A huge ongoing study by Lancaster University and Cambridge University has discovered what, in fact, we probably knew already: that word-usage changes continuously under the pressures of historical malaise, new sensitivities, the new machineries of life and fashion.
“Golly” is fast going. No need to ask why. Good thing, too. And “gosh” is long gone; it’s one of those euphemistic items of religious vocabulary (along with “blimey” and “gadzooks”) that we largely godless people don’t see the point of any more. “Gee!” I rarely hear any more. Jesus weeps.
Also going quickly out of fashion are “crossword”, “playschool”, “Avon”, “cassette” and “croquet”.
Still, some old-fashioned words do stick around, regardless of relevance. We still talk about “steering wheels”, for example, although there is only one wheel available to the “automobile” driver nowadays. There used to be lots of wheels around the dashboard.
“YouTube” is a word that has leapt into top-15 usage, according to the research (although a brief conversation with any teenager might tell you that). But our flatscreen apparatus doesn’t feature a “tube” any more. Disks? As in “hard disk” – or music “track” – think of the antique technologies.
Similarly “online” is a term going back to seafaring days and securing boats in ports. Language struggles to keep up, but is often doomed to inertia. Interesting inertia, though.
The word “cobbler”, we learn, is fading fast. “Cobblers”, of course, is a throwback to “cobbler’s awl” (cockney rhyming slang for “balls”). Meanwhile, “bollocks”, one of George Orwell’s favourite objurgations, is still, I observe, in use – usually by people who wouldn’t know one end of a bull from the other.
I love the archaeology of words – the fact that they contain within themselves remnants of past times. When it all goes online, shall we still talk about “breaking” news, I wonder?
Unsurprisingly, “iPhone” is one of the words that has become tops in our contemporary usage. And what does the “i” denote? Internet. Where and what is the “net”? I somehow visualise it catching billions of little fishes, up there in the stratosphere.
