New Ways with Old Words (and Punctuation) – Part 2

Last week’s post was the first part of this two-part article. Among other things, we talked about repurposing words with new “tech” meanings and new parts of speech.

With a new word added to the language every two hours (want a new word? wait 120 minutes!), there is always something new for word lovers to learn. Now there is actually a new word that means “word lover”: wordie, which is of course patterned after such words as foodie (food lover) and groupie (lovers of some musical group). 

We all remember the coining of the term Amber Alert some years ago, an alert given out when a child is missing. Now there is the Silver Alert, which informs the public when an elderly person is missing.

It seems very current to combine two words to make a new word. We have mansplaining and hangry, but there are others:

Antifa is a combination of anti and Fascist. 
If going to the Holiday Inn is your idea of camping, you are glamping, a combination of camping and glamorous. Actually, the term probably refers more to a fancy RV than to a motel!
Then, of course, there are the myriad hybrid dog breeds: schnoodle, Yorkie poo, chiweenie, labradoodle—you name it— they used to be called “mutts,” but now fetch (excuse the pun) high prices with their new, fancy names.

Remember when apple was lowercase and was just a fruit? When you type apple into your phone now, you may be autocorrected to use an uppercase A. 

Punctuation is not immune to changing connotations. In 2016 grammarian David Crystal noticed a change in the period, or full stop. At a British writer’s festival, he announced that no longer was the period a simple sentence ender. Particularly in text messages, the period has become rather passive-aggressive:

Your friend texts: Let’s meet at the cafe at 3

You text back: Fine.

Would you be friendlier if you texted back simply Fine

?????

Don’t miss next week’s post: “Tainted Words”. . .