Word Alert

"There's an app for that." App. Who ever used to know what that meant?  Now it's a part of our common language - meaning Smartphone application. Throughout this blog you're going to get some insight into the crazy things I think about while driving, cooking, or lying in bed at night. Brace yourself. As an avid Scrabble player, one of the most random thoughts I repeatedly have is related to words.  I think about the words we use and how they shift to and from the popular lunch table.  Yes, I just said that.  I think about how words that one day might have "felt" unpopular - cell, web, dot, googol, tweet (?!) are now sitting at the head of the cool lunch table.  Cell used to primarily be used in Biology class or jail.  Man, has it moved up in the world! Communication! These words are making other traditionally common words - tape, phone, mail, fax, video - "feel" neglected.   Wait - do words have feelings? Nevermind. 

Even the letter 'i' gets more play these days.  iPhone, iPod, iTunes, iHome, iGroove, iLife.  Who could ever predict that little letter i would someday feel as important as capital letter I?  The little i thanks you, Apple.


I checked online for the top words of the 2000s.  I found an informal report that listed the following: bailout, derivative, Y2K, H1N1, sustainable, and tsunami.  So obviously these are more related to current events, but they tell a different story than the most popular words/phrases of the 1970s: hot pants, bellbottoms, lava lamps, Watergate, Saigon, Nixon, Bicentennial.  Man, the word "lava" has become almost obsolete!  Except when honeymooning in Hawaii.  My father-in-law Pete told me that the following things didn't exist 60 years ago: television, Xerox, Frisbee, or the pill.  These words didn't mean anything at that time!  Sidenote: He wasn't alive then, he was just helping me with my blog post.


Why does any of this matter?  Words define us.  They define our culture, our focus.  We all have our individual language (those who know me well know that mine includes "silly", "seriously", "passion", "love", "nostalgia", and "emotion").  What does your language say about you?  What words define you?  What words do you predict will be at the cool table in another decade?  Help me, people, I need to start preparing for Scrabble in 2020.