# DynaFlow and Cruise-O-Matic: The Lost Language of The Old Days



## SifuPhil (Nov 23, 2012)

People tell me that the English language is an amorphous thing, that it is constantly changing, evolving, improving.

_Bull-dinky_, says I.

Nowadays there are only two ways of naming new inventions and improvements in existing ones: *E* and *I*. Two simple vowels out of a choice of 5 (sometimes 6), but they are slathered across the marketing landscape like so many Burma-Shave signs in the '50's. Witness: iPhone, eBook, iPad, eHarmony ... and a few thousand others.

Whatever happened to being unique? Is it such a crime now that we don't have those fantastic names form the '50's anymore? Just think about the associations you make when you hear such words as  _DynaFlow, Cruise-O-Matic, Heterodyne, HydraGuide_ and _D-Cel-O_ ...

Heck, I had an old Cadillac with a button on the dashboard marked "LevelRide" - I was afraid to push it, but I always admired it's quiet dignity and ability to inspire such dream-like thoughts. A ride that is level ... not bouncy, not angled - just LEVEL. Like floating on clouds ... dream-like ...

Now we have _Actively Computer-Enhanced Road-Vehicle Interface - Experimental (A CERVIX)_. 

The '50's were a time when science ruled; rockets and jet planes were an obsession of the general public, to the point where any car that mattered was sporting huge fins ...






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But it wasn't only cars that had unique, colorful names coined. We now have _bras_ instead of _brassieres_ or, Heaven forbid, _undergarments _or even _unmentionables_. The _ice box_ became the _refrigerator_ which in turn became the _fridge,_ and the _percolator_ (LOVE that word!) became the boring and predictable _coffeemaker_.

It seems that with each succeeding generation we become more and more distant from exotic, playful or fantastical names, in their place using computer-derived words that are sterile, unemotional and bland. 

It's enough to put me off my _supper_... I mean, _dinner_.


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## SeaBreeze (Nov 23, 2012)

Great post and pic! :sentimental:


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