New Words

Language is a living thing. Some words fall out of favor while new ones regularly become part of the lexicon. Case in point, a minor celeb being interviewed recently talked of the unrich. Interesting word you won’t find in the dictionary, at least not in mine. The concept it brings to mind is easy to understand. Some people are rich while others are not, therefore they can be thought of as unrich although it is far from being a focused word. Unrich can certainly cover anyone from those who make what one of my aunts called “a comfortable living” to homeless people.

Many word formulations begin to appear as a result of efforts to be politically correct. People are no longer very short or very tall, they are vertically challenged, people are no longer crippled, they are physically tested; people are no longer gay but rather embracing an alternative lifestyle, people are not getting older, they are simply no longer immature, a point reached at varying ages, of course, by both the rich and unrich.

New words appear all the time in this age of accelerating innovations. Hashtag is in every tweeter’s lexicon these days, but it’s not a new symbol. In my day, it was simply the “number” symbol. It still is as far as I know. And on social media, you’re free to like something, or unlike; your choice. The online dictionaries are forever adding new words or new meanings to old words, or breathing new life into nouns and adjectives by making them verbs.

And it doesn’t apply only to new technology. These dictionaries list things like chandelier earrings and double denim (wearing a denim top or jacket with jeans or a denim skirt, a fashion faux-pas it seems). Also new in dictionaries are “food” words like deskfast (eating breakfast at one’s desk); dirty food (junk food); and demitarian (reducing one’s consumption of meat and animal products); without forgetting everyone’s favorite: the cronut (a cross between a doughnut and a croissant).

As a no longer immature unrich, I find trying to keep up a lot of fun.