Neil Mitchell looks at old phrases which have fallen out of our vocabulary

Old phrases were topic of conversation on 3AW Mornings after Neil Mitchell heard Labor MP Anne Aly use the phrase ‘nong’ following an interview on Sky News. 

She was caught on the mic after the interview had just wrapped up.

It got Neil thinking…

Which ‘old’ words and phrases weren’t used often any more?

Kate Burridge, Chair of Linguistics at Monash University told Neil ‘nong’ was short for ‘Ning Nong’ and it was a very old saying originating in the UK during the 1500s.

She said words like that fell by the wayside as time evolved.

‘You get a rapid turnover of these words because they lose their wounding capacity so they have to replaced or remodelled, you can’t insult anyone with noddy ninny hammer anymore,’ Ms Burridge said.

Click PLAY below to hear more on 3AW Mornings