The Changing World of Words

by Felice Prager

“Go fetch my slippers and get me something to drink from the icebox. I’ll be sitting on the veranda with my feet up on the ottoman.”

“But Dad, everyone is waiting for me in the vestibule. I want to play stickball and hang out on Jimmy’s stoop and listen to 45’s on his new Victrola.”

“Oh yeah, Mom told me to tell you not to forget your galoshes.”

Can you imagine hearing that dialogue today? It is not how we speak anymore. However, back in the 1950’s, not only was this the standard, but no one blinked an eye when it was said.

Today, we think of fetch as something a dog might do with a stick, an icebox is called a refrigerator, a veranda is your porch or patio, and the ottoman is a hassock or footrest. A vestibule is your foyer or hallway, stickball is usually played with a bat out on a field, and a stoop would be the stairs in front of your house or apartment. 45’s were vinyl records played on a Victrola – also fondly known in the 1950’s as a record player.

Galoshes were snow boots, (but moms are still neurotically reminding kids to do something as embarrassing as wearing galoshes when it is warm enough to be playing stickball.)

As our world changes, so does our vocabulary. Every year, new words are added to our speech and many eventually become entries in dictionaries because they have gained enough popularity to make them dictionary-worthy.

These are referred to as neologisms. According to Wikipedia.org, a neologism is a word, term, or phrase that has been recently created often to apply to new concepts or to reshape older terms in newer language form. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas that have taken on a new cultural context.

In current times, these words relate to computers and electronics, entertainment, sports, history, politics, inventions, medicine, current events, and everyday products that simply did not exist before their popular usage. In most cases, you do not need a dictionary to know what these words mean. By being added to a dictionary, the words gain validity. Usually dictionaries wait before automatically adding a word to make sure it is not a short-term craze that will die out.

According to Stephen Goode, a senior writer for Insight, (”The fifties: hotbed of new vocabulary - for the people - America in So Many Words: Words That Have Shaped America,”) the following words were added during the 1950’s: deejay or d.j. ,software, MS. rock & roll, role model, fast food, Murphy’s Law.

According to RandomHouse.com, the following words were added by decade to their dictionaries in the 1950’s and 1960’s:

Merriam Webster adds new words to its dictionaries every year. Often they are accompanied by a media release that announces their choices. Recent additions include: bikini wax, brain freeze, blog, flip flop, chick flick, civil union, B2B, bazillion, bleeding edge, hottie, hotlink, identity theft, dot-commer, microwbrowser, push poll, cross-post, bleeding edge, steganography, tide pool, hospitalist, metadata, otology, and cybrarian.
 
The Concise English Oxford Dictionary also adds neologisms to their newer editions. Recently the following words were added:

bloviate, designer baby, cyber war, ecological footprint, first responder, health tourism, microdermabrasion, jarhead, noogie, plasma screen, sky marshal, potsticker, pole dancing, snow blade, speed dating, stealth tax, threequel, stevia, trackie, weekend warrior, and wiggle room.
 
If you brainstorm, you can come up with lists of your own. Consider the following as examples:
 
Ipod, mp3 player, earbuds, mini-me, hard drive, software, Internet, instant message, disposable income, Styrofoam, mammography, colonoscopy, ionizer, microwave, cellular technology, wireless communication, ecological footprint, online, remote control, digital, entertainment center, sushi, do lunch, jewel box, gel pen, low carb diet, nutritionist, wok, drive-thru, drive-by, body art, media room, and slam dunk.

There are also acronyms and abbreviations that have become part of our everyday language: LCD, DDR, DVD, CD, VHS, SARS, SIDS, FUBAR, MADD, SADD, and FEMA.

If you used any of the above words in the 1950’s, no one would know what you were talking about. Think in terms of the movie, Back to the Future. One could rename himself “Calvin Klein” and no one would be the wiser.

A retronym is a type of neologism coined for an old object or concept whose original name has become used for something else or is no longer unique. The term was coined by Frank Mankiewicz and popularized by William Safire in the 1980’s in the New York Times. In other words, these are terms that were forced to be invented after they were used to take into account current history or newer inventions. A few interesting examples include:

Acoustic guitar – coined after the invention of the solid-body electric guitar.

AM radio – coined after the introduction of FM radio.

Analog watch – coined after the advent of digital watches.

Black and white television – at one time simply called television, once color TV became the standard, a term had to be created for the original.

Desktop computer – renamed with the advent of portable computers, laptops, and notebooks.

Forward slash – with the advent of MS-DOS which used the backslash as well, an updated term became necessary for what was simply the slash mark.

Landline phone service – with the advent of cellular or mobile phones, a new term was needed for home phone service.

Manual/Standard transmissions – all transmissions were manual before the invention of the automatic transmission.

Rotary telephone – Before touch-tone telephones, this was all that was available.

Snail mail – There was nothing else before email or electronic mail and voice mail. Suddenly a new term was needed for sending a letter with a stamp on it.

Vinyl record – This is a term that arose to distinguish between 331/3- and 45-rpm phonographic records from compact discs – CDs.

World War I – sometimes referred to as The Great War or the war to end all wars. However, with the second war or World War II, a term was needed to distinguish between the two.

Please excuse me now. I have to run this essay through spell-check before I ride off into the sunset on my hovercraft.

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