A Century Of New Words

felonius · Post by **felonius** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:57 am

Fun and interesting stuff...

'Hip' to 'chav': century of new words

***Some words crash and burn, but others get a new life

By Jane Wardell
London, AP

In 1904, it was "hip." In 2004, it's "chav." In between, there was "tiddly-om-pom-pom," "racism," "cyborg," "punk" and "9-11."

They're all words chosen by a book that charts the creation of new words over the past 100 years.

Author and word lover Susie Dent has delved into the social and politcal concerns of society from 1904 to 2004 to choose a word for each year to provide a snapshot of that 12 months.

Each word in "Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report" made its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary in its year of nomination.

Some words provide a distillation of the social or political scene in the given year - "U-Boat" in 1916, "demob" in 1920, "Blitzkrieg" in 1939, "peacenik" in 1963, "Watergate" in 1972, "punk" in 1974, "dot-commer" in 1997 and "9-11" in 2001.

Others surprise at how early they appear - "spliff" in 1936, "mobile phone" in 1945, "Wonderbra" in 1947, "generation X" in 1952 and "cyborg" in 1960.

"If you look at teddy bear 1906 for example, it came about as a result of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt," Dent said.

"Mobile phone was almost certainly military technology postwar. It disappeared for a while, surfaced for a little bit in the 1960s but there were few users and it didn't explode until the 1970s and 1980s."

Oxford Universtiy Press, which is publishing Dent's book Nov. 19, notes that English is the fastest-moving language in the world, as well as the largest.

"A lot of European countries have language academies that preserve their nature of their languages, but we've never had an academy in English," said Dent.

"There's no single authority saying what you can have and what you can't. I think that's fantastic, because then English just moves as we need it to."

Some words in the list have not stood the test of time - "tiddly-om-pom-pom" in 1909, "lumpenproletariat" in 1924, "beatnik" in 1958 and "beatbox" in 1982.

Many others have, often popping up with renewed meaning decades later - "hip" in 1904, "celeb" in 1913, "ceasefire" in 1918, "racism" in 1935, "fast food" in 1951, "awesome" in 1961.

"For celeb, the first citation was a letter to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and some person writing in from provincial midtown America said 'I'm no celeb, like you,'" said Dent.

As for the latest addition, "chav" is a slightly derogatory term for young men who wear cheap gold jewelry, tracksuits and baseball caps. A mobile phone is never far from their ear.

Dent believes the word was derived from the mid-19th century Roma word "chavi," meaning child, by a popular culture Web site in Britain that used its Gypsy roots to make a statement on the class level of purported chavs.

"I think it's a really horrible word, but it's quite a good example of a word that has burst out on to the scene," she said.

Dent also considers words or terms of the moment that haven't yet made it to the dictionary.

Chief among them is "retrosexual," which predicts a backlash to the suave "metrosexual" man of recent times who uses beauty products and isn't afraid to cry. The scruffy "retrosexual" is a mantasy adventures. A Shroomer is a picker or user of wild mushrooms, often of the hallucinogenic variety.

Aunflin · Post by **Aunflin** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:46 pm

Interesting, felonius...I'll have to go find me a copy. I absolutely love books such as these. I don't know why I have such a fascination with words [especially since I can't remember how to spell some of them half the time]...but I do. It's an odd addiction, though better than any possible alternative...

felonius · Post by **felonius** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 4:56 am

I don't think it's an odd addiction at all, Aunflin - it's certainly one of my own biggest ones.

I personally think we should try to re-vitalize "lumpenproletariat." That one just funks off the tongue.

("No honey, I do like the house, really I do - the neighbourhood's just a little too LUMPENPROLETARIAT for my liking...and the park down the street was just crawling with CHAVS, did you see them? Why don't they just wear their pants down around their ankles and be done with it? I want to look for something a little more bohemian - you know, some quiet little SHROOMER community off the beaten path..."

Evaine · Post by **Evaine** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:13 am

Surely it would be LUMPENPROLETARIAN?

I came across another phrase for 'chav' the other day, too - 'Burberry Market community' after their favourite designer label.

felonius · Post by **felonius** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 12:30 pm

Evaine wrote:Surely it would be LUMPENPROLETARIAN?

Got me there.

How about this:

In the nineties society experienced a blitzkrieg of dot-commers ?

Nah...

Evaine · Post by **Evaine** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:06 am

Oh, dear - I sort of see them chugging around in little tanks, rolling across France, perhaps....

Algot Runeman · Post by **Algot Runeman** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:31 pm

I love words, but I wouldn't want to marry one.

Derivation devotee...is it any wonder?
My father, at age 80, read mostly from two things: The unabridged Webster dictionary and the World Book Encyclopedia.

For the new words, there are dictionary sites with discussions of contemporary words being considered for inclusion (just two examples).
http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/new_words.htm
http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/newwords/?view=uk

See also: http://www.wordspy.com/index.asp

Reading Room book context:
I just finished reading Halting State by Charles Stross. It is full of words whose meanings I needed to develop from the story context (really hate to need a dictionary in my right hand while holding a novel in my left). Scottish slang in Multiplayer Role Playing Games!
Highly recommended

Happy reading!
--Algot

kooch · Post by **kooch** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:58 am

Algot Runeman wrote: My father, at age 80, read mostly from two things: The unabridged Webster dictionary and the World Book Encyclopedia.

Algot, my father also taught me how to properly utilize an unabridged dictionary. I still remember his oft-repeated advice: "An educated person NEVER uses a word he cannot spell correctly".

I daily use his Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged, Second Edition, published in 1975. It sits opened on its own wooden dictionary stand next to my computer... no need for a dust cover, as I refer to the dictionary several times a week.

The sturdy spine of the massive volume has been commercially rebuilt at least twice, and is currently held firmly in place with bookbinding tape (high quality duct tape) until I can send it out again for repair.

Even before the millennium, I often found words missing from this 1975 edition. At the present time, I would estimate that about a third of the words I look up are simply not there...

I'm addicted to using the various online "Wiki" websites to obtain information about new words and concepts. Like most bloggers, the volunteers entering the Wiki information usually have a definite agenda, but I've not yet found a comparable source of current information.

kooch

Post by **PolarisDiB** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:32 pm

'Beatnik' and 'beatbox' have not stood the test of time?

News to me... maybe it's because of my slam poetry (high school creative writing) days.

--DiB

moonwolf021 · Post by **moonwolf021** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:38 pm

I dont see why beatbox hasn't stood the test of time. Its still used among high school students at least.

I too, by the way have an obsession for words.

While my friend and I were snowed into a cabin for 6 days, we played many intense games of monopoly and scrabble. Eventually all rules were thrown away. For scrabble the only rule was: if you can define it, it is a word. So came the birth of our new word:

Womeikeaquit woh-mee-i-kee-ah-quit, v. The realization of shopping at IKEA to a harmful frequency. Whoa! I need to stop shopping at IKEA