(HOST) Commentary Nancy Nahra likes words, and how they can evolve to accommodate changing attitudes. Recently, she’s noticed a relatively new set of words that have very old roots that are surprisingly domestic.
(NAHRA) Our young country, so new compared to the Old Word, likes being modern. We like change, even in our vocabulary. Our reality changes at a good clip, and language runs to keep up.
Sometimes we borrow an item and take the word that comes with it, like “tofu” or “futon”, sounding alike but not related.
Our language has its own tool kit that lets us put together elements to make words we seem to lack. Lately I’ve heard a new one used to mean giving people an incentive to do something. It’s “incentivize” and I’m betting it won’t catch on because it does not sound right, somehow. We’ll see.
Only lately I have made peace with “impact” as a verb, but that’s because I remember when it was only a noun. Now, when people say, “This will impact the future of goldfish from coast to coast,” I know that it’s the current way to say “will have an impact on” – and that it had to change. It’s faster to make a noun into a verb. My mother’s generation grew up hearing “contact” only as a noun, such as “We’ll put you in contact with the right office” until people started using “contact” as a verb. Language happens and keeps happening.
But sometimes changes are truly radical. That’s more than shifting a word you already had, or playing with its parts. Look at the way we make (not borrow) a new name for something that seems entirely new – and we’ve all seen that happen.
Here’s what I mean. A generation ago people never referred to “ecological” concerns, mostly because they did not think about them. But after Rachel Carson and Earth Day changed that awareness, we needed to talk about a new reality. That meant making new words.
You can see the question coming: What about all those “eco-“words? Where did they come from – words like “ecosystem,” “ecology” and even “eco-freak”? Those obvious first cousins are all related to the natural order.
Fine. They should look alike. Then what about “economics”? It’s not new, but it looks related to “ecology”. Well, that’s because it is. All our “eco”-starting words have the same Greek ancestor, “oikos”, the word for house. There’s even an ancient book in that language called “Economics” and it’s about exactly that, what we would call household management.
There’s a lot of sense in it, if you stop and think. Housekeeping has to do with managing what you have on hand, figuring out good ways to use some, reserve some, and take steps to make sure you’ll have enough later on – whether it’s olive oil or money. And ecological concerns mark a path to help the global village not run out of what we need.
So many words for new sciences that are really all about keeping our house in order.
Nancy Nahra is Professor of Humanities at Champlain College.