Difference between revisions of "Essay:Surprising Dates of Origin for Terms"

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(incorrigible - 1300s - This term means incapable or unwilling to be corrected. Liberals have been around since the 1300s?!)
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One can learn history simply by skimming a dictionary that has the date of origin for terms.  But there are many surprises.  Add to our growing list:
 
  
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{| class="wikitable"
 
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|-
 
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!New Term
 
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!Origin date
 
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!Comments
 
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|-
 
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|android
 
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|1727
 
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|Before being picked up by science fiction writers, the word was simply an adjective meaning "humanlike".
 
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|-
 
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|Biblical
 
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|1780-1790
 
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|It's hard to imagine such a late date of origin.  Perhaps the word became necessary as an increasing number of people turned away from the authority of the Bible?
 
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|-
 
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|[[busybody]]
 
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|1526
 
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|This problem predates [[Facebook]] by nearly 500 years!
 
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|-
 
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|continental drift
 
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|1926
 
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|that's surprisingly recent for such a simple concept; wonder what held it up?
 
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|-
 
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|bill of rights
 
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|1798
 
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|Wow: that's many years ''after'' it was added to the Constitution!
 
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|-
 
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|corvette
 
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|1636
 
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|Perhaps you thought a car company in Detroit invented this name for a sports car?  Not by a long shot: it was a type of warship ranked just below a frigate
 
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|-
 
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|dead hand
 
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|1300s
 
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|an oppressive, unjustified influence of the past; this problem is not new, and led to the [[Rule Against Perpetuities]] in property law
 
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|-
 
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|dinosaur
 
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|1841
 
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|surprisingly late date of origin, the term means "terrifying lizard," which raises the question of why its real name of lizard is not used today
 
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|-
 
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|diploma
 
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|1702
 
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|The term "diploma" seems to be an invention of atheistic sentiments in the Enlightenment, and unrelated to scholarly achievement or even the development of the universities hundreds of years earlier
 
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|-
 
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|exclamation point
 
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|1824
 
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|never used, not even once, by the [[King James Version]]?
 
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|-
 
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|fission
 
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|1617
 
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|Looks like nuclear fission is not a new idea after all!
 
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|-
 
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|flagpole
 
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|1884
 
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|What did flags hang on for centuries before that?  Flag''staffs''.
 
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|-
 
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|foul play
 
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|1400s
 
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|Predates baseball by 400 years; Merriam-Webster defines it to mean violence and especially murder.
 
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|-
 
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|free will
 
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|1200s
 
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|That's surprisingly early for this terrific insight.
 
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|-
 
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|hello
 
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|1889
 
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|What was the prior greeting?  Is this surprisingly late date of origin due to the invention of the telephone?
 
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|-
 
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|incorrigible
 
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|1300s
 
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|This term means incapable or unwilling to be corrected.  Liberals have been around since the 1300s?!
 
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|-
 
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|John Hancock
 
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|1903
 
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|Why did it take more than a century for the famous signatory's name to become a colloquialism for "signature"?
 
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|-
 
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|landmark
 
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|before 1100s
 
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|Land was much more important in culture and the economy before the Information Age.
 
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|-
 
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|landlord
 
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|before 1100s
 
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|Think landlord problems are new?  This is one of the very oldest words in the English language.  That revelation then opens one's eyes to what the word really is:  Lord of the land, in the feudal system.
 
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|-
 
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|pole vault
 
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|1890
 
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|Apparently this was not a recognized athletic field event much before the revival of the Olympics in 1896.
 
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|-
 
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|separation of church and state
 
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|1802
 
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|More than ten years ''after'' the adoption of the [[First Amendment]], the least Christian of the early presidents ([[Thomas Jefferson]]) used the phrase for the first time in an appeasing letter to Baptists. (It's also important to note that he used the term to assure them that their religious rights took precedence over the government--not the other way around.)  The Supreme Court did not endorse this phrase until the liberal Justice [[Hugo Black]] used the term in 1947 (''[[Everson v. Board of Education]]'').  (The Court also quoted from the Jefferson without endorsing the phrase in the 1879 polygamy case of ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'').
 
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|-
 
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|theism
 
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|1678
 
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|Nearly a hundred years after "[[atheism]]" (1587).  Perhaps such an obvious position that no word was required until atheism became more widespread?
 
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|-
 
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|worldwide
 
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|1632
 
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|Did people really think in terms of the entire world nearly 400 years ago?  Apparently so.
 
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|}
 
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== See also ==
 
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*[[Essay:Best New Conservative Words]]
 
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[[Category:Essays]]
 

Revision as of 23:09, June 11, 2012

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