From the "Adults Say the Darnedest Things" Dept.

[damont]

I mused about this at church a while back, and it re-occurred to me this morning. A very large fraction of people I know refer to decaffeinated coffee (and sometimes to decaf tea as well) as "unleaded."

This slang usage appears to have come into being in the late 1960s or early 1970s, when unleaded gasoline entered the market as a result of anti-pollution legislation. By the time my child was born it was nearly impossible to find gasoline WITH tetraethyl lead in it. Thus, my generation is the last in the USA to have actually encountered leaded gas. My kid's generation seems to have picked up the usage... but I wonder just how we'll manage to explain the term to the babies of today once they're old enough to ask.

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Folks who remember the early 80s are still my generation for the purpose of this post; note the "By the time my child was born" line above.