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Naturally the young are more inclined to novelty than their
elders and it is in their speech, as it always was, that most of
the verbal changes originate. But listening critically to their
talk I hear hardly any new words. It is all a matter of using
old words in a new way and then copying each other, for much as
they wish to speak differently from their parents, they want
even more to speak like people of their own age. A new usage
once took time to spread, but now a pop star can flash it across
the world in hours.
Of course it is not only the young who like to use the latest
in-word. While they are describing their idols as smashing,
great, fab or cosmic, their parents and the
more discriminating of the younger set are also groping for
words of praise that are at once apt and fashionable. However,
their choice of splendid, brilliant, fantastic
and so on will in turn be slightly dimmed by over-use and need
replacement.
Magic is a theme that has regularly supplied words of praise (and
the choice must betray something in our nature). Charming,
entrancing and enchanting are all based on it. So
also is marvellous, which has been used so much that some
of its magic has faded while among teenagers wizard had a
great run. Another of this group, though you might not think it,
is glamorous, which was all the rage in the great days of
Hollywood. Glamour was a Scottish dialect form of "grammar"
or "grammarye", which itself was an old word for enchantment.
(Grammar means the study of words, and words have always
been at the heart of magic.) The change from "r" to "I" may have
come about through the association with words like gleaming
and glittering.
On the whole, when a new word takes over the old ones remain,
weakened but still in use, so that the total stock increases all
the time. But some that start only as slang and never rise above
that class can disappear completely. "Did you really say
ripping when you were young?" my granddaughter asked me,
rather like asking if I ever wore a suit of armour. Of course I
did and it was no sillier than smashing, which some of
her contemporaries are still saying. |
