Allan Metcalf - America in So Many Words: Words That Have Shaped America
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This unique and fascinating history of this countrys language, chronicles, year by year, the contributions which have been made to the vocabulary of English and the words which have been embraced as the nation has evolved.
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America in So Many Words : Words That Have Shaped America
author
:
Barnhart, David K.; Metcalf, Allan A.
publisher
:
Houghton-Mifflin Trade and Reference
isbn10 | asin
:
0395860202
print isbn13
:
9780395860205
ebook isbn13
:
9780585077529
language
:
English
subject
English language--United States--Etymology, English language--United States--History, United States--History--Terminology, Americanisms--History.
publication date
:
1997
lcc
:
PE2831.B37 1997eb
ddc
:
422/.0973
subject
:
English language--United States--Etymology, English language--United States--History, United States--History--Terminology, Americanisms--History.
Page ii
Disclaimer: [Some images in the original hard copy book are not available for inclusion in the netLibrary eBook.]
The inclusion of any word or phrase in this book is not an expression of the Publisher's opinion as to whether or not it is subject to proprietary rights. No word in this book is to be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark.
Copyright 1997 by David K. Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Houghton Mifflin Company unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Address inquiries to Reference Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barnhart, David K. America in so many words: words that have shaped America / David K. Barn hart and Allan A. Metcalf. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-395-86020-2 1. English languageUnited StatesEtymology. 2. English languageUnited StatesHistory. 3. United StatesHistoryTerminology. 4. Americanisms History. I. Metcalf, Allan A. II. Title. PE2831.B37 1997 422'.0973DC21 97-14510
Manufactured in the United States of America
DOH1098765432
Page iii
CONTENTS
Introduction: Representative Words
v
Note on Sources
x
Acknowledgments
xii
America in So Many Words
The English in America: 1497-1750
1
These United States: 1751-1800
60
Mammoth Enterprise: 1801-1865
102
End of the Frontier: 1866 -1900
163
Modern Times: 1901-1944
198
Nearing the Millennium: 1945-1998
241
Indexes
Word Index
295
Chronological Index
305
Page v
INTRODUCTION: REPRESENTATIVE WORDS
America is built of words. Here are the best and the brightest of them, one for each year.
We Americans have added tens of thousands of words to the English language in the nearly four hundred years since speakers of English began living on this continent. A few of these words, like sockdolager (1827) and tintinnabulation (1845),ring in our minds because of their oddity. But the most telling, and the most important, are ordinary building blocks of our everyday conversations: apple pie (1697), mileage (1753), commuter (1865),gridlock (1980), even hello (1885). They are so familiar it is hard to imagine they were once new.
This is a book that notices those words. Year by year, it shows words that have accumulated in our vocabulary to make us what we are today: OK (1839) and nifty (1863), cool (1949) and groovy (1937),geek (1978) and soccer mom (1996). Not all at once but bit by bit, the words we now take for granted have developed the American character.
For each year since the middle of the century of American independence, and for many earlier years from the time of the first English-speaking settlements, this book highlights one word or phrase of special significance that was added to the
Page vi
vocabulary in the particular year. Most of these words have retained or added to their importance in the years since. They designate the things we talk about, the attitudes we take. They are the names we call ourselves.
Our choicest American words, for the most part, are for practical use rather than grand pronouncements. We could say they are Representative words, not Senatorial words. In fact, when we make our most profound statements of principle, we employ language that is universal rather than identifiably American. "When in the course of human events ..." employs no particularly American vocabulary, nor "Four score and seven years ago ..." nor" I have a dream....'' These use philosophical, religious, and everyday terms that were already in the common stock of English. For distinctively American vocabulary we look instead to the journals
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