I
am thoroughly enjoying a copy of There’s A Word For It, a book about the
explosion of the English language in America over the past century. It’s written by Sol Steinmetz, a
lexicographer who has penned three dozen dictionaries and reference books,
including Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meaning. He lives in my town, New Rochelle, New York.
The
English language has grown by leaps and bounds.
For instance, Noah Webster’s dictionary in 1828 included around 75,000
entries. In 1961, an updated version had
450,000 words and around 2010, the Oxford English Dictionary claimed 616,500
word forms. From 1700 to 1899, over 93,000
words were added. A dictionary in 1755
had just 50,000 words.
So
why are there so many words? Technology,
global communications, immigrants, and the pace of speech have all been major
factors. Steinmetz explains it this way
in his book:
“Although
dictionaries are limited in their coverage, they do reflect the steady growth
of our vocabulary. This growth has been
due largely to the great expansion of the communications media during the last
century and is itself a reflection of that expansion. Radio and television, the
Internet, artificial satellites (there are now over twenty-four hundred
orbiting the earth), the international press, and the current wireless
smartphones – all communicate to the world instantly anything new, including
every new coined word. And newly minted
coinages proliferate (think weblog, weblogger, blogger, blog, blogging,
bloggerati, blogosphere, blogospheric, blogistics), thanks to writers and
speakers seeking new forms of expression and feeling free to make up words, to
the extent that the line between the usage labels formal, informal, and slang
is steadily blurring.”
Where
did the new words and meanings of the last century come from? He says: "Most were native coinages, words created by
well-established processes like back-formation (babysit from babysitter),
clipping or shortening (condo from condominium, nuke from nuclear), contraction
(helluva from hell of a), blending (smog from smoke and fog), derivation
(televiewer, telecast, telegenic), and compounding (barfly, busywork). A considerable percentage were borrowings
from foreign languages (garage, limousine, Lebensraum, daiquiri).
“Before
1900 communication was slow and limited, and information could only be obtained
by word of mouth, letter writing, and reading newspapers and books. There was no radio, and the telephone as in
its infancy, as was the phonograph. All
the modern means of communicating were still to come: motion pictures,
television, computers, the Internet, cell phones. The electronic revolution made the
transmission and popularization of new words inevitable.
“The
moment a new idea, concept, thought, or object is invented, someone in America
is impelled to coin a word for it. Most
of such coinages have a short life span, but many survive and attain
longevity. Some words may go out of fashion
but do not disappear from the language; they continue to exist as dated,
dialectal, archaic, or obsolete words and are recorded as such in standard
dictionaries. In short, the English
language in America keeps growing and growing, like Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin
and for everything new in American English THERE’S A WORD FOR IT.”
Though
his book was published in 2010 by Harmony Books, it’s new to me. I discovered it on a recent visit to what I
think is the greatest bookstore in America – Strand’s. The multi-floored store by Union Square in
Manhattan brags of shelving 18 miles worth of books: new, used, and rare.
Steinmetz's book features each of the last 12 decades, delivering commentary on how each
decade’s inventions, news of the day, and cultural patterns influenced the
adoption of new words. He offers dozens
of new words that were embraced each year. Here’s a sampling:
1900
antidisestablishmentarianism
1901
mannequin
1902
trivia
1903
pussy-foot
1904
spotlight
1905
dramedy
1906
airplane
1907
chemotherapy
1908
refinance
1909
addict
1910
avant-garde
1911
outdoorsy
1912
sexy
1913
amnesiac
1914
leatherneck
1915
futuristic
1916
environmentalist
1917
catwalk
1918
defeatist
1919
press officer
1920
adventurist
1921
sadomasochistic
1922
beauty queen
1923
mass media
1924
wisecrack
1925
compartmentalize
1926
downturn
1927
racist
1928
eroticist
1929
nudist
1930
crooner
1931
infantilize
1932
unelectable
1933
proactive
1934
antioxidant
1935
mercy killing
1936
prerecorded
1937
marriage counseling
1938
metascience
1939
accessorize
1940
misallocation
1941
pedophile
1942
car pool
1943
acronym
1944
superpower
1945
videogenic
1946
fast-talk
1947
upbeat
1948
viral
1949
aromatherapy
1950
elitism
1951
vacuum-pack
1952
moonwalk
1953
bleep
1954
supplement
1955
zinger
1956
psychotropic
1957
whiplash
1958
phase-out
1959
reusable
1960
bionics
1961
doomsayer
1962
spacewoman
1963
decriminalize
1964
skank
1965
peacenik
1966
head case
1967
multiscreen
1968
novella
1969
weaponization
1970
adversarial
1971
pro-life
1972
high-tech
1973
factoid
1974
trifecta
1975
multiculturalism
1976
wuss
1977
palimony
1978
bar-hopping
1979
bustler
1980
gridlock
1981
wannabe
1982
cyberspace
1983
transgendered
1984
cellphone
1985
double-click
1986
infoholic
1987
media scape
1988
channel surfer
1989
beat-down
1990
micro-lending
1991
bitch-slap
1992
nannycam
1993
weblog
1994
starter marriage
1995
webcam
1996
scratchiti
1997
shockumentary
1998
Google
1999
day trader
2000
bling
2001
texting
2002
racial profiling
2003
pescetarian
2004
smartphone
2005
puggle
2006
unibrow
2007
truther
2008
game-changer
2009
staycation
Will
many of the words survive?
The author notes that we should follow a procedure outlined in a book called Predicting News Words – The Secrets of Their Success, written by Allan Metcalf, a professor who served as the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. Metcalf says you can rate new words by what he calls the FUDGE factor: Frequency of use, Unobtrusiveness, Diversity of uses and situations, Generation of other forms and meanings, Endurance of the concept.
The author notes that we should follow a procedure outlined in a book called Predicting News Words – The Secrets of Their Success, written by Allan Metcalf, a professor who served as the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. Metcalf says you can rate new words by what he calls the FUDGE factor: Frequency of use, Unobtrusiveness, Diversity of uses and situations, Generation of other forms and meanings, Endurance of the concept.
“I
would suggest waiting a century before pronouncing a word dead,” says
Steinmetz, “however moribund it may seem at times. Words, like humans, may fall into a comatose
or vegetative state, but often speakers or writers with a sense of history will
breathe new life into seemingly dead words.”
It
is hard to believe how long some modern-sounding words have been around,
such as guestimate (1936), and joyride (1908). But it’s also amazing how some words go out
of fashion fairly quickly. There’s no
doubt our language is always expanding and growing, with plenty of words and
terms coming out of the Big Bang of technology.
If you want to know which words have transformed our language landscape in the past 110 years, check out There’s A Word For It.
If you want to know which words have transformed our language landscape in the past 110 years, check out There’s A Word For It.
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