So what *else* is old?
I had always thought the phrase "Democrat Party" was a recent development, possibly Frank "Winning through Implication" Luntz's attempt to give Republicans a way to blunt the goodwill associated with the word 'democratic'.
But I just watched on C-SPAN an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's speech at the 1976 Republican Convention, after Ford had gotten the nomination and he clearly mentioned the danger of "the erosion of freedom under Democrat rule". Turns out (sayeth wikipedia) the 21st-century popularity of the term among Republicans is just a flare-up of something that dates back to the 19th century, and which was favored by both Hoover and McCarthy.
I wonder what other phrases that I've always thought werre modern actually date back a century?
But I just watched on C-SPAN an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's speech at the 1976 Republican Convention, after Ford had gotten the nomination and he clearly mentioned the danger of "the erosion of freedom under Democrat rule". Turns out (sayeth wikipedia) the 21st-century popularity of the term among Republicans is just a flare-up of something that dates back to the 19th century, and which was favored by both Hoover and McCarthy.
I wonder what other phrases that I've always thought werre modern actually date back a century?