15 common expressions younger generations won't understand

Why do we "hang up" a phone?

Teens
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Etymology is fun! It's especially fun to learn about the quaint old-fashioned practices that gave rise to some of the words we use. Stereotype comes from printing, hard-up comes from sailing, pipe dream comes from opium dens.

Cultural practices change, technology changes, but words stick around — and not just in some long ago, far away place. It's happening all around us as we speak, a hard truth that mental_floss editor-in-chief Jason English recently had to face up to.

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Arika Okrent

Arika Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and a frequent contributor to Mental Floss. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of the attempt to build a better language. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. Follow her on Twitter.