church key 'bee r-can opener' is obsolete

[Jonathan Lighter]

A Google search reveals roughly 5,000 hits for "church-key" + "beer-can" and "church-key" +
"bottle-opener."

Obsolete or obsolescent ?

Or neither ?

JL

RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20Re:=20church=20key=20'bee?
= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?r-can=20opener'=20is=20obsolete?=
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In a message dated 2/25/05 12:31:43 PM, nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU writes:


>
> Except that the item still exists. I just asked two graduate students
> (and another, I think he was an undergrad), if they knew what a
> church key was. The two graduate students didn't know what the term
> referred to, the other said it was a "very simple key" that opens
> anything, "like a skeleton key". However, when I drew a very crude
> picture of one (with both ends), both of the graduate students
> recognized the item--like Larry's son, they know the denotatum, even
> if they don't know the word (the undergrad had left before I was done
> with my artistic efforts).
>

Well, yeah, the punch-style can opener still exists (thought I doubt that
Paul Newman still wears one on a chain around his neck, as his wife once reported
that he did). It is just no longer very frequently referred to as a CHURCH
KEY, for the sociolinguistic reasons I outlined in my previous e-mail. The slang
term is obsolete. There must be other slang terms that are technologically
obsolete as well--maybe PLATTERS 'phonograph records'? ICE BOX 'refrigerator'?


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