Meeting the Changing Needs of Language

MONSIEUR BOULANGER, an ordinary man, created the need for a new word. He opened a shop where prepared meals could be bought and eaten on the premises. To attract famished survivors of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) who then swelled the streets of Paris, Boulanger hung a sign over the door that said in Latin, “Venite ad me omnes qui stomacho laboratis et ego vos restaurabo.” That meant, “Come to me all ye that suffer from the stomach and I will restore you.” So this establishment, designed to restore its clientele, was, quite naturally, termed a restaurant, which is French for ‘that which restores.’

Monsieur Boulanger’s unwitting contribution to French, and eventually to English and other tongues, illustrates how language grows in response to changing needs. But exactly what is language? Simply stated, it is “the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a considerable community.” A language will grow, change, diminish, or even disappear according to the circumstances of the community using it, as well as the pressures and demands that are made on it. Language changes constantly. New words are added daily, while others fade and eventually vanish from common usage.

The English language is one of the richest in the world. It has borrowed from almost every language known to mankind. While many authorities estimate that there are up to 600,000 words in English, this does not take into account the many thousands of specialized and technological words not found in general, though unabridged, dictionaries. If these were added, the final count could well be upward of three million words. For every idea, usually there are several different terms that express it in English, with varying shades of meaning.

Where did all these words originate? An examination of how words are borrowed or coined to meet a language’s changing needs is by no means reserved for the etymologist (one who studies words and their origins). Rather, an investigation may be interesting, beneficial and even amusing to the casual reader. Indeed, you may be surprised to learn of the role that you play in the development of the language that you speak.

Many Words Are Borrowed

The process of borrowing words from other languages and modifying them according to the new needs and the liking of a different “community” is almost endless. Consider the French description of the leaves of a common plant. The three French words dent de lion (lion’s teeth), being quite appropriate, were combined, slightly anglicized, and presto!​—we have “dandelion.”

There seemed to be no reason not to keep the American Indian word for a vegetable that the natives had introduced to the early Pilgrims. Of course, it was a trifle long. So the Narragansett askutasquash was abbreviated simply (and happily) to “squash.” (Imagine asking someone at the dinner table to pass the askutasquash!) The Latin phrase mobile vulgus, meaning ‘an excited crowd,’ also proved too cumbersome for common usage. Despite the strenuous efforts of language “purists,” the term was shortened to “mobile” and finally to “mob.”

Changes in Definition​—Why?

In the foregoing examples of words borrowed from other languages, the definition of the word remained intact after adoption. The word “chauffeur” did not fare as well. Borrowed directly from the French, originally it meant “one who heats.” It was a fitting description indeed of the hired man who, with the advent of the steam automobile, was required to build up a good head of steam in the boiler of the vehicle in preparation for the owner’s departure. The word has outlived the invention that inspired it and retains its usefulness as “a person employed to drive a motor vehicle.”

In time, popular but incorrect use of a word will also change its definition. The word “burgeon,” meaning “to bud,” frequently has been misused to mean “rapidly growing or expanding.” So, a number of dictionaries now show the latter definition as acceptable and even the preferred one.

Origin of Words

Where do words get started, however? Someone, sometime, has to coin a word or an expression to meet a new need or circumstance. If it gains popularity and withstands the test of time, eventually the term may become a part of standard, acceptable usage. Many words were drawn from the names of people, the mention of whose name consistently suggested a certain idea in the minds of a “considerable community.” Thus the name of a French finance minister from about the time of Europe’s Seven Years’ War gave rise to a new word. His stringent measures were ridiculed by those most affected​—the nobility. Anything or anyone reduced to a bare outline of his former substance was termed a silhouette, in sardonic reference to Etienne de Silhouette, who evidently had that effect on the noblemen’s pocketbooks and life-style.

Please consider some other examples involving a person’s name or title. An Englishman, John Montague, unwilling to leave the gaming table long enough to eat, arranged for his meals to be served to him between slices of bread. We are not surprised to learn, then, that he was the titular Fourth Earl of “Sandwich,” and this name came to apply to his food item. “Derrick,” a device for hoisting objects, was named after another Englishman whose vocation brought vividly to mind the word’s definition​—he was a hangman at London’s Tyburn Prison. General Burnside, once infamous for his poor Civil War record in the United States, found a more comfortable niche in history by means of his ample side whiskers, popularly termed “burnsides.” Eventually, by some semantic quirk, they became “sideburns.”

Other words were derived from names of places. One of these particularly emphasizes that it is popular usage more than anything else that determines whether a word becomes a standard part of a language. That word is “bedlam,” the once-popular abbreviation for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, an English institution that pioneered in the field of humane treatment of the insane. But the word has come to mean “a place or scene of uproar and confusion.”

Some words are acronyms, that is, they are made up of the initial letters of a compound term’s successive parts. For example, “radar” is an acronym drawn from ‘radio detecting and ranging.’ Other words are formed by blending two words together to create a third one with a slightly different meaning from either of its parent words. “Clash,” for example, is a blend of “clap” and “crash.”

Slang, or nonstandard vocabulary, usually of an extremely informal nature, also has contributed to language development. Occasionally, slang words have achieved such widespread acceptance on educational levels that they have found their way into standard dictionaries. The word “kidnap,” meaning, literally, to “nab a kid” or young child, has become standard English, whereas both of its component parts, “nab” and “kid,” generally are considered to be somewhat nonstandard language.

What About Idioms?

Idioms are expressions that have a meaning other than that logically indicated by their component words. Yet, they add color and life to a language. Idiomatic expressions may also have an interesting background.

To illustrate: It is said that when an Indian maharajah was displeased with someone, he would bestow on him the gift of a white elephant. It being strictly forbidden to kill, give away, or work the rare animal, the new owner was driven to destitution by the expense of feeding it. Hence, we have the idiomatic “white elephant.”

How It All Began

When you think about idiomatic expressions and the origins of words, however, you may well wonder how mankind got its many languages. Just how did the numerous dialects and tongues get their start?

Well, according to an ancient book that has been translated into more languages than any other, there was a time when “all the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.” This same book, the Bible, also explains how so many new languages suddenly came into existence. You can read that true account in Genesis, chapter 11, verses 1 through 9. There it is shown that a part of the human family engaged in a project that was in opposition to God’s purpose. Rather than spreading out and ‘filling the earth,’ in keeping with God’s will, they sought to centralize human society by concentrating their residence at a site in what came to be called the plain of Shinar in Mesopotamia. (Gen. 9:1; 11:2) There they endeavored to build a tower for false religious use. But Jehovah God foiled their plans and caused them to be scattered earth wide. How? By confusing their language and making impossible any further cooperative efforts on that project. Moreover, Jehovah God’s action at that time was beneficial in that it limited mankind’s ability to combine their powers in schemes that would be dangerous to them and out of harmony with the divine will.

Ever since that time, languages have been forced to meet the challenge of new circumstances and changing needs. True, you may never have contributed directly to this process by actually coining a new word. Nevertheless, by your choice of words, you participate daily in the shaping of the language that you speak.

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Why is this plant called the “dandelion”?

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Why did the nobility dislike M. Silhouette?

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Have you ever owned a “white elephant”?