That was incendiary Amos! Lettuse sea...Hmmm? If a word like "flivver" disappears from the language, it may be because the object itself has disappeared. Another scenario might be that the word has mutated in some way or a deeper meaning or understanding has replaced it. The very real terror of sea monsters seems to no longer exist but sharks and such DO have my complete respect!

The dreaded "N" word has had many transformations. In the Book of Acts chapter 13 verse 1 we have "Simon called Niger". The Greek word is spelled nu (nee) iota (ee-o'-tah) gamma (y[n]e- amma) eta (ate-ah) rho (hu-roe'). Put it all together and it's pretty much pronounced the way the "N" word is pronounced today. The "g" part, the gamma in Greek is more like the "g" in "gyro"; the gyro sandwich. James L. Strong in "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible" gives the pronunciation "neeg'-er" and it simply means "black". The point is that this was a perfectly acceptable word. What happened to it? The 2000 years of the history of the abuse of this people! As late as Mark Twain it was still pretty much an acceptable word but the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, lynchings, etc. so tainted it that polite society and folks in general don't discuss it except perhaps in an academic sense such I have just done.

Language and grammar is a living thing shaped by time, circumstance and usage. Variety and change used to occur mostly because of geographical isolation, tribalism and such. Today, with instantaneous communication fad and technology seem to have the greater influence.

The argot of the street urchins in the movie (one of my all time favorites btw) "Blade Runner" was very interesting to me and I wished they would have expanded more upon that. The James Olmos character seemed to have a fluent understanding of it. Nailing down exactly where and when a shift or a change takes place I find extremely interesting and culturally significant. Good thread!