Yet we still say “dial”, not just in the context of telephones, but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard “left end of the dial” or similar during a recent radio pledge drive. Yet there are very few actual dials these days.
Speaking of phones, few if any “ring.”
We also say “uppercase” and “lowercase,” although we probably don’t use moveable letter blocks that are stored in the upper and lower cases. On a related note, unless we’re actually using a typewriter, the “shift” key no longer shifts anything. And for that matter, while we might use “<CR>”, there’s no carriage, and it doesn’t return.
I’m guessing that many, if not most, checking accounts these days do not involve any checks.
There’s a term for words like these, I saw it once and can’t remember. I asked here once and no one knew; however, I believe that someone on BB is bound to know. (And no, “anachronism” isn’t the term. I don’t believe it’s “dead metaphor”, either, although that seems close.)
