Words, Then and Now

In doing research for my “Lambton Then, Lambton Now” articles, I spend a bit of time looking through old newspapers in Trove. This provides a constant source of useful old words that have faded away. Words like “doit” and “bawbee”, both of which mean a small denomination coin. So now if my wife inquires if I have any cash in my wallet, I can reply with “not a doit or bawbee to found there dear”.

But as well as old words, I occasionally find a phrase that seems new, but is actually old. Up until last week I would have said the phrase “all the rage” is relatively modern, but here it is in this 27 June 1874 article with the exact same meaning we have 140 years on.

Billiards seem to be all the rage here at the present time.

2 thoughts on “Words, Then and Now

  1. Pingback: All the rage again | A bit of this, a bit of that

  2. Hi Lachlan,
    I read with interest and watched your video about Glen Lewis. I grew up in Howe Street, Lambton and I was 11 years old when they lifted the tram tracks and went to buses. As a boy in the late 40’s and early 50’s my mates and I used to play in the bushland around “Paddy’s dam” as we called it then. There were several open mine shafts in the area and one day a body was found in one of them. See Ncle Sun 14/7/1951. I am very interested in the 1920’s map shown briefly in your video. Can you tell me where I can obtain a copy, or even view one, because the location of other shafts was shown on the map. Best regards, Allan

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