-RA-TOR.
If you describe your kitchen to an American in this way, he will find your vocabulary obsolete. After all, this word is from the last century, when the refrigerator was considered something super-technological.
This word is difficult. People started to simplify it. It's still a refrigerator, but the final cut is fridge.
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Hall
A modal verb that has deservedly retired.
Typically, it is used to refer to the future. Like will. They have the same meaning and small differences: shall can be used for asserting questions.
But still, will won shall in the category "the best modal verb of the future tense".
Bonus: phrase How do you do?
Only Roxette fans will understand.
This is an introductory remark, something akin to “how are you”, but it was used 30 years ago.
The second breath of this line was given by the group Roxette in the song of the same name. Then the whole world "havduyudukat" to each other.
Better to use today how have you been or how are you.
The original column is published in blog "Queen in the United States" on Yandex.Zen.
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