Enjoy!

This week I was involved in a facebook discussion about the use of "Enjoy!" as uttered by waiters. The discussion started off with someone identifying this as an anachronism when she heard it in the recent movie Carol, set in 1950s New York. She felt that it has only been in use in the last 15 or 25 years (and said it "raises her hackles" whenever she hears it). In the old days, waiters would use the verb transitively, with the object expressed: "Enjoy your meal!"

(There's another usage of "enjoy" that came in for criticism in the past, but we'll come to that in a minute.)

As with many things, "Enjoy!" is older than you think. I remember people complaining to me about it in the 80s, but it goes back farther than that amongst Jewish English speakers, because it seems to be of Yiddish origin. This is what the OED has to say:

[In later use, probably after dialectal Yiddish genist.]

In imperative, with ellipsis of object: take pleasure in the thing (freq. food or drink) being presented.

1876   H. James Roderick Hudson ix. 304   Don't mind the pain, and it will cease to trouble you. Enjoy, enjoy; it is your duty.

1959   H. Golden For 2¢ Plain ii. 92   When my mother served our meals..she would always say, ‘Enjoy, enjoy’... The word ‘enjoy’ was seldom used by itself. It was always repeated.

1964   Prevention July in L. M. Feinsilver Taste of Yiddish (1970) 306   Just read, enjoy, absorb!

1985   L. Sanders Fourth Deadly Sin v. 41   ‘Spend money’, he said. ‘Enjoy.’

1998   30 All Time Great Recipes (BBC Good Food) Autumn 1/1   We hope that in this selection, you will rediscover some old friends—and make some new ones as well. Enjoy!

Apart from that intriguing first quotation from Henry James, the early examples are from Jewish English speakers. It's quite possible that "Enjoy!" could have been used in a Jewish restaurant or by a Jewish waiter in the 50s, but since the scene in Carol involved neither, it clearly was an anachronism. I wish film and TV writers would pay as much attention to linguistic anachronisms as they do to other production values. (See my posts on Downton Abbey here and here and on Murdoch Mysteries here and here.)

This is from Billy Wilder's 1960 megahit movie The Apartment (both the writer, Wilder, and the character being Jewish):

MRS. DREYFUSS Here. The best thing for dizzy is a little noodle soup with chicken white meat -- and a glass tea. She sets the tray down on Fran's lap. FRAN Thank you. I'm really not hungry. MRS. DREYFUSS Go ahead! Eat! Enjoy! She hands her the soup spoon, turns to Bud.

One can only wonder if the immense popularity of this movie, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won five (including Best Picture), started "Enjoy!" out on its journey into the vocabulary of every restaurant waiter, Jew or gentile. 

It's hard to search online corpora for examples "with ellipsis of object", but already by the late 70s, The Globe and Mail was publishing this:

The church cookbook is a good book, too

Burkhart, Shirley. The Globe and Mail [Toronto, Ont] 01 Dec 1977: F.1.
...oven for 30 minutes, uncovered. Season and thicken. Enjoy.

and, as you can see from the BBC Good Food quotation in the OED, the usage was well established in British English by the end of the 90s.

In fact, there is British English evidence (referring not to food but to marijuana) from the early 90s:

Title

Jay loves Lucy. Cooper, Fiona. London: Serpent's Tail, 1991, pp. 11-154. 3899 s-units.

Francis drifted in while Jay was changing.' Sweetheart!' he said, hugging her silk-clad body, butterflying her just-rouged cheek.' Best of luck! And happy birthday to you! Here's your prezzie. I feel like one of the three wise men, love, enjoy! 

All of the above examples are in the imperative, but the logical next step would be for the verb "enjoy" to start being used "with ellipsis of object" in other circumstances. And indeed, we are starting to see this:

.

Date	1999 (19990924)
Title	CHEF DAVE HARTUNG DEMONSTRATES HOW TO PREPARE STRIPED BASS
Source	CBS_Morning

ASSURAS: Don't force yourself. If you don't like rockfish... ENGBERG: I think that I can be forced into doing this. ASSURAS: It does look like a beautiful plate. McEWEN: Mm-mm-mm. You know, I love it. Dave knows exactly... ASSURAS: Uh-huh. ENGBERG: That is just terrific. Mr-HARTUNG: Very good. ENGBERG: That is just terrific. Mr-HARTUNG: Well, I'm glad you enjoyed .

Date	2011 (110828)
Publication information	KIDSPOST; Pg. Y03
Title	Bookin^
Source	Washington Post

Almost 800 of you joined KidsPost's 2011 Summer Book Club. This year we featured books that were made into movies. We hope you thought about how books are different from movies, but mostly we hope you read and enjoyed. 

The interesting thing is that, if "enjoy" is to become a true intransitive as a result of this, it would be reverting to its very earliest usage in English, when it was borrowed from a now-obsolete French word and used to mean "To be in joy, or in a joyous state; to manifest joy, exult, rejoice."

You may be astounded and entertained to learn that this is not the first time that a usage of  "enjoy" has provoked criticism. In the 19th century some critics inveighed against "enjoy oneself" (if you can believe it).  They said that the "true" meaning of "enjoy" was "take pleasure in" and that therefore "enjoy oneself" could only mean "take pleasure [and we know exactly what kind of pleasure they had in mind] in oneself". SHOCKING!!! It goes without saying that this is a ridiculous objection to a usage that has existed since the 1600s.

All I can say is I hope you all enjoy yourselves when reading Wordlady posts.

How do YOU feel about "Enjoy!"? If you don't like it, what would you prefer waiters say to you? Let me know!

P.S. If you find the English language fascinating, you might enjoy regular updates about English usage and word origins from Wordlady. Receive every new post delivered right to your inbox! You can either:

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Fun, fun, fun

I have just started teaching a new session of my Rollicking Story of English course, and a fun time is being had by all. 

As usual, I start off right away by brainwashing, oops I mean indoctrinating, oops I mean educating my students about how, when they encounter  usages different from their own, it's better to be curious and dispassionate than to be censorious.

All the same, a student came up at the end of class to complain, oops I mean inquire about a "young people today" usage she says causes her to "roll her eyes": saying something is "so fun" rather than "such fun". I get this complaint a lot from people over 70 (most of my students being in that age group).

So, the noun "fun" has become an adjective. This is not a surprising phenomenon in English, where we can easily use any noun to modify another one. As time goes on, that noun used attributively is just treated like an adjective. Some other nouns that have also morphed into adjectives are:

1. giant
2. dowdy
3. key
4. myriad
5. standard
6. staple
7. stock
8. dismal
9. cheap 
10. genius

 "Fun" itself didn't even start out as a noun. In the 17th century, it was a verb meaning ‘‘to cheat or hoax", a dialect variant of late Middle English fon (make a fool of, be a fool), related to fon (a fool), of unknown origin. 

But in the 18th century, "fun" took on a new role as a noun, meaning "a trick or joke", and then "a kind of amusement". Samuel Johnson in his 1755 dictionary, however, was not amused. He called it "a low cant word". But obviously it served a purpose, because it stuck around.

There is attributive use of the noun "fun" (functioning effectively as an adjective) going back to the earliest years of the 20th century:

The Sigma Chi Quarterly: The Official Organ of the Sigma ...

https://books.google.ca/books?id=5hATAAAAIAAJ

1907

Boys should have fun, but, as Superintendent Cotton says : "It is generally conceded that the fun side of boys and girls does not need any coaching." The high-school fraternity does not give the right kind of fun.

The Judge - Volume 69

https://books.google.ca/books?id=mzJKAQAAMAAJ

1915 

“Film Fun”, the new magazine of the Comedy Motion Pictures, is devoted exclusively to the fun side of the films. It contains illustrations, funny stories, jokes–everything to make you happy.

The Saturday Evening Post - Volume 192, Issues 44-48 - Page 122

https://books.google.ca/books?id=8no4AQAAMAAJ

1920 

Luxury articles were in demand. Manufacturers were making big profits on them. So they kept on paying high wages to these laborers who were making luxury articles—fun stuff

Motorcycle Illustrated - Volume 18 - Page 30 

https://books.google.ca/books?id=jdI_AQAAMAAJ 

1922 

... best looking blonde and brunette, for the most expert lady drivers of sidecar outfits: for the neatest lady's riding suit; for neatest solo and sidecar outfit, including machine and driver. And still other fun events, but there isn't space to tell you all.

Boys' Life - Jul 1947 - Page 13

https://books.google.ca/books?id=OewRADmIubAC

Vol. 37, No. 7 - ‎

FOUR-MAN CANOE RACE is a standard event that calls for plenty of teamwork. Place the best canoeist in the stern to keep canoe on the straight course. NO-PADDLE RACE is a fun event.

Having made that leap to attributive adjective, it was not hard to interpret "fun" as a predicative adjective rather than as a noun in sentences like "It will be fun". Logically, then, it requires the adverb "so" to modify it, rather than "such". It seems that "so fun" is a child of the Sixties, just after my students' linguistically formative years, the earliest I have found being: 

American kaleidoscope - Page 397

https://books.google.ca/books?id=-EYIAQAAMAAJ

Julius Toldi - 1960 

9-year-old Kathleen likes art "because It is so fun and It teches me how to be a good artes and takes us away from school most lee arithmatic

Since then, it has become more and more common. Soon, no doubt, it will be as unexceptionable as using "cheap" as an adjective. 

Personally, I say "such fun" (I think), rather than "so fun". What do you say? Does "so fun" bug you?

For other words that were condemned when they first appeared but have since become standard, see this post:
http://katherinebarber.blogspot.ca/2013/10/11-surprising-language-errors-that-have.html 

P.S. If you find the English language fascinating, you might enjoy regular updates about English usage and word origins from Wordlady. Receive every new post delivered right to your inbox! If you are not already subscribed, you can either:

use the subscribe window at the top of this page

OR

(if you are reading this on a mobile device): send me an email with the subject line SUBSCRIBE at wordlady.barber@gmail.com

Privacy policy: we will not sell, rent, or give your name or address to anyone. You can unsubscribe at any point.

Also check out my upcoming Rollicking Story of the English Language courses. 

Follow me on twitter: @thewordlady