For some reason, I've had a heck of time coming up with a blog topic this week. I started one on dog lovers vs cat lovers, but it went the way of the delete button. I jotted down a number of ideas, but they all fell flat until I heard my husband ask our son if his iphone had bluetooth. Bluetooth? Isn't that a tooth that either needs root canal or to be pulled? Iphone? Somebody didn't pass high school English. Maybe you meant my phone or perhaps your phone?
It's not as if I hadn't heard these words before, but they struck me this time around. Have you ever listened to some of the words we use everyday? We say things (like bluetooth) that sound utterly ridiculous, yet we toss them around as if they make perfect sense. What about google? We use it as both a verb and a noun. "Google it and see what you get" or "Did you check Google?" What kind of word is google? Judging by the sound of the word, the feel of it as you speak it, I'd say it's more closely related to a throat noise than to any kind of technology. Then there's the "i" family: iphones, ipods, itunes and whatever other i's may be out there. Joining the ranks of the stupid-sounding words is podcast. The other day, I was encouraged to listen to a podcast. What?! Where did that word come from? It brings to mind images of a Lost In Space episode which had been tucked away in the deep recesses of my memory until podcast began digging around, rummaging through the crates and boxes and barrels stuffed full of past TV shows, found it, and pulled it out into the light.
I can't imagine what our ancestors would think if they listened in on conversations that contain any of these seemingly non-nonsensical words. This in turn makes me wonder what words will be in our everyday vocabulary in another fifty years or more likely what words will be in my grandchildren and great-grandchilren's vocabulary as I, for one, plan to be speaking an entirely different language by that time.
(In case you're racking your brains trying to figure out which Lost In Space episode . . . the Robinsons land on a planet that grows giant pods - they're kind of like mamoth venus fly traps without any stalks. It's just the pod directly on the ground. They eat, what else? People. Judy, ever the damsel in distress, falls into one. Don, ever the dashing hero, rescues her.)
It's not as if I hadn't heard these words before, but they struck me this time around. Have you ever listened to some of the words we use everyday? We say things (like bluetooth) that sound utterly ridiculous, yet we toss them around as if they make perfect sense. What about google? We use it as both a verb and a noun. "Google it and see what you get" or "Did you check Google?" What kind of word is google? Judging by the sound of the word, the feel of it as you speak it, I'd say it's more closely related to a throat noise than to any kind of technology. Then there's the "i" family: iphones, ipods, itunes and whatever other i's may be out there. Joining the ranks of the stupid-sounding words is podcast. The other day, I was encouraged to listen to a podcast. What?! Where did that word come from? It brings to mind images of a Lost In Space episode which had been tucked away in the deep recesses of my memory until podcast began digging around, rummaging through the crates and boxes and barrels stuffed full of past TV shows, found it, and pulled it out into the light.
I can't imagine what our ancestors would think if they listened in on conversations that contain any of these seemingly non-nonsensical words. This in turn makes me wonder what words will be in our everyday vocabulary in another fifty years or more likely what words will be in my grandchildren and great-grandchilren's vocabulary as I, for one, plan to be speaking an entirely different language by that time.
(In case you're racking your brains trying to figure out which Lost In Space episode . . . the Robinsons land on a planet that grows giant pods - they're kind of like mamoth venus fly traps without any stalks. It's just the pod directly on the ground. They eat, what else? People. Judy, ever the damsel in distress, falls into one. Don, ever the dashing hero, rescues her.)
Good one Lori! Your blog made me think about words we never use anymore. Can't come up with any at the moment.
ReplyDelete