meaningword-usage
What does the expression old school mean in the following paragraph?
In the old school, we would say, "You look fine," but today, the kids say, "You look hella cool."
From the sentence above, I understand as follows:
In the old time, we would say, "You look fine," but now in 21st century, the kids say, "You look cool."
Am I right?
Please help improve my understanding.
You've slightly misinterpreted the word baby in your first three examples. It means something in which one has invested time, interest, and emotion and for which one has a proprietary feeling. Speaking hyperbolically, it's as though the object of interest is like one's own child.
I thought I should add an example of the usage that didn't involve work- or job-related situations. This turned out not to be as easy as I thought. There's even a canonical political cartoon, showing Hoover turning over the problems of the Depression to Roosevelt in 1933, captioned "It's his 'baby' now":
But I finally found a story about a man who as a hobby, salvaged his car that had been in an accident, replacing the metal body with one made entirely of wood. From that story:
So, he started salvage [sic] spruce wood from construction sites, adding up bit-by-bit to his truck every evening after work for about nine months. So you can say it’s his baby now.
A labor of love, with a play on the nine-month "gestation" period for the "baby."
The phrases 'easy on the eye/s' and 'easy on the ear/s' are idioms. Idioms must have two properties:
(1) they are in relatively common use (don't ask how common), informed use of course and
(2) there must be some peculiarity about the expression – unusual syntax, an unusual sense of a word, an unusual interpretation for the whole string, or a mix of these. Often, there is a different meaning than one would normally identify ('kick the bucket' = 'die'). Such idioms are opaque.
Here, 'easy on the eyes' is a parallel construction to 'hard on the knees' say. The idiom is reasonably transparent (OP uses the word 'intuitive'), and so common that AHD say includes the sense of 'easy' involved:
easy adj. ... 4a Affording comfort or relief [/pleasure; not causing any pain at all]; soothing: soft light that was easy on the eyes.
It's probably best to treat 'easy on the eye/ear...' as a single idiom, but the metaphorical use of 'on' ('This jogging is so hard [ie causes excessive wear and tear, pain not pleasure] on the knees' / 'Don't be so hard on him'), implying imposition, is more general.
Tracing the etymology of AHD sense 4a for 'easy' probably equates to finding the first occurrence of 'easy on the eye/s'. The phrase was probably not used much before 1920, if these Google Ngrams accurately portray the situation.
The sense occurs elsewhere: 'This wine is very easy to drink.' This Ngram again supports the 1920s date for the increase in use of this sense of 'easy'.
Best Answer
Yes, basically you hit the mark.
Based on Webster's Dictionary: (Noun) Adherents of traditional policies and practices
According to Vocabulary.com: The old school is any group of people who are traditionalists: they do things the way they've been done in the past.
Old school means something close to old-fashioned, but it’s a term with more pride behind it. If someone says, “I’m old school,” they’re saying they do it like it used to be done, which they believe was a better way. In mob movies, the old school usually thinks they’re better than the younger criminals. An old school teacher might prefer not to use computers in class. This word can be used as a noun or as an adjective, and the opposite is new school.(it's rarely used).
Short Definition: A class of people favoring traditional ideas.
Example: The title of the Los Angeles Times dated on 2015-12-13
J.J. Abrams on-going old school and how 'Star Wars' differs from 'Star Trek' It tracked back to J.J. Abrams' experience in 1977 where his fan's cred to "Star Wars" franchise is unquestionable. And now, he is given a big responsibility to "take" this newest "Star Wars" movies to a new height.
"Now he finds himself holding the keys to arguably the biggest pop culture franchise on the planet. With "The Force Awakens" hitting theaters Dec. 18, millions of "Star Wars" fans are hoping the Force is with him but the stakes are unimaginably high. It's "do or do not" time. There is no try."
So, we can conclude that Abrams need to combine his 'old school' ways to cater the 'new school' generation that might only know Star Wars Movies just recently.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-star-wars-analysis-20151216-story.html
Other example:
1.Old school teacher teaches using blackboard and chalk. S/he explains methodically and mentions the lesson one-by-one. S/he uses one-way communication.
2.New school teacher teaches using high-technology gadget and software to help s/he explains the lesson to the class. S/he often creates class discussion, and games to engage with the students. S/he uses bi-directional communication.
[This is from my experience] When old school word is conjured up, I usually thought of traditional & conventional people/custom/habits.
Hope this helps :).