My wife and I both have high school class reunions scheduled this summer. In my case it will be a 50-year reunion. It got me thinking how much the language we use has changed since I graduated from high school half a century ago. The dictionaries we used in those days are totally obsolete now.
Take for instance:
- Chipotle. The dried, smoked, red jalapeno flavoring so popular in Mexican and Tex-Mex foods these days was brought here from central Mexico in recent years.
- The Internet. It wasn’t even a gleam in Al Gore’s eye in those days (he was only 9). Also information superhighway, online, Microsoft, World Wide Web, dot-com, Web site, desktop publishing and a lot of other terms relating to the use of computers to contact virtually anyone around the world.
- Cablinasian, Tiger Woods’ word for his racial derivation. African-American, which replaced black, which replaced Negro, which replaced colored. And I don’t think WASP had even been coined 50 years ago.
- Gay, which meant something entirely different in 1957. And gay marriage would have referred to the happiness and frivolity surrounding a wedding or its reception. And that’s as far as we’ll take that subject in this column.
- Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare supplement, Medicare Parts A, B, C and D.
- HDTV. Plasma TV. LED, LCD, DVD, DVR, VCR, compact disk (CD).
- iPod. Xbox. eBay. Global positioning system (GPS).
- Cell phones. Text messaging. They had the bare beginnings of car phones 50 years ago, but what they have now is something out of the Dick Tracy comic strip.
- Keyboard. Half a century ago that would have referred solely to something on a standard piano or organ.
- At this point in time. Even more recent: As we speak.
- Cholesterol. I wonder if even doctors used the word in 1957? And triglycerides, polyunsaturates, monounsaturates, trans fats and saturated fatty acids. Statins. Prozac.
- Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Ebola virus. Attention deficit disorder (ADD). Alzheimer’s (50 years ago it was still lumped with other senile dementia).
- Electronic ignition. Fuel injection, which was used only in race cars 50 years ago. Air bags. Antilock brakes. Unleaded gasoline. E-85. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Nissan, etc.
- Speaking of Al Gore, global warming. Fifty years ago the worry was nuclear winter.
- Watergate. Monica Lewinsky. Iran-Contra. Stagflation. Hanging chad.
- Microwave ovens. Cappuccino. Mocha latte. Starbuck’s.
- Automatic teller machines (ATMs). Magnetic credit and debit cards. Online banking.
- Recycling.
- Identity theft and other crimes fostered by the Internet.
- Laser surgery, tummy tucks, radial keratotomy and Lasik eye surgery (hard contacts were state of the art in 1957). Cochlear implants. Heart, lung and liver transplants. Knee and hip replacements. Pacemakers. Defibrillators.
By the time this column goes into print we may well see half a dozen new words or expressions relating to the breakneck speed with which we are living and inventing these days. After all, 50 years ago, who would ever have thought I could write a weekly column in the comfort of my home without using a typewriter, or even a pen or pencil, and send it to this newspaper’s office without ever moving from my chair? And get paid for it without having to go to the office or even to the bank? Or that you could comment on it without even having to write a letter?
Jim Bailey’s column appears on Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at jameshenrybailey@earthlink.net.
