On their lovely website, the scholarly sorts at the Oxford English Dictionary have a list of words and phrases which they seek the help of the world at large to date first usage.
Apparently, before 1986 no one used the term
chat-up (a.: designating or relating to flirtatious conversation)
So what did we do back then if we saw a likely sort swigging a pint of Hoffmeister? Did we simply "talk to them" or perhaps just club them over the head and take them home under our arm? And if the chatting up didn't work, we didn't stop at the kebab van to drown our sorrows in meat fat before 1990 apparently.
But somewhat more worrying is the fact that no one did a poo (as in the verb and very much without the H on the end) before 1975. And then, between 1975 and 1981, no one called their poo, well, erm, poo.
If you know any different, let the boffins know.
