"... general interest articles on the subject abound, and the political landscape inspires regular pleas on social media to restore potent pejoratives such as 'lummox,' 'bloviate,' 'bumptious' and 'hoodwink.' Some requests are whimsical, too, like that of a user on Bluesky who suggested, 'We should bring back the word "spake," e.g. "Thus spake my friend Jeff."'... Whether these campaigns are sincere or silly, we may be closer to a wordy renaissance than we think.... Henry David Thoreau’s 19th-century coinage, 'brain-rot,' is now the ruin of modern minds. Calling someone a 'goon' is no longer just a 1920s habit. We’re saying 'sheesh' again, apparently, and even the president has spoken of skedaddling. Is there a science to this kind of resurgence?"
I'm reading "Why Kids Are Starting to Sound Like Their Grandparents/The strange resurgence of words like 'yap' and 'skedaddle'" (NYT).
1. I'm all for reaching out to more unusual and interesting words and fighting the tendency to withdraw into a smaller and smaller vocabulary. I hope these kids today are doing it because it's fun, it's mind-sharpening, and it's aesthetically pleasing. We're not talking here about showing off or making other people feel dumb, I don't think. This isn't a William F. Buckley move.
2. "Bloviate" — just a few days ago, I had a post titled "Bloviate." It's a Warren G. Harding word. Harding was born in 1865, so he's hardly at the grandparent level for today's "kids." More like great-great grandparent or even great-great-great grandparent. As for Henry David Thoreau, he was born in 1817, so that would put him at the great-great-great or great-great-great-great level. But he's no one's great-great-etc. grandfather. Like so many of these kids today, he was childless.
3. Did Thoreau ever opine about kids? Yes: "Children appear to me as raw as the fresh fungi on a fence rail." More aptly, on the subject of whether one ought to have children: "The only excuse for reproduction is improvement. Nature abhors repetition. Beasts merely propagate their kind, but the offspring of noble men & women will be superior to themselves, as their aspirations are."
4. I didn't remember that "brain-rot" — 2024's Word of the Year — came from Thoreau. I've read "Walden" at least twice, but here it is: "While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?"
5. If you're wondering which "president has spoken of skedaddling," you may be surprised, as I was, to learn that it was Donald Trump. The link goes to a Language Log post that has audio of Trump, a transcript displaying his words as if they were poetry, and the statement that it was "Walt Whitman-esque." Trump was talking about the raid on Iran: "They went skedaddle. You know the word skedaddle? It means skedaddle. They dropped the bombs and somebody said skedaddle — let's get the hell out of here." The OED says it means "To retreat or retire hastily or precipitately; to flee. Originally U.S. military slang, introduced during the Civil War," which, I note, ended when Warren G. Harding was born.
6. As for Walt Whitman, he was born 2 years after Thoreau, in 1819, so he too would be a great-great-great or great-great-great-great grandfather if he'd reproduced and his descendants had kept the line going. You may think he was gay, so he didn't have children, but he once wrote "I have had six children—two are dead." That line seems to be the only evidence that they existed. But in his poetry he was very enthusiastic about reproduction:
FROM pent-up, aching rivers;From that of myself, without which I were nothing;From what I am determin'd to make illustrious, even
if I stand sole among men;From my own voice resonant—singing the phallus,Singing the song of procreation,Singing the need of superb children, and therein superb grown people
Posts
81 comments:
That's just swell. Peachy keen and dreamy too.
That’d be just dandy.
Claptrap. Poppycock…
Bumptious is a good word. I would like to see it back in circulation.
"They went skedaddle. You know the word skedaddle? It means skedaddle.
I don't like Trump's habit of self-referential digression, but this is funny.
a user on Bluesky who suggested, 'We should bring back the word "spake," e.g. "Thus spake my friend Jeff."
What did Jeff spake that this guy wants to cancel him over? (Google doesn't recognize "spake" as a word.
My favorite resurrected word is "hobo". Young'uns twenty years ago started using this word out of the blue.
…yah, how old are these ‘kids’? If kids wanted to sound like their grandparents they’d try to sound like…you guys.
Writing, I sometimes wonder if the 1970s expressions I'm using are still current and how many idioms may have become incomprehensible to younger people.
If "skedaddle" is back, can "23 skidoo" be far behind? It was the "six seven" of a century ago.
"Noisome" is also making a weak comeback. The problem with "noisome", is that it actually means "smelly" rather than "noisy" which is what most people (understandably) think it means. But, that's why I like it -- it's esoteric. When you use it, you can chuckle at the dunderheads who think it means "noisy".
No one's using malarkey? Well tough, I just did. If you're really interested in the era, check out Lackadaisy Comics for a prohibition comedy-drama as acted out by cats.
The greatest word resurrection is Retarded, Retard etc... Because the world is filled with retarded democrats who need to know that they are retarded.
I'm also working to keep "groovy" alive. For decades, I have used it ironically and mockingly, but I think it is ready for a real comeback. Maybe not now, but soon. Soon, there will be no one alive who used it unironically, so it will be ready for a true comeback soon. I can dig that.
A little girl on the ski lift said six seven to me the other day and I replied well, twenty three skidoo to you.
"Skedaddle" is a great word. But, I don't think Trump is resurrecting it or using it ironically. He's so old that he probably was using it unironically when he was a kid. (Trump was born in 1946.)
Maybe its just an alternative to the limited and crude vulgarities used by lowbrow peasants.
You got a lot of moxie, kid.
doctrev said...
No one's using malarkey?
Joe Biden used it. He also spewed a lot of it.
I could flip my lid, Daddy-O.
Doctrev--I think Brandon killed off "malarkey" for good.
Nobody wants to sound like Joe.
Hey Beasts--is "evergreen" one of those old words?
"Why Kids Are Starting to Sound Like Their Grandparents"
I am on the younger side of Gen-X and I have peers with grandkids.
I want to bring back "brake" as the past tense of "break." It survives in the Anglican liturgy. CC, JSM
"Cad" is worth bringing back.
Wherefore are they using their grandparents' slang?
I'd like wherefore to come back just so people stop thinking it's a longer version of "where".
“We're not talking here about showing off or making other people feel dumb, I don't think.”
Of course not— that’s what Latin is for.
Although employing a variegated lexicon in quotidian discourse does help.
My whole life (well, since about maybe sophomore year of HS anyway) I've been attempting to use certain old words as often as I can. See, in an English class I had, we had 20 (or maybe it was 10...) new vocabulary words every week and then every Friday we'd have a vocab quiz on all of the words up to that point.
My favorite word, lachrymose, I have yet to find a good way to work into a sentence (except for those such as this one where I'm just stating that I haven't used it yet, which doesn't count, I don't think). Among some others, I've been able to use 'alacrity' and 'pulchritudinous'.
Not because I want to look all smart 'n sh*t, but, damn it, I spent 14 weeks learning all of these and I'm going to use 'em!
"We're not talking here about showing off or making other people feel dumb."
My dad once told me, "When you use words that nobody else knows, it makes you look stupid."
Davenport, Frigidaire, Hoover, aeroplane, motorcar, flicks, bitchin, boss, stiction
Laconic
I started hearing 'sus' a lot in the last year. (Short for suspicious, "That guy seems pretty sus to me."). I remember using that in a different sort of way, as in 'sussing' something out, mostly in programming or analytics, i.e., "Let's change the starting parameters and sus it out from there." (M-W says it's from at least the 1920s)
I think I recall that Rush Limbaugh used the word "Bloviate".
Bill O'Reilly used bloviate a lot. He tried a few others, like jackanape, too.
I love the word "pandemonium". It sounds like a fun infection, and it kind of is.
You can get the same effect just by listening to a lot of Norm MacDonald. You'll laugh and you'll speak like the Ol Chunk of Coal you are.
I always liked eft as an adjective, like the eftest way to get something done, and I think it still means baby newt, but I am not going to look it up, eftsoons is probably hopeless
Chesterfield. Viceroy.
My recollection is that "skedaddle" usage in the 60s-70's was not so rare as to be eyebrow-raising. But it was considered rural, non-standard English, it seems to me.
Perfectly copacetic, maybe even cromulent.
If 'skedaddle' is unfamiliar to you, you need to read more about the ACWABAWS.
I hope you will not object if I also offer my most enthusiastic contrafribularities.
Oh, I’m sorry. I’m anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctious to have caused you such pericombobulation.
"...I hope these kids today are doing it because it's fun, it's mind-sharpening, and it's aesthetically pleasing...."
I agree. But our language has been deteriorating from long before people became preoccupied with their cell phones 24/7. I remember reading Portis' True Grit and being entertained by the sharp wit displayed so laconically with an economical choice of words, a skill that was prized back then. It's terrific exercise, and it's good to see these social skills being returned to the commonplace world. Life is much more entertaining when you really communicate, and treat conversation as a form of play.
I'd like to see Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer get the bum's rush next election day.
Yep, 23 Skidoo, Small Change !
Boomer language was pretty lame. Yiddish has always been a great source of words, like bupkis, or nosh. The Cohen Brothers "Millers Crossing" is a great look into early 20th century English. 'whats the rumpus" and 'dangle' come to mind. "If I'd known we were casting our feelings into words, I'd have memorized the Song of Solomon."
The deuce, you say!
I have used bloviate my whole life.
I use it frequently on X when I know people are just spouting talking points they read elsewhere.
"Undue delay" sounds like a type of French poetry.
Rush Limbaugh was absolutely, 100% responsible for pushing "bloviate" from niche political and oratory discussions into common usage. It wasn't rare before him, but certainly not common.
His ads were responsible for the rise of the Snapple beverage brand and Gold Bond medicated powder.
If this topic catches your fancy, allow me to recommend a 1999 movie, "Man of the Century." This is about a man who, by language, clothes, and deportment, is living in the 1920s in the midst of 1990s New York. In fact, there is a small group of such people and they work and interact with contemporary (i.e., 1990s) New Yorkers and no-one at all seems aware of any incongruity, except occasionally the girlfriend of the protagonist seems puzzled. If I remember correctly, the movie ends with a 1920s party with Bobby Short playing the 1927 hit "Nagasaki," a catchy tune that I had never heard before.
The Democrats who were lachrymose over the loss of Biden as a candidate just a few months ago have utterly forgotten the man. He may be happily eating ice cream; he may be bloviating to his mirror. The party doesn't care. He's lost his moxie and now it's sayonara, Joe, don't let the door hit you on your way out.
Althouse said " it's fun, it's mind-sharpening, and it's aesthetically pleasing. " and I will second that sentiment. I've gone so far as to end the occasional message with "your obedient servant" .
My son uses the words “Jallopy” and “Toots” not infrequently. The latter is so antiquated and sexist that it never fails to crack me up.
WhoKnew - I really hope you abbreviate it as "yr. obdt. svt."
(of course then it could be misinterpreted as Your Obdurate Savant. Which describes me....) CC, JSM
"Man of the Century": great concept, not so good execution. The main character, Johnny Twennies, though, is hard to forget. The 20s give us an energetic, ebullient, positive vision of city life, in spite of (or because of) the gangsters, bootleggers, and corrupt politicians.
The 1970s gave us "Happy Days," Sha-Na-Na and "Grease," a Fifties revival. In 1990s there was a retro revival of interest in Sinatra and the Rat Pack. Young people now are going back even further, maybe a sign that originality really is dead.
There was a big revival of Gay Nineties stuff in the 1970s. I think it's because a bunch of copyrights expired, so there was a lot of clip art. But you also had original projects: Ragtime, Upstairs-Downstairs, Westerns set at the closing of the frontier, etc. Maybe it's because that time period had just slipped out of living memory. CC, JSM
'Trollop' needs to come back in vogue, IMO.
"Shut your yap" and "Shut your pie hole" have never gone away because of their comic overtones.
Hoodwink is another one that's never gone away.
Skeddadle and the Civil war reminds of this song:
Just before the battle mother
I was drinking mountain dew
When we saw the Rebs a marchin'
To the rear we quickly flew
Where the stragglers were a flyin'
Thinking of their homes and wives.
Was not the Rebs they feared,
Dear Mother
But their own dear precious lives.
I agree completely that "trollop" needs to come back into use. I am also tickled that the the poster suggesting this is named Anthony.
Nobody drives a jalopy anymore.
I'm all for little kids talking like characters from a James Ellroy novel.
I'm waiting for the phrase "Don't make a Federal case of it." to come back.
Gerda Sprinchorn (9:41am):
Another word like 'noisome', which looks like it must mean something that it does not in fact mean, is 'crapulent'. Nothing to do with excrement, it means 'hung over'. Or maybe more broadly, feeling the way a hung-over person generally feels, possibly from some cause other than alcohol: headache, dry mouth, general misery.
My most memorable line from Juno was when the title character referred to her pregnancy as "shenanigans" in complete seriousness. I should watch that movie again.
Google tells me that "crapulous" is hung over, and "crapulent" is drunk.
The things you learn.
My wife discovered "apricity"--the warmth of the sun in winter.
As the temps climbed into the low 40's today, apricity is much in evidence.
My niece used to write for Jalopnik
Leora, I say "Geez, don't make a federal case out of a right turn!" frequently. Always have.
And the AI list approaches:
Old Colloquial Words
Wet Sock: A limp handshake or a dull person in Australia.
Happy Cabbage: A sizable amount of money to be spent on self-satisfying things.
Pang-Wangle: To live or go along cheerfully in spite of minor misfortunes.
In the Ketchup: In the red or operating at a deficit.
Flub the Dub: To evade one's duty.
Pine Overcoat: A coffin.
A Butter and Egg Man: A wealthy but unsophisticated small-town businessman who acts like a playboy when he visits the big city.
Zib: A nincompoop.
Give Someone the Wind: To jilt a suitor.
Bags O’ Mystery: A sausage.
Maybe the old feels more authentic.
This may be my favorite thread in over twenty years! (Or maybe it's the Vicodin - I'm out of knee replacement surgery and home. Thank you to all who sent good thoughts and advice my way!)
In my family we use "huzzah" and "shenanigans" all the time - like, all the time. For a while I decided to make "land o' Goshen" happen, but no dice.
When I'm not so sleepy, I plan to peruse this thread for words I can make happen, at least amongst the fam.
I couldn't resist this one: The Flat Feet Floogie with the Floy Floy.
Even better is the name of the group: Slim & Slam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4CFRnhZj-s
In the US, at least where I grew up, a couch was a "davenport" and in Canada, it was a "Chesterfield," now they are just couches or sofas.
Wow, kind of a cheap shot at Buckley! I don’t favor the use of obscure words in general writing, but there are plenty of reasons one might other than to make others feel dumb. Seems uncharacteristically parsimonious of you ;) I can no more read his mind than you, but seems to me he loved language and took great joy in using words that fit his sentiment exactly. His line for what might be too obscure certainly excluded fewer words than many, but I’d rather err on the side of including more words than fewer.
Incidentally, I’d recommend the History of English podcast for anyone interested in language. Starts with the proto-Indo-European, so it’s taking me forever to get through, but fascinating!
Do the semantic two step and we'll have a gay old time, is a fetus.. feature, baby.
Bill O'Reilly uses bloviate routinely
I never quit using "yap".
One verbal oddity of our family, with its Wild West ranching heritage, is the frequent use of the word "breeches" instead of "pants" or "trousers", although when written out, it was always spelled "britches".
I noticed when I was in school that other kids from old local families used the word, while those who had moved in from elsewhere did not. I have never heard anyone else use it outside the rural Southwest.
I have an English cousin from a posh family of the rural gentry who says "wireless" instead of "radio".
Give Someone the Wind: To jilt a suitor.
The word "jilt" is pretty long in the tooth too. Most kids these days would say "dump", I think, or "ghost" if they abruptly went no-contact.
a user on Bluesky who suggested, 'We should bring back the word "spake," e.g. "Thus spake my friend Jeff."
A lot of people who are familiar with the word recall it from Nietzsche's book Thus Spake Zarathustra, but for me it always brings to mind Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome and a passage my grandfather used to quote, which I also memorized at a pretty young age:
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods?"
The whole thing is worth reading.
A lot of these words are alive in regional dialects that are frowned on by people who want to be viewed as these regional bumpkin's betters.
My dear friend's mom ( Ethel) told her son to put up the lunch meat, which meant to put it back in the refrigerator.
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