archaic!

I was standing in a way-too-long line at CVS today when a few cashiers ran up to the front to help with the purchases.

"Want me to ring them up here?" one cashier asked her manager, standing by a cash register. "Or is it still broken? Should I go ring over there?" Then she stood at the working register and said "Next person in line, I can ring you up over here!"

And then I realized: cash registers haven't rung for a very very long time. You remember those old lovely cast-iron cash registers with the little tabs for each monetary amount, and the "ka-ching!" of the cash drawer opening. We don't seem to use them anymore -- yet we still use "ring" as a verb for commerce-making and cash register button-pushing. A lovely little archaic word now that I think about it and honestly sounds a heck of a lot better than "beep" which would be the modern equivalent (and even then not all registers beep anymore.)

Heck, we don't even have a "ka-ching!" sound anymore, either, but everybody knows what it means: MAZUMA IN THE BANK!


Previously in this journal we discussed other lovely modern anachronisms such as mimeographs, the "color of a television turned to a dead channel" and typewriters. Now I got a new one to add to the list.

Feel old yet?