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Perspectives
Patti M.
Clark
Editor
New words reflect changing
culture
How often do you google something
on the Internet?
Have you purchased a ringtone lately?
Or maybe you’ve only just discovered the side effects of
supersizing your combo meals.
Google, ringtone and supersize are just three of the nearly 100
words that will be added to the Webster dictionary this fall.
The words that are joining the 200-year-old volume point dramatically
to the nature of our society today.
Along with ringtone, there’s mouse potato and spyware in
the technology and computers area. A mouse potato is defined as
“a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer.”
Google is to do an Internet search using the search engine Google.
I have to admit there are many days when I spend a lot of time
in front of my computer googling topics. Does that make me a mouse
potato with a case of the googles?
The newest words aren’t confined to the computer industry.
Supersize is “to increase considerably the size, amount
or extent of.” Of course, as we’ve grown accustomed
to supersizing our meals over the past few years, we’ve
dealt with the health effects as well.
As a result, gastric bypass, referring to the surgery that reduces
the size of our stomachs and the amount of supersizing we can
accommodate, has also become an accepted word.
Then there are those words that relate to our appearance.
A soul patch is “a small growth of beard under a man’s
lower lip.” I always thought that was just being lazy with
the razor.
And drama queen will now be part of the dictionary. I imagine
I have a daughter whose photo will accompany it in that first
publishing.
Other new words include agritourism, big-box — as in empty
Wal-Marts in towns across the United States — avian influenza
and sandwich generation. No, that one doesn’t refer to a
generation of kids who grew up on sandwiches, but rather to those
middle-aged persons who are taking care of both their children
and their parents.
These newest words just serve to confirm that our culture, our
lifestyles, everything about who we are as a society is changing.
In comparison, consider some of the words that were added to the
dictionary in 1806, just 200 years ago, when Merriam Webster put
his first dictionary together.
Electrician, one who is versed in electricty, was a new word that
year. Psychology — the doctrines of spirit or mind —
was as well.
As a society, we’ve grown up getting our shots and making
sure our children do as well. In 1806, however, the word vaccine
was just becoming a part of mainstream society.
In the food industry, chowder was added to the dictionary, as
was hommony (sic). By the way, chowder is a dish of fish boiled
with a biscuit, and hommony is food made from maize that is coarse
and boiled. Sounds delicious.
Whiskey was also added to the dictionary for the first time that
year.
Also included in the list was the word slang.
Our vocabulary often reflects our culture. Think about the Elizabethan
times and all the thous and shalts the people uttered in that
day and age.
Anyone who has read the Bible via the King James edition knows
how different it is from the New International Version and how
much more different it is than The Message. All offer God’s
word, just translated into the verbiage of the time.
Being able to communciate with those to whom our message is directed
is what is most important. Using the words that mean something
to them helps keep the meanings of our words clear.
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