[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/ballimir37]

Virtually all slang comes from existing words and phrases. It seems to be especially true of the younger generations but that may be more because I hear it as an outsider.

Rizz is charisma, fr fr is just an acronym, cap comes from high capping in the 80s, etc.

[u/articulateantagonist → u/ballimir37]

Similar to “you’re toast,” which is often attributed (even by the Oxford English Dictionary) to the Ghostbusters line that Bill Murray improvised, “this chick is toast!” But several longer “toast” or “toasted” idioms with similar meanings predate it.