1921 Words

 

 

As always at the New Year, it is interesting to see some words that are celebrating their hundredth birthday, some older than you think and others younger. These are the first appearance in print that the OED has found.

arms race, n.

 1. Competition between nations, regimes, etc., in the accumulation, development, or testing of weapons, esp. nuclear weapons.

1921   San Francisco Business 14 Oct. 5   Crushing burden entailed through international arms race.

 

atom bomb, n.

  A bomb which derives its destructive power from the sudden release of a large amount of energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei, causing damage through heat, blast, and radioactivity. Abbreviated A-bomb. Cf. atomic bomb n., hydrogen bomb n. at hydrogen n. Compounds 1a(b).With reference to quot. 1921, H. G. Wells's use is cited at quot. 1914 at atomic bomb n.

1921   Color Trade Jrnl. 9 2/2   There is no remedy excepting that of blowing up Paris by an atom bomb as forecasted by H. G. Wells some years ago.

 

blankie, n.

nursery and colloquial (chiefly North American).

  A blanket, esp. a child's security blanket.

1921   L. W. Kline & C. J. France in G. S. Hall Aspects Child Life & Educ. 257   Had a little blanket she would not go to sleep without. She always cried ‘My blankie, my blankie,’ till she got it.

 

booze cruise, n.

colloquial.

 1. Originally U.S. History. During the Prohibition era: a cruise on which passengers were taken just far enough from the shoreline to be outside U.S. jurisdiction, so that they could buy and consume alcohol legally; (also, more generally) a boat trip on which the passengers drink a considerable amount of alcohol, often as part of a dinner-dance or similar event.

1921   Olympia (Washington) Daily Recorder 18 Apr. 1/7 (headline)    Would be Booze Cruise Ends with Drowning and Loss of Boat and Cargo

 

bugger-all, n. and adj. 

slang (chiefly British, Australian, and New Zealand).  

  Nothing at all, absolutely nothing.

1921   Notes & Queries 19 Nov. 418/2   The word ‘nothing’ was replaced in the Army by ‘b——r-all’—‘I did b——r-all’; ‘There was b——r-all to eat’.

 

comparison shopping, n.

Originally U.S.

  The action of comparing (the prices of) the same or similar products or services as offered by different retailers, manufacturers, etc. Also in extended use. Frequently attributive.

1921   M. H. Tolman Positions of Responsibility in Department Stores ii. §D. 84   Two comparison shopping executives had been secretaries to members of the management.

 

ee bah gum, int. and adj.

 A. int.

  English regional (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire). Expressing surprise, delight, wonder, etc.

1921   R. P. Weston & B. Lee in Catal. Copyright Entries: Pt. 3 (Libr. of Congr. Copyright Office) 16 305/2 (title of song)    Eeh! by gum, it were a real fine do!

 

fascism, n. 1.

 a. Usually with capital initial. A nationalist political movement that controlled the government of Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945); the principles or ideology of the fascisti (fascista n. 1a). See also fascist n. 1a, Fascismo n., and cf. sense 1b. Now historical.The movement grew out of the nationalist fasci which became prominent at the end of the First World War (1914–18), esp. with the formation of the militantly anti-communist and anti-socialist Fasci di Combattimento by Mussolini in 1919. After the formation of a coherently organized Fascist party in 1921, Mussolini became prime minister in 1922, leading to the eventual establishment of a totalitarian Fascist state.

1921   Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 1 Feb. 2/3   No doubt fascism is a transitory phenomenon.

 

Hicksville, n.

Forms: 

α. 19– Hickville.

β. 19– Hicksville.Originally and chiefly U.S.

  (The type of) an unsophisticated, rural, small town.

1921   E. O'Neill Straw i. ii. 46   Making a note that a tug boat towed two barges loaded with coal up the river, that Mrs. Perkins spent a weekend with relatives in Hickville.

 

 

junk mail, n.

Originally North American.

 1. Unwanted or unsolicited mail or post, typically in the form of circulars, advertisements, etc., sent to a large number of addresses.

1921   Legislative, Executive, & Judicial Appropriation Bill: Hearing before U.S. Senate Comm. on Appropriations (66th Congr., 2nd Sess.) II. 2353   What we call the junk mail comes in just the same. There is no let-up at all in that, and all of that has to be handled.

 

oops, int. and n.

Etymology: Perhaps shortened < upsidaisy int. (compare whoops int. and quot. 1925 at that entry), or perhaps a natural exclamation which has become confused with upsidaisy int.

colloquial. A. int.

  Expressing apology, dismay, or surprise, esp. after an obvious but usually minor mistake.

1921   Washington Post 1 Nov. 21/4   Oops, muh dear, it's in the last where the dirty work takes place.

 

 

ringtone, n.

Telecommunications.

 1. The sound produced in a caller's telephone to indicate that a connection with the number dialled has been made and the called phone is ringing; = ringing tone n. at ringing n.¹ Compounds.

1921   Kansas City (Missouri) Star 1 Jan. 9   Listen for the busy signal or the reverting ring tone which tells you your party is being rung.

 

tear-jerker, n.

colloquial (originally U.S.).

  Something calculated to evoke sadness or sympathy, usually a sentimental film, play, song, story, etc. Also applied to a person and, rarely, to an event.

1921   Double Dealer II. 143/2   But no one today, I believe, mistakes his [sc. James Whitcomb Riley's] productions for anything but somewhat shallow, fairly easy tear-jerkers.

 

to-do, adj.

Originally U.S.

  Chiefly in to-do list: designating a (notional) list of tasks requiring attention or completion, sometimes ordered by priority. Also: designating an item in such a list.

1921   Fort Wayne (Indiana) Jrnl. 6 Nov. iii. 2/8   Again she consulted her ‘To Do’ list.

 

 

zaftig, adj.

Etymology: < Yiddish zaftik, literally ‘juicy’ < German saftig juicy (already in Middle High German as saffec , saffic ) < Saft juice (see sap n.¹) + -ig -y suffix¹.

North American. colloquial.

  Of a woman: having a full, rounded figure; plump.

1921   Broadway Brevities Dec. 20   Isn't Diana Allen getting very zoftig?

 

Photo by Natalie Dmay on Unsplash

 

 

Shots and jabs

 

The news is all about the new COVID-19 vaccines. Thank God (and armies of scientists) for them.

But have you noticed that while we in North America will be lining up for our "shots", people in Britain go for "jabs"?

I have to say that "jab" has always had rather violent connotations for me, as if the medical professional were to come hurtling at me and aggressively poke my arm with the hypodermic (possibly even with a blood-curdling yell). I expect for the British these violent connotations have faded away, just as they have for us with "shot".  I doubt that any North American heading into the flu shot clinic has visions of their pharmacist whipping out a gun and unloading vaccine-laden bullets into their arm.

Both of these words seem to have started their injection-related careers in American drug users' slang in the early 20th century. By the 1930s "shot" had started on its path to respectability, and by the 60s was a quite standard term for injections.

By the 1980s "jab" had become the standard term in Britain. I have no idea why British English opted for this while other varieties preferred "shot," but such are the ways of language.

"Shot" is a very old word, dating from Anglo-Saxon times. "Jab" is a much more recent word, dating from the 1820s, but it is derived from an older Scottish word "job", used of a bird poking with its beak, possibly in imitation of the sound made by the bird.

For the story behind "vaccine", please click here:

https://katherinebarber.blogspot.com/2011/12/dont-have-cow.html

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Sanitizer and sanity

 

We are all adjured to use sanitizer at every opportunity. 

But, if "sane" means "of sound mind", why does its derivative "sanitize" not mean "make someone sane"? After all, they are derived from the same Latin root, sānus (healthy). How convenient would that be, to have some kind of "sanitizing" shampoo which eliminated all kinds of craziness!

But there has been a semantic divergence: "sanitize" and its related word "sanitary"  are for physical health, whereas the root word "sane" and its derivative "sanity" are only for mental health.

 "Sane", like so many Latin words, was borrowed into English in the 16th century, a little later than "sanity", at which time both words did refer to physical health (as, of course, sain does in French).  This meaning, however, was subsequently overtaken by the "mental health" sense so that by the 19th century the "physical health" sense was lost. This was probably due to the fact that its opposite, "insane", has only ever meant "of unsound mind", dating from when it too was borrowed in the 16th century. This was true also of its Latin source insānus.

"Sanitize" dates from 1836 and "sanitizer" from the mid 20th century, so they were not in fact derived from what "sane" meant in English at the time but from the original Latin meaning.