This is going to be fun -- Google's new analytical Ngram Viewer at:
http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/
This lets anyone with a little curiosity and imagination discover for themselves when words, phrases, concepts and ideas came out of obscurity -- or the void -- to become household words. Let's take the expression "23 skidoo." See the chart above generated as an Ngram: 23 skidoo didn't even exist before 1900. Looks liked it spiked in the mid-1940s and has made a couple of semi-comebacks since. I've been doing my part to keep 23 skidoo alive and well.
Now, let's compare the changing/competing idea/concept/naming of the "1914-1918 conflict." For English language books only, I keyed in Great War, World War I, World War One and First World War. Here are the results:
Before the "1914-1918 conflict," none of these terms were widely used. From 1910 until about 1941, The Great War dominated (hence it being followed by "The Great Depression" -- Great as in large or massive -- I almost didn't have my Great War and the 1920s course approved at the end of the 20th century because one particular administrator thought I was saying war itself was "great" as in groovy cool. So much has the word "Great" changed in such relatively little time). The "World War I" idea takes hold from about 1941 onwards and seems to be treated synonymously with World War One; First World War takes second place and Great War drops to third.
As for me in the 21st century, I deliberately use all versions because they are all valid and they are all also somewhat symbolic and arbitrary, lest we forget.
Imagine the possibilites of where this whizbang gizmo can take us . . .
Today's Rune: Movement.
5 comments:
Wow. I think about this all the time as does my husband. When did a phrase come into use. Neat.
That's pretty cool. I can see having some fun with this.
I guess I would have to expand my vocabulary in order to evoke a response from this latest gizmo.
Thanks all for the comments! WM, you can most definitely do it if you wish -- ask any question. Type in a word like "hepcat" or "groovy" and you get instant results on when they came into use, when they spiked, etc. If words are the lifeblood of communication, this could take us into any number of new areas and new questions to ask.
With the stupid carnage of the First World War, it must have been difficult to imagine that there would be an even worse war and that the Great War would become, in the end, World war I.
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