Do your ears perk up when you hear a new word? Mine do. I must admit to a fascination with creative uses of language. And the good news is that new words are coming into our language every day. I can stay well entertained by just listening to language used by many people in many different circumstances.
One source of new words is the use of eponyms, words that are based on a person's name or a place. A well known example is the word "sandwich" which originated with the Earl of Sandwich. (I believe the story goes that the Earl didn't want to quit the gaming table in order to eat, so he requested two pieces of bread with meat.) The word "sandwich" expanded from a proper noun into a common noun, written with a lower case letter. It is now used for a wide variety of hand-held snacks involving bread and fillings. The original noun has also become a verb, as in, "We sandwiched ourselves into the plane's tourist class section."
Another eponym that I find interesting is the word "guy," an informal word for a male, or nowadays., also an informal word for a group of males or males and females. (Servers in several of our local restaurants refer to my husband and me as "you guys.") The word "guy" derives from Guy Fawkes, a late 16th and 17th century conspirator in London, infamous for planning to blow up the British Parliament Building. This event is commemorated yearly with bonfires and fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes day, November 5, which is coincidentally my birthday. Thoughtful of the British Empire to plan a celebration for me!
An additional source of new words in English is the concept of "political correctness," also known as PC. As changes occur in society, especially in regard to acceptance of differences in race, class, gender and sexual orientation, language changes as well. One of the newly created words is "herstory," which means that the history will be told from a feminist viewpoint. Patricia T. O'Conner in Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconception of the English Language explains that "herstory" isn't one of her favorite words, but she believes it is here to stay in our lexicon. She proves that the "his" in "history" is not the pronoun that refers to male beings, but that "history" come from a Latin word meaning "narrative." Her preference is for "history" to include information about both males and females.
Another eponym that I find interesting is the word "guy," an informal word for a male, or nowadays., also an informal word for a group of males or males and females. (Servers in several of our local restaurants refer to my husband and me as "you guys.") The word "guy" derives from Guy Fawkes, a late 16th and 17th century conspirator in London, infamous for planning to blow up the British Parliament Building. This event is commemorated yearly with bonfires and fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes day, November 5, which is coincidentally my birthday. Thoughtful of the British Empire to plan a celebration for me!
An additional source of new words in English is the concept of "political correctness," also known as PC. As changes occur in society, especially in regard to acceptance of differences in race, class, gender and sexual orientation, language changes as well. One of the newly created words is "herstory," which means that the history will be told from a feminist viewpoint. Patricia T. O'Conner in Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconception of the English Language explains that "herstory" isn't one of her favorite words, but she believes it is here to stay in our lexicon. She proves that the "his" in "history" is not the pronoun that refers to male beings, but that "history" come from a Latin word meaning "narrative." Her preference is for "history" to include information about both males and females.
There has been some backlash concerning the effects of political correctness on free speech. Urban dictionary provides some PC circumlocutions used to avoid offending anyone. Here are a few of the more amusing:
dishonest - ethically disoriented
wrong - differently logical
fired - laid off
tall - person of height
I remember feeling pressure in a university environment to use "Winter Break" instead of "Christmas."
The decision to adopt, ignore, or condemn the many new words that come into our language is certainly an individual decision. But I sort of like to think of myself as "weight challenged" rather than "fat" when I step on those unforgiving scales in the mornings!
The decision to adopt, ignore, or condemn the many new words that come into our language is certainly an individual decision. But I sort of like to think of myself as "weight challenged" rather than "fat" when I step on those unforgiving scales in the mornings!
No comments:
Post a Comment