Over 50? These are ten words you're using that make you sound old

With language constantly evolving, and social media firmly embedded in daily life, slang and new words are spreading quicker than ever.

Familiar with the word 'rizz'? It was crowned 'word of the year' for 2023 by Oxford University Press. It means charisma - particularly in a romantic setting.

The words mainstream popularity is thought to have ballooned after Tom Holland used the term, but it is widely credited with having been introduced by YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who uses it with his friends. 

But as new words emerge and are popularised by younger people, which words are pushed out and make those who use them sound old fashioned? 

Here, FEMAIL reveals ten words that make you sound old when you use them... 

1. TAPE

If you don't want to sound like you're in your 50s, you might want to drop the word tape and start using streaming services instead

According to Reader's Digest, the word is most likely used by people who came of age in the 1980s, thanks to the technology of the time. 

This was long before streaming services or MP3 players, and so music and films were enjoyed on cassette or video tapes - and not streamed online as they are now. 

If someone was going to miss a television programme, rather than watch it online on a catch-up or streaming service, they might ask a friend to tape it for them.

Likewise, those who wanted a copy of their favourite song but couldn't afford a whole album might use a cassette to tape it on the radio (not to mention that retro romantic gesture of making someone a mix tape). 

Now we have modern technology, VHS and cassette tapes are redundant so, those who mention them sound older. 

2. COURTING 

Another word that will make you seem as though you have passed your half-century is courting - more commonly referred to these days as dating or seeing.

The word is said to link as far back as the 16th century, hence its old-fashioned roots.

It means paying court to someone with the intention of marriage - which sounds more like brokering a deal than a romantic entanglement, which is why you're unlikely to hear young people say it. 

3. NESH

Always cold? While a younger person may sympathise with you for being a bit nippy, someone older may refer to you as 'nesh'

Some very old-fashioned words still used by older people can be dialect, for example, the northern slang nesh.

The earliest known use of the verb is listed by the Oxford English Dictionary as during the Old English period (pre-1150).

Rarely heard among young people, nesh refers to someone who is particularly susceptible to the cold.

4. FLOPPY DISK 

Those well below 50-years-old are unlikely to have used floppy disks - and are extra unlikely to use that word these days

Another word that will mark someone as older also refers to technology, which is now basically obsolete - floppy disk. 

These large, square disks were used by people who used computers in the '80s and '90s to save information.

They went on to be replaced by CDs until computers were no longer made with floppy disk drives.

Since then, various storage solutions, like the cloud have made CDs obsolete too for file storage. 

5. WIRELESS RADIO 

Some people still get their media via old-fashioned radios, but it's mainly much older people who still call them 'the wireless'

The word wireless radio is so old-fashioned it is practically obsolete, but is still used by some older people to refer to the radio (itself an old piece of technology).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary: 'The earliest known use of the word is in the 1820s.'

However, as technology develops, the word wireless, when used to describe other items, for example, wireless headphones, doesn't make users sound so aged. 

6. CLAPTRAP 

The last known usage of the word claptrap - meaning pretentious nonsense - is not known.

However, the first use of the phrase has been dated back to the early 1700s by the Oxford English Dictionary.

It credited the word to the writing of lexicographer and schoolmaster Nathan Bailey.

He is said to have used it some time around 1727-31. However, it has since fallen out of fashion, and the likelihood of anyone under 50 years of age using it is slim to none. 

7. FAX MACHINE 

Now it may seem like a charming quirk, but at the time, fax machines were a noisy and annoying alternative to email

Another technical word that may make you appear as though you are from the dark ages (or the last Millennium at least) is fax machine.

Just like tapes and floppy disks, it is another piece of tech that has been consigned to the dustbin of time and overtaken by more modern options, like emails. 

8.  TAWDRY

Tawdry can mean multiple things including showy, or without taste. But it is usually used to refer to poor behaviour, for example, having a tawdry affair

According to TikTokker Etoile Marley (known on the platform as @EtoileMarley) an old-fashioned word is tawdry. Rarely used, this word is bound to make users feel old. But where did it come from?

According to a video by Etoile Marley: 'Tawdry...can be used in a few different ways. The literal meaning of the adjective can mean gaudily adorned - something that is showy, but that is of poor quality or without taste.

She continued: 'Another way it can be used is to describe something sordid or unpleasant. 

'For example, the tawdry business of tax returns or tawdry behaviour -  something that is distasteful or morally sordid such as a tawdry love affair, or a tawdry attempt to smear one's opponent.'

9. WHIPPERSNAPPER 

With its derogatory edge towards young people, it's no surprise that only older people seem to use the word whippersnapper.

Like a number of other words popular with the middle-aged and above, its first usage has been pinned down to the 1700s.

It refers to a young person who is overconfident in their knowledge and abilities, or a self-important youngster. 

10. CHEQUE

If you want to sound old, start talking to young people about cheques. They will be baffled AND think you're ancient

Remember the days when people would actually give you money by writing on a piece of paper?

You would then take it to a human cashier who would put it into your account.

Well, most people who grew up post-80s don't, so are unlikely to be found using the word cheque.

In a world where internet banking and online transfers are so common, many young people will never have had a chequebook or received a cheque or even know what one is.

So unless you want to mark yourself out as older, it's probably one of those words to swerve (plus technology means it's practically remote anyway!).