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Quote of the Day: Words
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’
— Lewis Carroll
It does rather feel like we have fallen through the looking glass. Look at all the words that have radically changed meaning over the last few years: pride, woke, gay (or rather Pride, Woke, Gay). People behaving identically to the brownshirt and blackshirt fascists of the 1920s and 1930s now call themselves Anti-fascists and do so unironically. Fascist means what they want it to mean – those who oppose them politically. So does racist.
Even more frustrating, the new meanings shift as you try to pin them down. Try to define Woke, and the Woke Folk will shout you down, claiming your definition is inaccurate. Or, as Secretary Mayorkas did in a Senate hearing earlier this week, come out against “assault rifles” without being able to define an assault rifle. The term means just what he chooses it to mean.
The behavior of a 28-year-old woman is dismissed as a result of her youth. Yes, she shot up a school and killed six people (including three nine-year-old children) but she was too young to understand what she was doing. She may have been too crazy to understand the impact of her actions, but at 28, she was not too young. In World War II, men as young as and younger than 28 commanded submarines on war patrols. At that age, Beethoven was starting to write his first symphony. Millions were parents and raising children. For that matter, James Dean had been dead four years and Buddy Holly had been dead six years before what would have been their 28th birthdays. Twenty-eight is an adult.
Which brings to mind my middle son’s least-favorite word: adulting. He is exasperated with the whole concept. He is a man who embraced the responsibilities and privileges of being an adult at an early age. He has been living on his own since his late teens, and held a job as an engineer since his mid-twenties.
He used to try to get a rise out of me in his late 20s by telling me by the time he was 30, he would be making more than I did. (He stopped after I told him, “Do you know what that means? It means I’ve won.” Every parent’s goal should be to have their children do better than them.) He believes the word and the concept behind it is contrived. I agree.
It is yet another example of making words mean just what someone chooses it to mean — neither more nor less. Don’t dare question whether you can make words take arbitrary meanings. If you do, that means you are a fascist. Or a racist. Or something.
Published in Group Writing
Booyah!
Anyone else remember when gay was simply a word meaning happy?
Isaac Asimov once wrote, “The dictionary defines gay as ‘excited with merriment.’ Go into a bar and tell some husky guy who is excited with merriment and tell him ‘You’re gay.’ and see what happens.” (This was back in the late ’70s or early’80s.)
The word has a complex history, and has meant different things (sometimes at the same time) across centuries. What’s depressing about the current era is that we’re not allowed to acknowledge that’s the case.
The meaning of a particular word may change over time, but the fact that’s the case really doesn’t have anything to do with the political persuasions of those who use it. Sometimes (as Freud might have said), a word is just a word.
Don’t know why, but reminds me of “Zorro, The Gay Blade” (1981)
I object to words as things that can be owned. The ‘N-word’, and ‘queer’ for example. My people can say it, your people cannot.
It’s not that I want to say these words – I do use ‘queer’ in its original meaning, usually as a verb.
The point is, words are either out of bounds or they are not.
As for ‘adulting’, it is infantilizing as it makes behaviors long considered the minimum into something noteworthy.
Which has the effect of making what was once considered noteworthy that much more difficult to imagine.
When I first came to Portland in the early 1960s, there was a very successful chain of men’s clothing stores called “The Gay Blade.” Now long gone (or maybe they now sell dresses?)
There’s nowt as queer as folk.
Amen. When white people are fired or have their reputations destroyed for using racial slurs that are commonly and flippantly used by black people, those words are being used as a trap. I wish the next white person to suffer under this double standard would just declare that he’s actually black and how dare anyone doubt his claim?
This post is part of the Ricochet Quote of the Day group writing project. Most of the days in this new month are still available for you to sign up here. If you haven’t done a Ricochet or a QOTD post before, it’s a great way to get started and organize your thoughts. And most QOTD posts get promoted to the main feed, if you’re into that sort of thing.
When I was in college, there was a mens’ store nearby called The Gay Blade. It wasn’t too long, however, before it began to be referred to as “The Fencing Fairy”.
This reminds me of when President Clinton quibbled before a grand jury about “what the meaning of the word “is” is.” That was one of the finest moments in presidential word parsing. (By finest, of course I mean ludicrous.)
Someone later, I cannot recall who and cannot find a reference to it on the internet, said something to the effect of “Mr. President, words have meaning and I know what the meaning of the word “is” is. I think it was G. Gordon Liddy but can’t be sure.
The worst ones are when someone is destroyed for quoting or singing along to a rap song that uses the word.
It used to be the cusp of middle aged. I wonder if prolonging adolescence has been a good thing for humanity. It used to be a relatively brief period, when it even existed at all. It now seems to extend into traditional adulthood and is pushing back taking up responsibilities in unuseful ways.
I think it’s a bad thing. I raised my children to be adults at their earliest opportunity.
I am inclined to agree with you. It was in effect an effort to keep young adults out of the labor market for longer. Thus limiting the competition for labor at the front end. It may have had a positive effect in allowing more people to pursue a longer education, when that education was worthwhile. At this point it just seems to be a cul-de-sac that unfortunately some set of people can’t find a means to escape.