I know when I suddenly felt old. Not ‘old’ old as Mickey Flanagan might describe it in one of his brilliant routines that explains the vital difference between going out and going ‘out’ out.
No, I suddenly felt old a week last Tuesday while talking to someone who’s not-quite-30 and used what I thought was a well-known expression. But, from the blank look on the face of the under 30-year-old, it was obvious they’d never heard it before in their entire, admittedly short, life.
I’d mentioned that a few days previously, I’d been discussing this person with some mutual friends, adding, “I expect your ears were burning”.
The response I received to this was the unexpected question, “Why would my ears be burning?”
Oh dear! Talk about a misunderstanding!
It took some explaining to clarify what I meant and I think we parted still friends, but it did hit home with me that expressions that were around well before I arrived on the planet, ones that I’ve grown up with, even if I don’t use them all the time, seem to be dying out.
When was the last time you said, “Between, you, me and the gatepost” – apart from that time you measured your gatepost?
“She’s no better than she ought to be!” has never quite made sense to me, but I used to hear it a lot from older female relations when I was a lad.
Who they were referring to, I never did find out.
Perhaps it was for the best.
The great thing about all these old expressions is, they add colour, quirkiness and very often amusement to ordinary everyday conversations – or at least they used to!
The average person only uses between 20,000 and 35,000 words to help them get through life, work and relationships.
That’s not a lot when you consider the average paperback novel contains between 70,000 and 120,000 words.
In fact there are 587, 287 words in “War And Peace” –  a remarkable achievement when you consider Tolstoy only had 26 letters of the alphabet to work with. “Well, I’ll go to the foot of our stairs!”