As summer was winding down, I had a conversation with a young woman. Something she said, led me to answer, “That’s out of my bailiwick.” She looked puzzled and asked, “What’s a bailiwick?” I chuckled a bit and said, “Your generation uses the word wheelhouse.” She nodded.

A bit later, I saw the neighbor’s middle school aged son laying on his belly, trying to reach something under his mother’s car. He was using a folded Razor scooter. “My ball is under the car,” the budding soccer player told me. “Do you have a broom handy?” I asked. His sister, who was watching him struggle with the scooter, asked, “What’s a broomhandy?” I explained that there were two words, broom and handy. “‘Handy’” means close by or within reach or even, a good thing to have.’” I brought the broom that’s beside the door and said they can use it whenever they need it.

The ball was freed in 30 seconds, or how long it took me to realize that the word handy was used as often as bailiwick.

A month later, on the day my younger son turned 39, he said, “I’m not 40 yet, but, life has changed.”

I asked friends if they have had experiences similar to mine. Hannah, whose first language was Scots’ Gaelic, said she “still favors old words,” although she notices that her grandchildren sometimes look at her like she has “horns on her head,” an expression I heard many times growing up. She asked one of her silent grandsons, “Cat got your tongue?” His answer was, “Grandma, why would the cat eat your tongue?

Louise, a friend from college, remarked that in her three-quarters of a century, “cars, television, phones and services” have changed. “Even the forms of address of family, neighbors, coworkers” have changed.

Judy finds herself reviewing words and phrases her “parents or grandparents [or] older neighbors used to say. I think about how they have largely disappeared.” Julie reported that if she asks a young person, “Would you like another,” they answer, “‘I’m good.’” Karen brought the many definitions of “self-made” into the discussion.

Julia recalled, “Negotiating a time to return, I told my grandson, ‘quarter after six.’ His response was, ‘What’s that?’ I replied, ‘Six fifteen.’”

Sarah reminisced. “When I was a child, the phrase “old school” was old-fashioned and quaint; it was something my grandparents would say. Fast-forward many decades and the phrase now sees regular usage. So maybe some of our more antiquated vocab will get a second chance down the toad. Recently I was thinking about slang words from long ago that might be lost now, and the word “flub” came to mind. It’s a good word that we should revive.”

Paul recently overheard a conversation. “Not too long ago a couple of teenagers were walking by, talking about something amazing they had heard about. The one boy started in, struggling to describe the depth of the experience. “Dude! It was … ummm … it was … unconscious!!”

Harry added a story about how frustrating adult language can be to a young learner. “When my son was 4, in kindergarten, he asked his mom, “What does ‘frall’ mean? She asked him to give her a sentence with that word, and he said, “With liverty and justice frall.”

Perhaps, inspired by Harry’s story, Mike recalled his time in elementary school. “I am vintage 1951. When I was in fifth grade my teacher started a program whereby we could add some “extra credit” to our grades. Every week he would post five new words on the “blackboard” (a ‘thingie’ one could write on with chalk). Those words were beyond a fifth grader’s typical lexicon (‘wurds’ we normally used). It was a challenge. Most of us expanded our vocabulary usefully because of that.”

Stan reminded us that, “Some words are still with us, but seem to have changed in meaning. ‘Bushwhacked’ used to mean ‘ambushed’ (at least in TV westerns), whereas now it seems to mean hiking in brushy back country.”

Ellen patiently listened to everyone, then returned to the incident that inspired this discussion. “I would say that ‘handy’ also means simply ‘useful.’ I like that it has a set of related meanings. By the way, in Germany it apparently means a cell phone (as in a hand phone).”

Susan Wozniak has been a caseworker, a college professor and journalist. She is a mother and grandmother.