You know what’s a funny word?
Vintage.
_________
I mean, vintage these days means anything. Once it meant something to do with grapes (Vitis vinifera) and then with the yield of grapes and with the wine that comes from the grapes. Later it also became associated with the year the wine the grapes yielded was. And then it was the group of people born in the year the wine the grapes yielded was.
And so on.
But now it’s even extended to that one year, long ago, where the furniture was perhaps cuter or maybe not necessarily. And the wine and the grapes and the people are gone.
But what’s left is the faux finishes and the chain distressing and the tattered lace and the faded cloth and the absurd price.
Certainly the shame was left out.
I dare you to go to your local Craigslist and type in anything + "vintage" and see just how much crap you get in return. And the items that are actually worth half a crap are monstrously expensive if they feature that poor little vandalized word.
Well? Go on! Go to your Craigslist and see. But if you find something supercute or outrageous, don’t keep it all to yourself, okay?
A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm! 
What a clever post. I hadn’t really reflected on the corruption of the word.
In France it’s not “vintage”, it’s “bo-bo”. Stands for Bourgeois-bohème.
Whatever. I like the word vintage best!
I kind of like “bo-bo”.
Hey, am I vintage? When my butt gets put on Craigslist, no one picks ME up … course, I’m not wearing tattered lace, either …
oooh…i like bo-bo too. we’ve totally gotta make ‘bo-bo’ happen!
So true… it’s one of those words whose meaning can be pretty much up to whatever the person uttering it wants it to be. Interesting post!
Vintage these days is an overused word… sort of like “green” it can mean anything, which diminishes it true meaning!
I like bo-bo, too!
I’ve always understood vintage to mean “at least 25 years old.” I know that’s the qualification for what makes a car “vintage.”
Of course, if we go with that definition, that means I’m 15 years beyond vintage. Does that make me ancient?
I often wonder what future generations would think if all the evidence they could find of us was ads on Craigslist.