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Words' intents need some 'vetting'
(by Barbara Christian - September 11, 2008)
Words' intents need some 'vetting'
It's funny how you can go your whole life and never hear a particular word, then hear it a dozen times in the course of one week.
Language is a funny thing and in many ways is at the mercy of those who have the ear of the world, the taste makers and talking heads who can invent and twist at will.
Back in the Nixonian era, it was Vice President Spiro Agnew who had folks running for their dictionaries when he proclaimed that the "effete" snobs" from the East Coast were "nabobs of negativism."
In 2000, it was "gravitas" that was bandied around like a badminton bird. Those running for president either had it or didn't, and, if they lacked it, they better well develop some. Now, I happen to think the word "gravitas" is self-explanatory. You can tell what it means just by the sound of it. Someone grounded, someone of substance, someone with experience and a weighty resume.
But that was then, and this is now. These days you can't turn on the radio or television or turn a magazine or newspaper page without coming across the word "vet," as in "to vet" or to have been "vetted."
The dictionary's first choice as its definition is "veterinarian," or someone who takes care of animals: "The doctor came to vet the sick horse." Or, "He vetted the sick horse and then came to the farmhouse for a cup of tea." Or maybe, "The doctor felt that vetting was his calling."
It isn't until you get to the last choice of definitions that the modern usage is explained. In this case, "to vet" is "to subject to expert appraisal or correction, evaluate." Such as was said by dozens of politicos this week: "The vetting of Sarah Palin must continue."
Words can also be very funny things. Often, they are peculiar to a particular part of the country. Well, they were until mass communications, air travel and other ways of intermingling came into use.
I have forgotten his name, but, back in the 1950s and '60s, there was a man who made the TV variety show by telling audience members where they grew up by the words they used and the way they talked. In some cases, the parlor trick even came up with a particular block in which neighborhood.
The gentleman, a linguist by profession, was amazingly accurate. But we wonder if he would be could successfully do his schtick today in what is an exceedingly more diverse and less compartmentalized America.
In this post-modern America, it is not unusual to hear a New Yorker borrow from colorful country-folk speech when they use words like "critter." He or she might use the word to describe roaches, for instance.
Now, you can find a farm hand talking about schlepping the hay bales from the back 40 and how his "toosh" aches from sitting on the plow for nine hours at a time.
In 2008, the editors of the Merriam Webster dictionary added 25 new words, and among them was "wing nut." Definition is one who advocates extreme measures or changes, radical. It's an election year, so I imagine we will be hearing a lot of that one.
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