Test your knowledge: Obsolete words
Isn’t it amazing how quickly our language changes? Today, we regularly use words that simply wouldn’t have been understood fifty years ago.
Even some words we might think of as relatively ‘modern’ are outdated. Do today’s children understand words and phrases like ‘cassette player ‘, ‘floppy disk’, ‘Netscape’, ‘typewriter’ or even ‘CD’?
Kids and teenagers laugh at our outmoded slang, just the same way we thought our parents’ language was outdated. Look at the wartime poster on the right- that only just makes sense to me. How many teengers today would understand the message?
So here are just a few words that you might (or might not) recognize. Test your own knowledge with the quiz below.
[mlw_quizmaster quiz=1]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
July 31, 2015
I only got two wrong… Now is that because I’m a Brit and like watching antiques programmes on the TV or is it because I’m a proofreader and have to look up ‘strange’ words all the time? I’ll let you judge… :0)
May 21, 2015
Hard or what! I can’t believe I got 6 right. Scaramouch foxed me because I thought of Queen’s lyrics “…scaramouch, scaramouch.” And then something to do with dancing the fandango!! LOL. Great fun.
May 21, 2015
It was a trick question in a way, Gio. I thought people would think about the Queen song 🙂
May 20, 2015
That was quite fun, even if you did manage to find several words that were totally unfamiliar. A furphy? Really?