The Unexpected Evolution of Language (5 page)

NEW DEFINITION:
a movement, often political, with a lot of support

At first, “bandwagon” meant exactly what its name suggests: a wagon with a band on it. Picture a bunch of excited children, watching as the circus rolls into town on a Saturday morning. The procession would head toward an open field, in which rings and tents soon appeared like magic. Somewhere in the midst of the parade was an open-air wagon on which a band played to drum up excitement, as though any additional prodding was necessary.

From the 1850s until the early 1900s, that’s what a bandwagon was. Nowadays, however, no one pictures a wagon with a band on it if someone says, “Looks like you’ve joined the bandwagon” … unless maybe he attended clown college. So how did the word’s scope expand to politics?

Since circuses often took time off during the year, those wagons had downtime. Politicians, always eager to get publicity cheaply, found good use for the bandwagons during the circus’s “off-season.” Since they contained built-in excitement, politicians put their own musicians on one of those wagons, had the band strike up “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” parade through town, and got everyone thrilled about their campaigns. Thus, the association between politics—or anything else that people consider important, like sports or fashion—and “bandwagons” was born.

barbarian

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
foreigner

NEW DEFINITION:
person considered backward and inferior

Believe it or not, “barbarian” was not always a negative word. Because ancient Greece once was the indisputable cradle of culture, Greeks considered “foreign” anyone who didn’t speak Greek. To the Greeks’ ears, foreign languages sounded like babble, like people just making nonsense syllables such as “bar, bar, bar.” Thus, they called these foreigners “barbaroi,” which later became “barbarian” in English.

That’s why “barbarians,” for centuries, just referred to foreigners. The word didn’t have an explicitly negative connotation. However, human beings haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. A tendency to think of foreigners as somehow mentally deficient, physically awkward, or just plain bad because they’re “different” always has been an unfortunate human trait.

That unbecoming trait is why the word “barbarian” no longer necessarily suggests foreigners, but it does suggest people who are not as sophisticated, educated, or capable as people in the middle or upper classes. Today, “barbarian” is also an insult many women use to describe the men in their lives when they act uncivilized, backward, and uncouth. It’s better than some other words they could use to describe the men in their lives.

Famous Conans

Until the arrival of late-night talk show host Conan O’Brien, the most famous Conan was a barbarian, a character created in 1932 by Robert E. Howard.

basket case

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
quadriplegic

NEW DEFINITION:
someone unable to cope emotionally

Unlike many of the words in this book, whose meanings shifted centuries ago, “basket case” is a term that developed and subsequently changed meaning fewer than 100 years ago.

Initially, “basket case” was coined in England to describe soldiers left quadriplegics on the battlefields of World War I. Since these men either literally had lost their limbs or had lost the use of them, the men were sometimes carried around in baskets.

Even if they weren’t actually carried around in baskets, the term became a common way to describe people with this plight. “Basket case” likely was an example of the kind of gallows humor that people, such as doctors or police officers, develop to cope with the horrors of their professions.

“Basket” also suggested that these soldiers would be unable to work once they returned to their former lives. The world was not designed for “differently abled” people to work or live happily, so most quadriplegics would be forced to carry “baskets” and beg for money.

The insensitivity of the term “basket case” led to its disappearance as a quadriplegic descriptor, but at some point in the second half of the twentieth century, the meaning of the term shifted to a metaphorically disabled person … but is still insensitive.

Now, it suggests someone who doesn’t have the use of his or her
emotional
faculties, due to stress, overwork, or relationship problems. In effect, these folks suffer from a feeling of hopelessness not unlike that which is felt by someone who’s lost the use of his or her limbs.

bathroom

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
room equipped with a bathtub

NEW DEFINITION:
room equipped with a toilet

The word “bathroom” began to appear in writing by the end of the 1700s. At that time, its meaning was quite literal. The bathroom was a room with a bathtub.

The timeline makes sense if one compares it to the history of the flushing toilet. Sure, those wily Greeks invented a primitive flush toilet for King Minos of Crete some 800 years before the birth of Christ. The Romans invented sewers and had outhouses. Queen Elizabeth had a flush toilet, invented for her by her godson.

But it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that indoor plumbing became “de rigeur.” By that time, a word that had emphasized bathing became a word that referred to a room with a toilet. Bathtubs, or the lack of one, became less important than the presence of a toilet because, after all, it was gross and gauche to mention unmentionable (though very necessary) toileting activities. Thus, by the early 1900s, the word became almost strictly a euphemism for “place to go relieve oneself.”

Unmentionable Activities

Bathroom and restroom are the main words used to denote “place that includes a toilet.” At various times, that place also has been called a privy chamber, a necessary room, the smallest room in the house, and even “where the queen goes alone.”

Even in the twenty-first century, some blanch at the prospect of mentioning the porcelain throne. So, it’s no surprise that English has amassed tons of euphemisms for the activities that actually go on in the bathroom.

For “poop,” the squeamish have or have had the following: pick a daisy, pluck a rose, bury a Quaker, go to the prayer house, go to the thinking place, spend a penny, do one’s duty, and—during World War II—go call on Hitler.

For “pee,” consider the following: shake the dew off the lily, shake hands with my wife’s best friend, water the roses, and make room for another beer.

belfry

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
siege tower (slightly different spelling)

NEW DEFINITION:
bell tower, often connected to a church

Now associated with churches (and people who have “bats” in theirs), “belfry” once was a word of war.

During the mid-to-late Middle Ages, a belfry was a moveable siege tower. At that point, it was spelled “berfrey” or “berfrei.” Troops would bring their catapults and clubs and spears onto the battlefield, while some poor grunts pushed the “berfry” along. Some lucky soldiers in the tower could keep a lookout for the enemy and shoot medieval missiles at them from their lofty perch.

By the mid-1400s, “berfrey” began to refer to watchtowers in general. Someone keeping watch over a town stood in a “berfry” and looked for signs of trouble. When he saw them, he needed something with which to warn everyone of possible danger. Thus, bells were introduced to “berfries.” At that point, thanks to the bells, the word shifted to “belfry.”

Initially, “belfry” suggested a tower not attached specifically to another building. Think, for example, of St. Mark’s Campanile, the famous belfry that stands in Venice’s Piazza San Marco. Completed in 1514, it’s a classic example of the “stand-alone” belfry. Nowadays, most bell towers are simply part of a church building itself.

bidet

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
a small horse

NEW DEFINITION:
a low-lying basin used to clean one’s most intimate areas

In the 1600s, you might have taken your paramour for a ride on your “bidet.” After all, a small horse is just right for romance, since it forces its riders into close proximity.

The word transformed due to a metonymic shift. Metonymy is a form of figurative language in which one substitutes a name for one thing with something closely related to it. For example, athletes are “jocks” because male athletes wear jockstraps. Big-business tycoons are “suits” because they wear them. The kettle doesn’t actually boil, but the water inside it does … and so on.

Expand the concept a bit, and ponder the position one might take when riding a small horse. It’s the same basic position one might use with the newly defined version of a bidet. As the eighteenth century progressed, the bidet lost its equine associations entirely.

Nowadays, the last thing you’d associate with a bidet is romance.

bimbo

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
slang for a stupid, inconsequential man

NEW DEFINITION:
slang for a stupid woman with loose morals and large physical assets

“Bimbo” is a shortened form of the Italian word “bambino” (baby) and was used to demean men. For example, someone being “unmanly” might have been called a “bimbo” as an insult.

Since “baby” has been a term of endearment for one’s (typically female) lover as early as the mid-nineteenth century and “bimbo” was short for the Italian word for baby, it wasn’t much of a stretch to transform male “bimbos” into female “bimbos.” If a male “bimbo” was a man not acting like a man was supposed to act, well then, a female “bimbo” was a woman not acting like a woman was supposed to act.

The word was used extensively during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. After all, that’s when women started bobbing their hair, wearing scandalously short skirts that exposed ankles, and dancing the Charleston on tabletops after imbibing bathtub gin. In short, they weren’t acting ladylike!