The Story of English in 100 Words (23 page)

Since the 1930s,
rep
has also been short for
repetitions
. Instructions to perform an activity repeatedly are a routine part of many sport or health programmes.
Twenty reps. Fifty reps.
How many reps does it take to strengthen a muscle? Body-builders know.

Americanism

a new nation (18th century)

The United States hadn’t been born five years before the word
Americanism
was invented. It was coined by John Witherspoon, a Scottish minister who had become president of the College of New Jersey. Writing in a Pennsylvania journal in 1781, he says he made the word up on analogy with
Scotticism
. Any usage different from what was used in Britain he would henceforth call an
Americanism
.

The word caught on and was soon applied to everything American – behaviour, customs and institutions. It was all part of the process of forging a new national identity. When Noah Webster compiled his
Compendious Dictionary
in 1806, he emphasised the word’s general meaning, defining it as a ‘love of America and preference of her interest’.

This was the first dictionary to contain words specific to the USA. We find in its pages such local items as
butternut, caucus, checkers, chowder, constitutionality, hickory, opossum, skunk
and
succotash
. And we see the first sign of the spelling innovations which would soon become the hallmark of American English, such as
color
and
defense
.

Two hundred years on, a dictionary of Americanisms would be large indeed, especially if regional variations in usage were included. The five volumes of the great
Dictionary of American Regional English
contain several thousand entries. What words do people use for a strip of grass between the sidewalk (in Britain:
pavement
) and the street? The research team found
boulevard, devil strip, grass plot, neutral ground, parking, parking strip, parkway, terrace, tree bank, tree belt, tree lawn
and many more.

12. The British and American covers of this book in the Harry Potter series show how linguistic and cultural differences can affect even titles. The linguistic contrasts include idiomatic expressions as well as single words: ‘Bit rich coming from you!’ says British Harry to British Ron in Chapter 2 of
The Chamber of Secrets.
‘You should talk!’ says American Harry to American Ron.

Leaving aside regionalisms, British and American English display hundreds of differences. Take the words for the parts of a car. British terms include
wing mirror, number plate, petrol cap, aerial, windscreen, wing, bonnet
and
boot
. The American equivalents are
side-view mirror, license plate, gas cap, antenna, wind-shield, fender, hood
and
trunk
. Abbreviations can cause a problem. Some, such as
CNN
and
BBC
, have travelled across the Atlantic. Others, such as
ATT
and
BT
, haven’t. British people need to be told about the American Telephone and Telegraph Company; Americans, likewise, about British Telecom.

Idioms can be a problem too. Most British people know next to nothing about baseball, so they look blank when they hear about a company that has
hit a home run
(‘been very successful’). Similarly, most Americans know next to nothing about cricket, so they look blank when they hear about a politician
batting on a sticky wicket
(‘having a difficult time’). Sometimes there are neat equivalents: if someone is
caught off base
, that’s baseball’s equivalent to cricket’s
caught out
.

Many American words are familiar in the UK now, thanks to the prevalence of American TV shows and movies. My five-year-old grandson is already well versed in
faucets
(‘taps’),
drapes
(‘curtains’)
and
railroads
(‘railways’), thanks to repeated exposure to Mickey Mouse, Special Agent Oso and other inhabitants of the Disney Channel. I doubt whether American five-year-olds would be so well versed in the equivalent British English words. British English tends to get translated.

Not even Harry Potter is immune. In the British editions, the children eat
crumpets
and
crisps
; in the US editions they eat
English muffins
and
chips
.
Cookers
become
stoves
,
dustbins
become
trashcans
and
jumpers
become
sweaters
. But some differences are more cultural than linguistic. In the UK, one of the books was called
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
. In the USA,
Philosopher
was replaced by
Sorcerer
.

Edit

a back-formation (18th century)

‘Which came first?’ is the daily question when exploring the history of words. Normally, we find that words build up in size over time. We find
nation
in the 1300s, then
national
in the 1500s, then
nation-alise
in the 1700s, then
nationalisation
in the 1800s, along with
denationalisation
– and doubtless
anti-denationalisation
is out there somewhere now. That’s the expected pattern. So
edit
comes as a bit of a surprise, because there the pattern is the other way round.

We start with
edition
in the 1500s. A century later we find
editor
, and a century after that
editorship
. So far, so normal. Then, in the 1790s, along comes
edit
. The verb was formed by dropping the ending from
editor
. Linguists call such things
back-formations
.

Back-formations have been in the language a long time, but they seem to have increased in popularity over the past 200 years. Along with
edit
in the 18th century came
swindle
(from
swindler
) and
gamble
(from
gambler
). In the 19th we find such formations as
shoplift
(from
shoplifter
) and
sculpt
(from
sculptor
). In the 20th there was
automate
(from
automation
),
babysit
(from
babysitter
),
televise
(from
television
) and dozens more. It can take quite a while for a back-formation to surface.
Burglar
is there in the 13th century, but we don’t find
burgle
until the 1870s.
Housekeeper
dates from the 1440s; to
housekeep
only appears 400 years later. On the other hand, when
staycation
arrived in the 2000s, for a ‘stay-at-home vacation’, one concerned travel firm immediately introduced the slogan:
Why staycate when you can vacate?

Not all back-formations are immediately accepted. Among the usages which have attracted criticism are
helicopt, caretake
and
therap
. Would you like to be
helicopted
?
Helicoptered
seems to be the preferred form. But the naturalness of back-formation is clear from the way people are very ready to make jocular coinages. I’ve often heard people say that someone was being
couth
(as opposed to
uncouth
).
Shevelled
and
sipid
? Not
dishevelled
or
inspid
. And the opposite of
disgruntled
?
Gruntled
, of course (a P. G. Wodehouse innovation).

Slightly off the topic, but worth reporting as an end-note. I don’t know if I’d come across
editress
before, as the feminine form of
editor
, but I found it in my trawl through the history of
edit
. It seems to have been quite popular in the 19th century. So was
editrix
. Neither one has died out. There are several web sites with
editress
or
editrix
in the title. I suspect that most of them are tongue-in-cheek.

Species

classifying things (18th century)

How many words are there in the English language? It’s one of those impossible questions to answer, because it partly depends on what you count as a word. Is
flower pot
one word or two? And
washing machine
? Do all abbreviations count as words? How many words are there in
Meet me at 4 pm outside your HQ for a G&T
? And what are we to do with the thousands of Latin and Greek words used in classifying the natural world?

Some 2 million species of living things have been described using the naming system devised by Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century. This was a system where plants and animals are first identified as belonging to a particular
species
; species are then grouped into types called
genera
(singular form,
genus
); and genera are grouped into
families
. Most of the time, a genus and a species are enough to identify what someone is talking about.

For example, the various species of tulip belong to the genus
Tulipa
, which along with other genera (such as daffodils and lilies) makes up the family
Liliaceae
. Different species are then distinguished as
Tulipa sylvestris
(‘woodland tulip’
)
,
Tulipa clusiana
(‘lady tulip’) and so on. Similarly, the various species of cat belong to the genus
Felis
, which along with other genera (such as tigers and cheetahs) makes up the family
Felidae
. Different species are distinguished as
Felis catus
(‘domestic cat’),
Felis sylvestris
(‘wild cat’) and so on, then further distinguished as breeds, such as
Felis catus siamensis
(‘Siamese cat’) and
Felis catus anura
(‘Manx cat’).

These are all technical terms, intended to replace the vagueness in everyday names. The name
bluebell
refers to different plants in England and Scotland, and of course has a totally different name when translated into other languages. But the Latin term is always used in the same way, so gardeners in every country can understand each other more easily, and ambiguity is avoided. Most people don’t use the full descriptions, though anyone wanting to be taken seriously as a botanist would have to know some of them.