Language changes, but let’s still hold out for standards
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We had barely sat at the table before my daughter asked, “Ma, how do you feel about the word ‘preventative’?” Startled, it took five seconds before I responded, “I really haven’t given it much thought. But now I will. What’s the matter with the simpler word ‘preventive’? Are we going back to ‘at this point in time’ – making something longer than it need be?” |
A couple of days I ago, I was talking with Jeff Krull about the changes in our library since I grew up with the old Andrew Carnegie building. I ended up discussing how vastly computers had affected our lives and our library. And he mentioned the next step, how pictures are being digitized. There’s a new word! And it’s not “digitalized”! In fact, my dictionary says digitalize has to do with treating with the drug digitalis to achieve the desired therapeutic effect. So now we digitize. Yes, the language is evolving and pronunciation is changing. My mother called the glorious long-stemmed flowers glad-eye-olus; the dictionary now says they’re gladeeolas. We used to say “har-ass” with stress on the first syllable, but the dictionary now gives preference to “har-ass” with emphasis on the second syllable. And new words are frequently added. Look at how many different meanings there are for the word “rap.”
