good old days
49
4.1
- noun
- Informal
:
buenos tiempos
- She often reminisces about the good old days spent at her grandparents' house during summer vacations.
You know, if you think about the good old days, they're mostly an illusion.
- You know, if you think about the good old days, they're mostly an illusion.
- Did you ever pine for the good old days when computers had character?
- I just wanted to reconnect you guys, Sir, and and and relive the good old days.
- I think that when people ran studies with me in the good old days, I think they paid attention.
- There'll be mass unemployment, mass layoffs, and people will talk about the good old days when Silicon Valley ruled the world, but those days are gone.
- Poor innocent Elijah, you weren't there for the good old days of PC building when cases used to come with these bad boys.
- I do think though, those were the good old days when he was bad at school.
- There were always books in the house, VHS back in the good old days.
- And he was very mournful of the good old days before the blacks came into power.
Examples
-
Oblivious, Tyasan went on, "Ah, those were the good old days, were they not?"
Fiction book (1995) -
Do you remember back in the good old days when you could just turn on the TV and get NBC for free?
-
I think that when people ran studies with me in the good old days, I think they paid attention.
-
I do think though, those were the good old days when he was bad at school.
-
Those were the good old days.
-
But it is worth asking whether the good old days really were so good.
Academic text (2000) -
If you have lived long enough, you will remember the good old days of movie watching.
Blog text (5) -
When we did get together, we'd laugh about the good old days.
Fiction book (2001) -
You know, if you think about the good old days, they're mostly an illusion.
-
Some cold warriors are already waxing nostalgic for the good old days when they knew where they were.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
215
2.1
A time in the past you remember with warm feelings
76
5.3
A warm, slightly sad feeling for a time in the past
74
5.5
A time in the past people remember with warm feelings, often when they were young
53
3.4
The past that people remember with warm feelings
14
8.3
An earlier time people remember as better
4
9.9
The distant past remembered with warm feelings
Past times people remember with warm feelings
Old times that people remember with a warm feeling, often at New Year
Antonyms
How Nostalgic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a past time remembered with affection' is directly derivable from combining 'old' (past days) with 'days' (periods of time) and 'good' (positive evaluation). This adjective + noun compositional pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Good old days comes from how people look back at earlier times and imagine them as calm, simple, or happier. The phrase pictures the old days as good, so it means a past time people 'remember with warmth' and often think was better than now.