CHANGLINGS You may not be acutely aware of the fact that this language we use to communicate with each other is in an almost constant state of change.
That may well be one of the main reasons why it continues to be a leading way of letting others know what we are thinking, feeling, doing or wishing we might accomplish some day. It is flexible and readily accepts change without loss of the older text meaning in most cases.
In regard to transportation terms used, for instance, I have witnessed the sweeping changes which took us from the horse and buggy era into that of the automobile then into the aircraft mode to travel. New terminology came into being with the development of the new method of movement. There was, normally, some crossover and even confusion, of course, when we used make-do terms to describe was seemed to be called what it was - a “horseless carriage” or a ” motor carriage.” Before too long these terms were consigned to use by comedians and story tellers seeking bits of fun by re-hashing “the good ole days.” Other had turned to speaking of “cars”or “motor cars” and advertising copywriters went through and elaborated phase of comparing their new car with the finest, most expensive carriage-trade, horse-drawn models . We saw droves of phaetons, barouche beauties, hansoms, landaus and Vis-a-Vis versions beyond numbering - some we had dreamed of owning some day.
Aircraft went thorough pretty much the same thing and its pace was augmented in 1903 when the Wright Brothers did their thing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That term “aircraft” which plainly compares a plane to a ship would seem to have been among the early terms but those days big boats were popularly know as “ships rather than fancier forms and arty sounding ”craft”. The people just a decade or so ahead of me used to drive me wild by insisting on saying “airships” and “flying machines” - even past W II . My father, of course, remembered the zeppelins the U.S. Navy used to send coursing though the Norfolk, Virginia skies in the 1920's . We all called them “airships”, then. My Father-in-law was a farmer and readily equated the things the Wright Brothers flew with his own machines favored the term “flying machines” - threshing machines or a hay binder with wings. Some of the earlier planes did look like contraptions - kites of a sort - and they looked a lot better once they learned to cover vital areas with doped canvas.
People always complain loudly when any a revised versions of holy scripture are set forth. Some need to be changed because their meaning has shifted while others have become obsolete. For example: a “leasing” use be a falsehood; “minish” meant diminish; “wot” meant “to know” and “poll thee” - thou needest to have thy hair cut.
Our wonderful English language! Revel in it!
A.L.M. March 27, 2005 [c495wds]
