obsolescence vs. obsoleteness

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 2/25/05 3:16:45 PM, nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU writes:


> When does a word (phrase, term, what-have-you) become obsolete? I
> mean, what makes it obsolete instead of rare or dialectal? I would
> have thought it was when that item is not part of the vocabulary of
> any speaker of a language (dialect, etc.). Since we have clear
> evidence it is part of the vocabulary of a number of speakers on this
> list, I would not call the term church key obsolete. Obsolescent,
> maybe (unless we can revive its usage).
>
I agree. I used the term "obsolete" a bit too loosely. Clearly, CHURCH KEY is
not totally obsolete--some people are still alive who use the term. However,
the evidence given here seems thus far to indicate that its use is more and
more confined to older persons, which, coupled with the fact that the pragmatic
conditions under which it was originally used have greatly altered, indicate
that it is well on its way towards becoming obsolete.

None of the evidence thus far given (at least in this round of discussion)
indicates that CHURCH KEY is "dialectal" (i.e., regionally limited in
distribution, or confined to a particular social class).

The e-Bay data that someone pointed us towards is quite interesting. Though I
did not look at all of the things offered for sale as "church keys," the
first few in the list that I saw were either true keys to churches or else bottle
openers, as opposed to punch-type openers, and appeared to be quite old. They
also actually look more like true keys than do the punch-type openers. They
were also identified with particular brands of beer. This suggests that CHURCH
KEY remains alive among collectors of beer paraphernalia as a kind of archaic
jargon.

As a youth, I would not have called anything a CHURCH KEY that didn't
primarily punch holes. But then I came of age at a time when bottled beer was less
common (outside bars) than canned beer.