1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:09,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to Invention, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 2 00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:12,720 Speaker 1: welcome to Invention. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 3 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: Joe McCormick. And today we're going to be discussing a 4 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:19,919 Speaker 1: linguistic subject, some linguistic inventions. And I thought it would 5 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: be a good idea to begin with some good malapropisms. 6 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,799 Speaker 1: I love a good malapropism, and we're of course not 7 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: above coining one here and there ourselves on the show sometimes. 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: Uh So, what's a malapropism before we get into our 9 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: favorite examples. It's the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion 10 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: of a word or phrase. So usually it's a word 11 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: or phrase that sounds like what you mean to say, 12 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: but is not what you mean to say. For example, 13 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: Jesus healing the leopards. That's a great one. Yeah, they're 14 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: often used to comedic effect, like you, like you mentioned 15 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: and uh sometimes you'll see the latter. This idea of 16 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: it being a phrase defined is a malla for like 17 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: a metaphor. Also it sounds delicious, right though we have 18 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,440 Speaker 1: to stress that malafor itself is an invented word and 19 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 1: potentially uh and I'll appropism in and of itself. Oh, 20 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: I can see that, like somebody was trying to say malapropism, 21 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: but they got confused and said malaf right, or or 22 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: they just intentionally did it. And we'll get into some 23 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:23,040 Speaker 1: of the more intentional acts of this as we go. 24 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 1: The Sopranos is a great source of very memorable malapropisms. 25 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: I like when there's part where Christopher Multa Santi talks 26 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: about creating a little dysentery in the ranks, which that 27 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: one reminds me of one about scientology, the the idea 28 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: that l Ron Hubbard had the philosophy of diuretics. But 29 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: there's another one in the Sopranos where the character Little 30 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: Carmines he's talking about seeing in the horror movie and 31 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: he says it juxtaposes the sacred in the propane. Or 32 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: there's a part where Tony describes his mom as an 33 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: alba core around my neck. Oh, instead of an albatross. 34 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: Very good. This is more of a phrase. But I 35 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:08,800 Speaker 1: instantly thought of the of The Big Lebowski when he's 36 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 1: he points out the Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women. Um, 37 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: the code of the Corner Brothers paint with this sort 38 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: of brush a lot in their dialogue. I was reading 39 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:20,960 Speaker 1: a little bit about this lip. Basically I was looking 40 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: for some more examples of of of malapropisms in the 41 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: Coen Brothers work, and I ran across this Senses of 42 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: Cinema post by Paul Coughland from several years back, and 43 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: he described the Cohen Brothers use of dialogue as quote 44 00:02:35,320 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: the dialogue of wonderful inarticulacy. That's about right. Yeah. Now, 45 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,639 Speaker 1: you'll also another place you see a lot of malapropism 46 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 1: is that you'll see it sometimes used as part of 47 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: racial stereotypes. One example that comes to mind, and you 48 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 1: see this listed on various like trope websites, is the 49 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: Fisher Stevens role in the Short Circuits movies. I've never 50 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: seen Short Circuit. Well it's probably alright, there's no reason 51 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: to go back to these, but these were a force 52 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: movies about about a robot, like they become self aware 53 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 1: and it has like a laser cannon on its shoulder 54 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 1: and it's like a puppet. Does it do cute robot malapropisms? No, 55 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:19,239 Speaker 1: it doesn't. But Fisher Stevens plays Um, an Indian scientist, 56 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: uh and and he's this this uh, you know this 57 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: this uh, this accent, and he's he just busts out 58 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,920 Speaker 1: a number of these and ultimately, you know it's it's 59 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:32,120 Speaker 1: kind of like this idea, the comedic racial stereotype of 60 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:34,359 Speaker 1: someone who doesn't have a great grasp on the English 61 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: language and therefore stumbles into all of these. That's unfortunately, 62 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: but the use of melopropisms in fiction does go way 63 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: way back. Like Shakespeare used malapropisms a lot. The character 64 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: of Dogberry and Much Ado about Nothing famously delivers a 65 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: bunch of these and their grades. So Dogberry is this 66 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: incompetent night constable and he's supposed to be I think 67 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: a satire on the amateur police forces of Elizabethan times, 68 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:01,360 Speaker 1: and a lot of the humor comes through and him 69 00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:05,120 Speaker 1: giving confused orders like um, he when he's trying to 70 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: get one of his deputies to apprehend all vagrants, but 71 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: instead he says, you are to comprehend all vagram men 72 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: um and he he tells them to be vigetant. I 73 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: beseech you uh. And then there's a great part later 74 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: where he claims that a bad dude will be condemned 75 00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:25,599 Speaker 1: into everlasting redemption. Well, there's a. There's fun to be 76 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: had with with with malopropisms, right, because you can sort 77 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,799 Speaker 1: of you can have your character fumble into something saying 78 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: something a little more articulate than I mean to it. Times. Yes, yeah, 79 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,479 Speaker 1: that's interesting, Like the idea of everlasting redemption is sort 80 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,039 Speaker 1: of a cool metaphor, even though he just is screwing 81 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: up words. But after this character. Actually, since sometime in 82 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, malapropisms have also been known as dog 83 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: barry is ums. There was another one I came across 84 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: that I'd never read before. But this is from the 85 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: real world. So former Texas Governor and U. S. Energy 86 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,840 Speaker 1: Secretary Rick Perry. He's famous for the for saying the 87 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 1: oops when he couldn't remember something. But also, um, that's 88 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:11,080 Speaker 1: not what I was bringing up. On August there was 89 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,120 Speaker 1: an article in the Texas Tribune by John Reynolds that 90 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: reported that Perry had been speaking to a crowd and 91 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: at this event, he told the crowd, quote, we need 92 00:05:20,440 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: to look at the states, which are the lavatories of 93 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: innovation and democracy. Uh yeah, so what what with that? 94 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 1: If we were to take that literally, like, what would 95 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: that even mean? Uh? I think that's the other thing. 96 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:34,159 Speaker 1: The part of it too, is like, even if they're 97 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: not quite accidentally profound, we can't help a puzzle over 98 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: it because it will inject a bizarre metaphor mental image 99 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,160 Speaker 1: into our head and then we're just forced to wrestle 100 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: with it. Right now, there are also just lots of 101 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 1: these people making regular everyday speech. We probably do them 102 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:51,760 Speaker 1: all the time. Everybody does them. One of my favorites 103 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 1: I ran across was the idea of all the people 104 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,599 Speaker 1: who died in the blue Bonnet plague. Uh see. I 105 00:05:57,600 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: saw that in the notes, and I didn't even get 106 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: it until said it out loud now, and that that 107 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: points out an interesting thing, which is that there there 108 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: are multiple different ways that people put together malapropisms. Like 109 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:11,839 Speaker 1: I was reading a paper by the linguist Arnold Mzuki 110 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: on classical malapropisms, and Swiki points out that lots of 111 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,080 Speaker 1: malapropisms are just approximations that come out of our mouths 112 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:21,440 Speaker 1: due to the tip of the tongue effect. This is 113 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: something we've talked about on Stuff to Blow your Mind before. 114 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:25,800 Speaker 1: You can go back and find our episode on that 115 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:28,799 Speaker 1: if you google it, I'm sure, but the short version 116 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:32,679 Speaker 1: is you are failing to call the correct word from memory, 117 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:37,400 Speaker 1: and by accident you employ a similar sounding word instead. 118 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,160 Speaker 1: You can often hear this, especially in people who may 119 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: have been having a bit of alcohol to drink. Like 120 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:46,239 Speaker 1: Often words that get swapped start with the same letters 121 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,040 Speaker 1: or sounds, like you know, uh, this database is a 122 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,640 Speaker 1: vast suppository of information. I guess actually that wouldn't start 123 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: with the same sound, but you know, you know what 124 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: I mean. But other times malapropisms have more unique ideologies. 125 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,920 Speaker 1: For example, when somebody learns a word or phrase by 126 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,159 Speaker 1: mishearing it and then never corrects their original misimpression. I 127 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: know this has happened multiple times in my life. Blue 128 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: bonnet plague would probably be a good example here. It 129 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: suggests that somebody heard somebody talking about the bubonic plague 130 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: but misheard how they pronounced it, and then just never 131 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: got corrected on that. Yeah, I think we can all 132 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: relate to that. We all have examples of that in 133 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: our our own life. Totally. But while malpropisms are themselves 134 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:31,080 Speaker 1: a normal part of speech, they go back into the 135 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: mist of history. Everybody does them, and everybody's been doing 136 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: them for thousands of years. Probably the name we use 137 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: for them has a very distinct origin in history, and 138 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:44,680 Speaker 1: that origin lies with an Irish satirist playwright and politician 139 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: named Richard Brinsley Sheridan who lived from seventeen fifty one 140 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: to eighteen sixteen. Sheridan wrote a number of successful comedies, 141 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: but his seventeen seventy five play called The Rivals introduced 142 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 1: the world to a character named Mrs Malaprop, whom another 143 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: character says is infamous for delivering words quote so ingeniously 144 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: misapplied without being mispronounced. So, for example, Mrs Malaprop calls 145 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: one other character the very pineapple of politeness, and at 146 00:08:18,160 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 1: another point she refers to an allegory lying on the 147 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: banks of the nile, which we should point out gets 148 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: it wrong twice because the nile has crocodiles, not alligators. 149 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: Oh I didn't even get that one at first. Allegory 150 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: and alligators. Okay, I think that joke works better on 151 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: people who are less obsessed with crocodilians than you and I. 152 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: Uh so. So it seems that most usage of the 153 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: term malapropism in English actually dates back to this character 154 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:47,400 Speaker 1: in a late eighteenth century Irish play. Maybe all usage 155 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,360 Speaker 1: of it, but of course the name Mrs malaprop is 156 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:54,839 Speaker 1: built out of existing words borrowed from other languages, like uh, 157 00:08:54,880 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: there's the there's this expression malapropos, meaning inappropriate, originally from 158 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:02,440 Speaker 1: the French, where it would mean something like out of 159 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: place or a miss. But from the name of this 160 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:07,760 Speaker 1: character we now get the label that we use specifically 161 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 1: for malapropisms, words used wrong in this way. And so 162 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:16,199 Speaker 1: today we wanted to look at the phenomenon of invented 163 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 1: words like the word malapropism. There are tons of words 164 00:09:19,960 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: like this, you know. There there are some words that 165 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,800 Speaker 1: enter the lexicon from works of fiction or mythology. There 166 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: are words that enter through deliberate coinage where somebody is 167 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:33,239 Speaker 1: trying to create a term for a previously unnamed concept. 168 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,320 Speaker 1: There are words that enter their changes in technology and 169 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:39,640 Speaker 1: science and culture. And we wanted to talk about some 170 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: of our favorite stories of these words and explore how 171 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:44,679 Speaker 1: they differ from other types of words. What what does 172 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:47,959 Speaker 1: it take to invent a successful word and are there 173 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:52,920 Speaker 1: any parallels to the invention of a successful piece of technology. Yeah, 174 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,599 Speaker 1: it's it's a fascinating topic because it's, you know, the 175 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:59,319 Speaker 1: world of language. It is a world that is invented, 176 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:03,040 Speaker 1: like all wor words are essentially invented. Um. Well, I 177 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: don't know if I agree with you there, because they 178 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:07,920 Speaker 1: all do come from human brains. But I would say 179 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:11,719 Speaker 1: maybe some words could be thought of more like features 180 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:15,560 Speaker 1: of the human body, that maybe they just emerged from 181 00:10:15,679 --> 00:10:18,800 Speaker 1: us at some point in history without us trying to 182 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,319 Speaker 1: find a word for something. That's true. The more the 183 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:24,719 Speaker 1: sort of primal roots of language, which will be discussing. 184 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,160 Speaker 1: But but still it's it's it's unlike most of the 185 00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:29,959 Speaker 1: other topics we've done. I don't know if we've done 186 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: a linguistic episode of invention yet, have we? I don't 187 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: know that there are obviously linguistic inventions. All Right, we're 188 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back. 189 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 1: All right, We're back, all right. So we'd like to 190 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,560 Speaker 1: start by asking what came before? Uh? And I guess 191 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:52,520 Speaker 1: in this case we would have to ask where do 192 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,240 Speaker 1: words usually come from when they're not being deliberately coined 193 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,480 Speaker 1: or invented by somebody. We know that most words are 194 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: not deliberate inventions. Obviously, the the deep origins of language 195 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: that's a massive and complicated subject, limited in large part 196 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 1: to inform speculations since we don't have physical evidence to 197 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: to discover or to refer to. You know, spoken words 198 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 1: don't leave fossils. Uh, And it's it's too big to 199 00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: address at length today. But by setting linguistics within the 200 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: timeline of history, especially with the help of written sources, 201 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:29,080 Speaker 1: we can learn a lot about how languages change over 202 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: time and about where words come from. And one thing 203 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:36,680 Speaker 1: that I think is extremely interesting is that many scholars 204 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: have noticed important parallels between the evolution of languages and 205 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:47,120 Speaker 1: the evolution of species. In biology, there are important differences 206 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: as well, But just to mention one of these similarities, 207 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 1: like the living organisms on Earth, many of Earth's languages 208 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: show signs of having a common ancestor. We can show 209 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,079 Speaker 1: signs of common ancestry and all living things on Earth 210 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:05,560 Speaker 1: by comparing similarities in the genes and observing how those 211 00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:10,120 Speaker 1: genes change over time through evolution. Likewise, we can observe 212 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: similarities in some words and formations that many languages separated 213 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:18,920 Speaker 1: over vast distances, seem to share, and observe how those 214 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:23,079 Speaker 1: pronunciations and semantics change over time. And in fact, the 215 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: kind of strange thing is that it was obvious that 216 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:30,480 Speaker 1: languages evolve over time from common ancestors. Before it was 217 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 1: obvious that plants and animals do this because you know, 218 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,800 Speaker 1: it was obvious because linguists could track these changes through 219 00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:41,439 Speaker 1: written sources from history. They could see for themselves how 220 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:44,839 Speaker 1: words and usages and whole languages morphed over the centuries. 221 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:47,840 Speaker 1: Charles Darwin actually wrote in The Descent of Man, quote 222 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: the formation of different languages and of distinct species, and 223 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: the proofs that both have been developed through the gradual 224 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,880 Speaker 1: process are curiously parallel. I was reading a good article 225 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:02,160 Speaker 1: about this by John whit Field in Plos Biology from 226 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight called across the Curious parallel of 227 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: language and species evolution and uh so Whitfield's writing about 228 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:13,040 Speaker 1: this subject and uh In addition to common ancestry and 229 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: changes to words and genes over time, another parallel that 230 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:20,680 Speaker 1: Whitfield points out is that quote, their most important components 231 00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 1: show the least variation. In biology, this means that genes, 232 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,960 Speaker 1: such as those involved in the machinery of protein synthesis, 233 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,040 Speaker 1: so basically something every organism has to do all the time, 234 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,720 Speaker 1: change so slowly that they can be used to discern 235 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:39,440 Speaker 1: the relationships of groups that diverged hundreds of millions of 236 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,319 Speaker 1: years ago. Likewise, the most commonly used words, such as 237 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:49,400 Speaker 1: numbers and pronouns, changed the most slowly. Yeah, I thought 238 00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:51,960 Speaker 1: that was really interesting. I mean, other words, you can 239 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 1: find other words that seem to persist in fairly stable 240 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: forms over long periods of time, and they very often 241 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:02,679 Speaker 1: are common words. You know, words like for family relationships, 242 00:14:02,679 --> 00:14:06,319 Speaker 1: words for things like mother and father, and uh for 243 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:09,200 Speaker 1: you know, things that would be referred to very often 244 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,959 Speaker 1: in everyday speech. The whereas it's the more specific terms 245 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:19,160 Speaker 1: that may go extinct over time right or face dramatic substitutions. 246 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: Uh So, Today more than half of the world's population 247 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:26,720 Speaker 1: speaks a language that shares as a common ancestor and 248 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: extinct language called Indo European. One fun example I was 249 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: reading about in a Nautilus article from last year by 250 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:39,720 Speaker 1: Sevinga Norkiya Zova was about the word honey. So, of course, 251 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:43,960 Speaker 1: the word honey is honey in English. In Sanskrit it's madhu, 252 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: in Russian it's meod. And to bring it back to English, 253 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: we have mead, an alcoholic drink made out of honey. 254 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,400 Speaker 1: In Sanskrit, Russian, and even in English you've got these 255 00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: links that you know, words are still basically very similar. 256 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: Another interest in fact from that article, UH, a professor 257 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,960 Speaker 1: of linguistics at New York University named Gregory Guy talks 258 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,840 Speaker 1: about the word locks, which in English, of course means 259 00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 1: you know, smoked salmon, you'd have your bagel with locks. 260 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,600 Speaker 1: But apparently locks is basically the same word as it 261 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,760 Speaker 1: was in proto into European eight thousand years ago, where 262 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,680 Speaker 1: it was probably pronounced locks and it meant salmon like 263 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:27,320 Speaker 1: eight thousand years ago. It's interesting to the way both 264 00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: of these examples are foods. There are things that are 265 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:33,400 Speaker 1: concepts that that that are for things that we we 266 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:36,000 Speaker 1: not only conceive of, but we actually take into our body. 267 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: We have such a complete sensory understanding of them. Yeah, 268 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: that's an interesting point to things that would have been 269 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:48,160 Speaker 1: delicious from ancient times. But anyway, based on this biological analogy, 270 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:50,920 Speaker 1: I want to use an analogy for the purpose of 271 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:54,880 Speaker 1: the rest of this episode, which is basically biological evolution 272 00:15:55,200 --> 00:16:00,400 Speaker 1: versus genetic engineering. Most new words that enter all language 273 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: do so through a process more akin to biological evolution. 274 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:10,160 Speaker 1: They somehow arise naturally among speakers rather than as you know, 275 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:14,680 Speaker 1: genetically engineered. You know, we we created a giant scorpion 276 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:17,040 Speaker 1: as a government weapon or something, you know, the great 277 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 1: b movie plot. Um than these genetic engineering projects, and 278 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:24,160 Speaker 1: and those would be more akin to what we're ultimately 279 00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:26,600 Speaker 1: going to focus on the attempts to create a new 280 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: word on purpose. But let's focus on the biological evolution 281 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: version first. So when language is evolved naturally, what happens 282 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:37,840 Speaker 1: at the word to word level? Where do new words 283 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: come from if nobody is trying to coin them on purpose? Well, 284 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:44,280 Speaker 1: of course, on our show we've we've discussed plenty of 285 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: times if you're looking to invent something new, you can 286 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,800 Speaker 1: always just steal something which has already been invented. And yeah, 287 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,440 Speaker 1: most inventions are just stealing ideas from other people. Uh, 288 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: and or maybe making a very slight modification. So a 289 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:03,600 Speaker 1: very common source of new word is borrowing from existing languages. Yeah, 290 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: and these are also known as loan words. Uh. And 291 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,159 Speaker 1: one one fun example of this, or at least I 292 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,640 Speaker 1: find it fun. I don't know your your mileage may vary, 293 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:16,359 Speaker 1: but um, earworm is one at all? Here? Well well, 294 00:17:16,359 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: well I'm just kidding. That's that's great. Wrong, earworms are 295 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:24,480 Speaker 1: an example of this. Now it's technically a calic that's 296 00:17:24,520 --> 00:17:26,879 Speaker 1: suspelled c A l q u E, which is a 297 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:30,479 Speaker 1: specialized version of this in which the original word in 298 00:17:30,480 --> 00:17:33,280 Speaker 1: another language is is. It's not just a matter of 299 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,119 Speaker 1: taking the say that the German word for something and 300 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:40,760 Speaker 1: using it. It's directly translating it literal, literally word for word. 301 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,879 Speaker 1: Other examples of this would be brainwashing or Adam's apple. 302 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,640 Speaker 1: But with earworm it stems from the German or verm, 303 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: which may have originated with German operetta composer Paul Linkey, 304 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,439 Speaker 1: but didn't enter the popular lexicon um until like the 305 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:02,040 Speaker 1: early two thousands. Prior to all of this, or verms 306 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 1: were insects of the order uh dermap tira. Ear wigs 307 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:10,679 Speaker 1: probably named because well, there's one theory is that they 308 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 1: have the their hind wings are kind of ear like. 309 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:14,840 Speaker 1: If you fold them out, they kind of look like 310 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,080 Speaker 1: a human ear. But the more likely explanation is that 311 00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:21,080 Speaker 1: you have this old wives tale about them crawling into 312 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:24,560 Speaker 1: human ears and laying eggs inside your brain, which of 313 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:27,200 Speaker 1: course becomes part of the idea of like, what is 314 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,440 Speaker 1: a song you hear and you can't get it out? 315 00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:31,480 Speaker 1: Of your head. It is kind of like a small 316 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,040 Speaker 1: insect that has crawled in through your ear into your brain. 317 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: It's like those things in con Yeah exactly, but really, 318 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: your wigs don't do this, right, No, No, there's no 319 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: I think they will, uh from based on the research 320 00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:47,320 Speaker 1: I was looking at, I think they will occasionally you 321 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,560 Speaker 1: can get one in your ear. I would refer back 322 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: to our stuff to Blow your mind episode which I 323 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,639 Speaker 1: think will be rerunning soon, about insects crawling inside of 324 00:18:56,640 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: body cavities. It happens, it can happen, but not not 325 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,520 Speaker 1: to the degree that wives tales would have you believe. 326 00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:05,879 Speaker 1: And not eggs in the brain. No, no eggs in 327 00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:08,120 Speaker 1: the brain. We need another phrase, by the way, that's 328 00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:11,240 Speaker 1: a that's an unfortunate phrase because who knows our wives 329 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:15,080 Speaker 1: really saying this? Yeah, it is. It is sexist terminology. 330 00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:19,520 Speaker 1: Let's just say old folk beliefs and hearsay old starship 331 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:24,359 Speaker 1: captain's tales. Um So. English itself is actually composed of 332 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,119 Speaker 1: a huge number of words borrowed from other languages. And 333 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:31,840 Speaker 1: it's not just interesting terms like earworm right. Tons of 334 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:37,080 Speaker 1: everyday terminology is descended from words that were borrowed into English. 335 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,560 Speaker 1: Hundreds of years ago. English originally was a West Germanic language, 336 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: and and these roots or where we get a lot 337 00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:47,440 Speaker 1: of the origins of common basic short words that still 338 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,719 Speaker 1: exist in English today. But tons of other words in 339 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: English come from other languages. So here's one that I 340 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,280 Speaker 1: was just thinking about. What do you call the album 341 00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:59,119 Speaker 1: Black Sabbath by the band Black Sabbath, on which the 342 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:01,920 Speaker 1: song black Sabba it appears. It sounds like a trick question. 343 00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:08,080 Speaker 1: I think the answer is Black Sabbath. It's the eponymous album, right, yeah, eponymous, 344 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:11,359 Speaker 1: But of course eponymous, that's a that's a word taken 345 00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: directly from words in Greek. So that's like a Greek 346 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 1: loan word. In English, it means to give one's name 347 00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,680 Speaker 1: to um. And in a way, it's funny to try 348 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:25,080 Speaker 1: to list words in English borrowed from other languages, because 349 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: it would make more sense, really to try to list 350 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,560 Speaker 1: the words not borrowed from other languages, descending directly from 351 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:35,880 Speaker 1: Germanic roots, because the vast majority of English words at 352 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 1: this point are borrowed. By some estimates, borrowed words make 353 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:43,200 Speaker 1: up about eighty percent or more of the language, and 354 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 1: some of these words have been borrowed for a very 355 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 1: long time. Many came from languages like French and Latin 356 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,760 Speaker 1: hundreds of years ago. The big point of linguistic cross 357 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:54,280 Speaker 1: pollination here is the Norman conquest of England in the 358 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:59,480 Speaker 1: eleventh century, where Norman French suddenly became the language of 359 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:03,159 Speaker 1: government into the ruling class in England. And so this 360 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:05,919 Speaker 1: legacy still exists in English today, where you have tons 361 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:10,080 Speaker 1: of words having multiple synonyms for the same concept. Uh. 362 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,600 Speaker 1: And you have a kind of like every day version 363 00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:15,600 Speaker 1: of the word that comes from Old English, and then 364 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:18,960 Speaker 1: a more formal or official sounding version of the word 365 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,360 Speaker 1: that comes from the French. So like a holdover from 366 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,199 Speaker 1: a time when both languages had to exist together at 367 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,199 Speaker 1: the same time and the same heads and off the 368 00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: same lips. Yeah, and then the French derivative ones were 369 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: generally the ones in power, the ones with money, and 370 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:38,679 Speaker 1: the ones with administrative authority. So uh, you get like 371 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,360 Speaker 1: buy and purchase by from the old English, purchase from 372 00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: the old French, where you've got dead versus deceased, dead 373 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:49,560 Speaker 1: from the Old English, deceased from the old French. Where 374 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: you've got wild from the Old English versus savage from 375 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,639 Speaker 1: the old French. But that's a wonderful point about the 376 00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,520 Speaker 1: idea that that or more of the language is just 377 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,119 Speaker 1: word that come from other languages. It it kind of 378 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:05,840 Speaker 1: creates this stone soup sort of scenario for English itself, 379 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: like what what is there that is not something that 380 00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: was brought in to bulk up the recipe. Yeah, that's 381 00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:14,840 Speaker 1: a great metaphor. But then ultimately, I mean it gets 382 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:19,240 Speaker 1: complicated because both Old English and Old French or Indo 383 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:23,400 Speaker 1: European languages meaning that so while you know, modern English 384 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,959 Speaker 1: has all these words that come from the French lineage 385 00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:30,920 Speaker 1: of language development, ultimately both languages are thought to come 386 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:34,560 Speaker 1: from this hypothetical language a long time ago into European. 387 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:38,480 Speaker 1: So they split off, they formed different lineages, they formed 388 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,520 Speaker 1: different words that descended from each other, and then at 389 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,640 Speaker 1: some point in history they crossed and then entered each other. 390 00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:46,760 Speaker 1: It's kind of like a scenario where if you have 391 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,679 Speaker 1: like two films that come out and it both essentially 392 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:52,520 Speaker 1: retellings of the Odyssey or the retaellings of Baiwol or 393 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 1: what have you, like, that's the that's in the genes 394 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:56,800 Speaker 1: of the thing. And then but then one sort of 395 00:22:56,800 --> 00:23:02,440 Speaker 1: steals from the other, uh like that. So another common 396 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,080 Speaker 1: source of words ending up in the language is words 397 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:08,919 Speaker 1: derived from proper nouns. Something that was once the proper 398 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,920 Speaker 1: name of a person or a place gets drafted into 399 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: a common word or phrase. An example here would be platonic. 400 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: Think of a platonic relationship. Now, once this was understood 401 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:23,359 Speaker 1: to refer directly to ideas discussed by Plato, you're talking 402 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: about the philosopher Plato. Now platonic does not really necessarily 403 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,040 Speaker 1: call Plato to mind. It's just an adjective, right, It 404 00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: just means, like, you know, a non sexual relationship, but platonic. One. 405 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,360 Speaker 1: Another example would be bohemian. Bohemia is a place. It's 406 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 1: in the modern Czech Republic. But now the word Bohemian 407 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:44,560 Speaker 1: doesn't suggest to people anything about that place. So of 408 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,359 Speaker 1: course we still have examples of of words that they 409 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:52,640 Speaker 1: still have a direct tie to their source, like say Macavellian. 410 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,000 Speaker 1: When someone uses maca I don't know. I tend not 411 00:23:56,119 --> 00:23:59,639 Speaker 1: define examples of people misusing it or using it in 412 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: a general sense at least yet, but you could well 413 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,919 Speaker 1: imagine a future or you know, or a usage of 414 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,840 Speaker 1: Macavelli and that really is completely cut off from the 415 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:16,200 Speaker 1: original concepts. There's a good malapropism of machiavellianos where where 416 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,360 Speaker 1: somebody's like, that's what Prince Macchiavelli said, but I think 417 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:25,120 Speaker 1: he wasn't a prince. He was the prince by Machiavelli 418 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:31,080 Speaker 1: actually just thought of another good proper name to common usage, denim. 419 00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,880 Speaker 1: Denim originally is like from day nime. It's like from 420 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: a place. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah, okay, well, 421 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,680 Speaker 1: oh well, as long as we're talking about about products, 422 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 1: I mean there's of course, Champagne is another example, right, 423 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:44,879 Speaker 1: it's a great one where it's officially it's supposed to 424 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:47,639 Speaker 1: be tied to the Champagne region, but it is often 425 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: just used generically. Now it's just a common now it 426 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,920 Speaker 1: means bubbly wine. Yeah um yeah. But so another thing 427 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:57,120 Speaker 1: that a great source of new words in this sort 428 00:24:57,160 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: of natural evolution version is back formation. I love this. 429 00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:06,360 Speaker 1: Back Formation is when a new word is born when 430 00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:10,639 Speaker 1: a prefix or suffix is removed from an existing word 431 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,119 Speaker 1: in order to create a new one. Often because people 432 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:18,680 Speaker 1: just assume that these new words already exist because of 433 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:22,440 Speaker 1: linguistic cues. So people create a new word thinking it's 434 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 1: already a word, not realizing that it's not one. So 435 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:30,080 Speaker 1: here's one that I really like, the verb lace, as 436 00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,439 Speaker 1: in to use a laser. Okay, so this is thinking like, 437 00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 1: all right, you have the terminator. What's the terminator? Do 438 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 1: he terminates? What's the laser? Do lasers the heck out 439 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:41,359 Speaker 1: of stuff? Exactly? You've got a fire poker? What do 440 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:44,000 Speaker 1: you do with a poker? You poke? So you've got 441 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,159 Speaker 1: a laser. The surgeon has a laser. What do they 442 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,920 Speaker 1: do with it? They lace the patient's eye. And this 443 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,000 Speaker 1: is a word. Now people use the verb lace all 444 00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,119 Speaker 1: the time. It's a but it is a back formation. 445 00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 1: The word laser is not like the word poker. Laser 446 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,280 Speaker 1: is actually an acronym standing for light amplification by stimulated 447 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:06,320 Speaker 1: emission of radiation. But because of its similarity to these 448 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,000 Speaker 1: other nouns with a similar spelling that end with e 449 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,080 Speaker 1: er like poker, it got back formed into a verb. 450 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,040 Speaker 1: And of course this example also shows another new way 451 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:20,680 Speaker 1: that words are formed acronyms. Right, laser was originally an acronym. 452 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,320 Speaker 1: Now it's not, you know it, Laser is just a word. 453 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,520 Speaker 1: People don't capitalize that. They don't put periods between the letters. 454 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 1: It's just a laser. I was reading about another fun 455 00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,200 Speaker 1: back formation. This is the kind of back formation known 456 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: as a false singular. And the example here is the 457 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: English word P, as in p soup. So originally the 458 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:43,920 Speaker 1: Middle English word was piece p E a s e 459 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,520 Speaker 1: and this would be the noun that worked as a 460 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,919 Speaker 1: singular or a collective, like the word corn, or like 461 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,000 Speaker 1: the word wheat. So you could have a bowl of peace, 462 00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:56,439 Speaker 1: or you could have a single piece kernel. Well, because 463 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:00,480 Speaker 1: plural words in modern English end in s sound, people 464 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 1: began to assume sometimes the seventeenth century that peace must 465 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,680 Speaker 1: be the plural word for the singular P, and then 466 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,600 Speaker 1: the word P was thus created. This type of origin again, 467 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,400 Speaker 1: this is the false singular. A similar thing would happen 468 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: if people started assuming that the singular of moose must 469 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:26,639 Speaker 1: be moo, as opposed to nieces or of course moose 470 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,240 Speaker 1: another one that I really like. How about truncation also 471 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,200 Speaker 1: known as shortening or clipping. This is when new words 472 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,280 Speaker 1: are created by cutting chunks out of existing words. So 473 00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: mayonnaise becomes mayo, examination becomes exam, refrigerator becomes fridge, robot 474 00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:50,119 Speaker 1: becomes bot, application becomes app advertisement, becomes ad. Yeah, we 475 00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:53,879 Speaker 1: also see stuff like bicycle and bike, rhinoceros and rhino 476 00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: or brother becomes bro or bra. One of my favorites. 477 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:00,960 Speaker 1: That also the one that I think it's I find 478 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,040 Speaker 1: just so humorous is um when pizza becomes za. I 479 00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,399 Speaker 1: don't know if actual humans use this or if it's 480 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:11,000 Speaker 1: just like Ninja turtles, but uh, I like to bust 481 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:13,879 Speaker 1: it out for groans now and again, never pay for 482 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: la pizza man. Uh. Here's another one blending existing words, 483 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: pretty straightforward. You take incomplete parts of words and smash 484 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: them together. Breakfast and lunch becomes brunch, Spoon and fork 485 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,720 Speaker 1: becomes spork. Podcast itself, we're on a podcast that is 486 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:35,440 Speaker 1: a portmanteau of iPod and broadcast, and some would classify 487 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,880 Speaker 1: this particular podcast as infotainment, which is of course a 488 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:45,400 Speaker 1: combination of information and entertainment. So you got a lot 489 00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:48,680 Speaker 1: of fun a portmanteau from hell. Yeah, you see a 490 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:50,520 Speaker 1: lot of this in You know, a place where you 491 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: see a lot of language generation is the business world, 492 00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: where you know you have a new product or a 493 00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: new approach. It needs a new title and needs a 494 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 1: new a new word for this. On sept And A 495 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:02,720 Speaker 1: great way to create it is to just crash two 496 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:08,520 Speaker 1: things together and see how they fit. Are you not infota? Okay? 497 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:12,000 Speaker 1: One more natural source of new words on amotopia. This 498 00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:13,840 Speaker 1: is what we call it when a word is formed 499 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,360 Speaker 1: by sounding like the thing it's referring to. So plink 500 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:22,400 Speaker 1: honk hiss, the word imitates the sound of the concept. 501 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:24,880 Speaker 1: I was trying to think do we form new on 502 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,120 Speaker 1: a mootopias this It seems like all the ones I 503 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,600 Speaker 1: can think of have been around for a while. Maybe 504 00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,600 Speaker 1: we form them less often than some other types of words, 505 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,000 Speaker 1: but I'm sure we must form new ones every now 506 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:36,720 Speaker 1: and then. I was trying to think of a good 507 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: modern example, and the one I thought of was I'll 508 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:43,680 Speaker 1: ping you about that later. So originally an automotopia from 509 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:46,120 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, this would, you know, refer to the 510 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,240 Speaker 1: sound of a bullet hitting metal or something ping, But 511 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:53,040 Speaker 1: because of conceptual or auditory similarities, it came to refer 512 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,560 Speaker 1: to things in the communications sphere, such as like a 513 00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: sonar communications between submarines or between network computer user. Yeah. Um, 514 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: and I would be surprised if the modern resurgence of 515 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 1: ping in the business world or in the workplace didn't 516 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 1: have something to do with the ping like notification sounds 517 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,720 Speaker 1: and email and chat apps. Uh. Yeah, I was trying 518 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,000 Speaker 1: to think of some more like some recent ones, and 519 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,280 Speaker 1: I was looking around at some examples of sort of 520 00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 1: modern lingo, and perhaps yeat is an example. I'm not 521 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 1: sure what does that? What does that imitate? The sound of? Well? Okay, 522 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,920 Speaker 1: well let me define it for anyone so as the 523 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: kids will use this term these days. According to uh, 524 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,720 Speaker 1: to my sources on the internet, it seems to be 525 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:43,120 Speaker 1: either a strong version of yes or to quote, throw 526 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,680 Speaker 1: something forcefully in a specified direction, as in I yeeded 527 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,480 Speaker 1: a cup of noodles across the room. Yeah, but like heat, 528 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:53,400 Speaker 1: like I can sort of, I'm not sure. I'm not 529 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,520 Speaker 1: positive that there's any um in anything to it, Like 530 00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,520 Speaker 1: to throw something doesn't necessarily create the sound of yeat. 531 00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 1: But then when you start like trying to figure out 532 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,640 Speaker 1: how the sounds work in your head, you know, I 533 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,800 Speaker 1: can sort of half formulate a case for yeat being 534 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: an actual sound. God, we sound so cool right now. 535 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: I'll have to keep thinking about that one. Think about 536 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: it the next time you throw something across the ring. Okay, alright, 537 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:20,880 Speaker 1: on that note, We're going to take one more break, 538 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,120 Speaker 1: but when we come back we will dive into some 539 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: examples of intentionally invented words. All right, we're back. Okay. 540 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,840 Speaker 1: Now we've been looking at ways that words arise in 541 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,120 Speaker 1: language without being intentionally invented. When they arise through the process, 542 00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:43,960 Speaker 1: that's more akin to biological evolution. But what about when 543 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 1: we want to frankenstein some words just like make them 544 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:49,680 Speaker 1: in the lab um. So sort of going back to 545 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,520 Speaker 1: the business scenario, you've got a new product that you 546 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: need to get out there, or you're rebranding another one 547 00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,640 Speaker 1: and you gotta call it something. Well, I know somebody 548 00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: who would have been great at branding, and that's the 549 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: English writer Horace Walpole, who lived from seventeen seventeen to 550 00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:09,480 Speaker 1: seventeen uh And the term that he coined that everybody knows. 551 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: He actually coined quite a few, but most of them 552 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:16,320 Speaker 1: are forgotten. The one that everybody knows is serendipity. And 553 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:19,360 Speaker 1: this comes from a letter that Walpole was writing to 554 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 1: a friend named Horace Man, different from the American education reformer. 555 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,720 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I think this Horseman was a British diplomat. 556 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:33,000 Speaker 1: But the letter was dated January seventeen fifty four. And 557 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:37,200 Speaker 1: despite the magical delight of serendipity as a concept, I 558 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,239 Speaker 1: have to say the occasion by which he ends up 559 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: describing it is incredibly dull. Basically, Walpole says that he 560 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:48,959 Speaker 1: accidentally discovered a historical link between two families while he 561 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Speaker 1: was studying their coats of arms in a reference book. 562 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,920 Speaker 1: Earth shaking right. But he's writing about this process, and 563 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: he says, quote, this discovery indeed is almost of that 564 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:04,640 Speaker 1: kind which I call serendipity, a very expressive word, which, 565 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:06,800 Speaker 1: as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall 566 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: endeavor to explain to you. You will understand it better 567 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,120 Speaker 1: by the derivation than the definition. I once read a 568 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,240 Speaker 1: silly fairy tale called the Three Princes of serendip As 569 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,320 Speaker 1: their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries by accidents 570 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: and sagacity of things which they were not in quest of. 571 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: For instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind 572 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:32,000 Speaker 1: of the right eye had traveled the same road lately, 573 00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,360 Speaker 1: because the grass was eaten only on the left side, 574 00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,000 Speaker 1: where it was worse than on the right. Now do 575 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:42,520 Speaker 1: you understand serendipity. One of the most remarkable instances of 576 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:46,800 Speaker 1: this accidental sagacity, for you must observe that no discovery 577 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:49,480 Speaker 1: of a thing you were looking for comes under this description. 578 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 1: Was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who, happening to dine at 579 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the Duke 580 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,000 Speaker 1: of York and Mrs Hyde by the respect with which 581 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: her mother treated her at table god riveting right dinner. 582 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:08,600 Speaker 1: How he treated her. Oh man, it's it's hard to 583 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,640 Speaker 1: believe the term really took off at all reading this, 584 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,080 Speaker 1: but it's a great term, right, because it really does 585 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:17,920 Speaker 1: describe something, the idea of a happy accident, that the 586 00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:22,400 Speaker 1: occurrence or development of events by a thing that was, 587 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,600 Speaker 1: you know, in a way that's beneficial, but that was 588 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:27,560 Speaker 1: not intended by the agent. Yeah, like when you run 589 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,799 Speaker 1: into an old friend at a subway on a subway ride, 590 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 1: you think this is exactly like a one eyed donkey 591 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,640 Speaker 1: eating grass on one side of the road. I think something, 592 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: at least in the way I use the word. It's 593 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:45,200 Speaker 1: especially serendipitous if it's um a situation in which you know, 594 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:47,799 Speaker 1: in the course of trying to do one thing, especially 595 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 1: if that thing is foolish or misguided, you actually accomplish 596 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:56,480 Speaker 1: something different and good. Yes, it's like the foolishness of 597 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:01,440 Speaker 1: the original errand that makes something especially serendipitous. But according 598 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,799 Speaker 1: to a post that excerpted from this letter in the 599 00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,960 Speaker 1: Paris Review, the adjective form of the word serendipitous was 600 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: not recorded until nineteen forty three. So that's a pretty 601 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: big spend of time. And I wonder do intentionally invented 602 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,279 Speaker 1: words take longer on average to find all of their 603 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: derived parts of speech. I don't know. I mean, it 604 00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:24,319 Speaker 1: seems like they have to have a certain amount of 605 00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 1: sticking power to just like language is a living thing, 606 00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:31,239 Speaker 1: you know. Um, so if you create a word and 607 00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,480 Speaker 1: it doesn't take off, you know, if someone's out there 608 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:36,960 Speaker 1: not making it happen, like pushing it into the into 609 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:41,000 Speaker 1: the lexicon, Yeah, how does it ever gain a foothold? Well? 610 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 1: I think about the fact that when a word feels organic, 611 00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: you're more likely to assume that it's derived different parts 612 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,560 Speaker 1: of speech already exist, right, that you're not making them 613 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,560 Speaker 1: up when you say them, Whereas when a word is 614 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:57,920 Speaker 1: something that you're aware of, as like an intentional recent coinage, 615 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,640 Speaker 1: you might be more likely to think, oh, serendipitous that's 616 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:04,080 Speaker 1: not a word. This is also probably the struggling point 617 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,440 Speaker 1: for ZA. Right. That's why why I think that I 618 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,040 Speaker 1: could be wrong that I don't think a lot of 619 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:11,600 Speaker 1: people are using ZA as an abbreviation for pizza just 620 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: because it's it's It sounds fake, it doesn't seem helpful. Okay. 621 00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,640 Speaker 1: So Walpole also provides early written evidence for some other terms, 622 00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,759 Speaker 1: though not necessarily always of his intentional coinage. When I 623 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,719 Speaker 1: was reading about that I thought was great is from 624 00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:28,839 Speaker 1: an article in The New Republic by David Crystal that's 625 00:36:28,880 --> 00:36:32,319 Speaker 1: all about terms for drunkenness in English. A lot of 626 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:36,200 Speaker 1: these are forgotten, and this term comes from Walpole. The 627 00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:41,439 Speaker 1: term is muckibus, meaning drunkenly sentimental, which is a good 628 00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: thing to have a word for, right, like you know, 629 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,480 Speaker 1: I love you man, No, I love you man. Muckibus 630 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:49,120 Speaker 1: uh sounds a little bit like sucky bus too, so 631 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:52,200 Speaker 1: it has this kind of like demonic of quality to 632 00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:54,960 Speaker 1: it as well of the of the will being overpowered. 633 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,480 Speaker 1: Would you believe that this word comes from a dinner party. 634 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:02,879 Speaker 1: So it's an anecdote that Walpole shares in a letter 635 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:07,600 Speaker 1: to George Montague on April seventeen, fifty six, Walpole says, 636 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,400 Speaker 1: so he's at a dinner party, he's having supper. He 637 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,680 Speaker 1: overhears somebody named Lady Coventry saying that if she drank anymore, 638 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,920 Speaker 1: she would become mucky buss. And then somebody named lady 639 00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,920 Speaker 1: Mary Coke asks what that means, and Coventry says that 640 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,920 Speaker 1: it was Irish for sentimental. Crystal writes quote. The mock 641 00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:33,240 Speaker 1: Latin ending is known from other facetious eighteenth century slang formations, 642 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:38,160 Speaker 1: such as stinky buss, but there is no obvious connection 643 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:42,360 Speaker 1: with muck. Lady Coventry came from Ireland. The likelihood is 644 00:37:42,360 --> 00:37:47,319 Speaker 1: that Walpole misheard a genuine Irish word, perhaps, and here 645 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:49,520 Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my best with an Irish word here 646 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,759 Speaker 1: queen yuck, which is spelled m A O I t 647 00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:58,040 Speaker 1: h n e a c h Ireland to get it together. 648 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:03,319 Speaker 1: Come on, that's okay. I think it's ween yuck uh, 649 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: and it means sentimental. Yeah, I should say. Crystal's article 650 00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:09,560 Speaker 1: also mentions a bunch of other terms for drunkenness, including 651 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,560 Speaker 1: my new favorite uh not a loan word, not a 652 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,800 Speaker 1: new coinage, a classic Anglo Saxon word which is sim 653 00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:20,919 Speaker 1: bell goal, meaning wanton with drink feasting. This one also 654 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,319 Speaker 1: sounds demonic in nature, which is I went to the 655 00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,040 Speaker 1: Black Sabbath and I became Simon bell goal. Thinking about 656 00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:31,480 Speaker 1: serendipity though, actually got me on the subject of another 657 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: invented word that I really like. That comes from the 658 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:39,640 Speaker 1: American philosopher Daniel Dinnett, and it's his concept of a deepity. 659 00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:41,520 Speaker 1: I think we've talked about this on Stuff to Blow 660 00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,799 Speaker 1: your Mind before, but I read about this idea in 661 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:48,440 Speaker 1: Dinnett's book called Intuition, Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, 662 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 1: remember discussing that. So a deepity is a special kind 663 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:58,120 Speaker 1: of equivocation. And of course equivocation is a word or 664 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:00,600 Speaker 1: phrase that's used in two different way as to a 665 00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:04,439 Speaker 1: misleading effect. So you might say, like, um, why would 666 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,439 Speaker 1: you read all the arguments for and against Dennett's theory 667 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:12,000 Speaker 1: of consciousness? Isn't there enough arguing in the world? You know, uh, 668 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,440 Speaker 1: people people say stuff like this all the time, you 669 00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:17,640 Speaker 1: know it hinges on two different meanings of the word argument. 670 00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:20,480 Speaker 1: In one sense, an argument is just explaining why you 671 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:23,440 Speaker 1: think something's true. In another sense, it means like angry 672 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:27,640 Speaker 1: or acrimonious. So so that's an equivocation. Generally, a deepity 673 00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:31,719 Speaker 1: is a specific kind of equivocation that you'll probably recognize 674 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,840 Speaker 1: immediately from your life. It's a statement that can either 675 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:40,759 Speaker 1: be interpreted as true and utterly trivial or profound and 676 00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:46,239 Speaker 1: obviously false. Okay, but it but it takes advantage of 677 00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:49,200 Speaker 1: like the good haves of both of these versions. So 678 00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:52,359 Speaker 1: an example would be if somebody says love is just 679 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:57,600 Speaker 1: a word. So either you're talking about the word love, 680 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:00,520 Speaker 1: in which case this statement is true, but it is 681 00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:04,080 Speaker 1: a banal truism and doesn't okay, so what, Yes, the 682 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,960 Speaker 1: word love is a word, or you're saying that the 683 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,480 Speaker 1: feeling of love is itself nothing more than a word, 684 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:14,520 Speaker 1: in which case the statement is stupid and nobody would 685 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:19,040 Speaker 1: bother paying any attention to you. There was I want 686 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,920 Speaker 1: to say on burto echo wrote something about or I 687 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,640 Speaker 1: can't remember if you wrote it or quoted it about 688 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:28,280 Speaker 1: some uh some some treatment on the on the rose 689 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,000 Speaker 1: uh saying like the first person to make this statement 690 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:33,319 Speaker 1: was quite possibly a genius and the second person to 691 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,520 Speaker 1: make it was an idiot. Um oh was he talking 692 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:39,400 Speaker 1: about nominalism though? With William Vacham in the name of 693 00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:41,839 Speaker 1: the likely so, but yeah, it was. It was from 694 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:43,799 Speaker 1: I want to say it was from the introduction or 695 00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,960 Speaker 1: the the afterword to the name of the rose, but 696 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:48,960 Speaker 1: it's since been whilst I've read that. Well, I mean, 697 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,760 Speaker 1: I guess. Another thing that's true is like with any statement, 698 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:55,000 Speaker 1: even an obviously stupid one, with enough effort, you can 699 00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:57,640 Speaker 1: find something that that might be true about it a 700 00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: way of interpreting it, or if the the actor reciting 701 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,680 Speaker 1: the line is skilled enough, it can seem a lot 702 00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 1: more profound than it is, and you can be like, oh, man, yeah, 703 00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:12,400 Speaker 1: love is just a word. I just heard Benedict Cumberbatch 704 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:17,000 Speaker 1: say it, and I'm feeling it hardcore. Right, It's totally different. 705 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,799 Speaker 1: Brian Cox could say it and I'd be like, oh, 706 00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,520 Speaker 1: he's right. But if it's the actor who plays Badger 707 00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: on Breaking Bad, different story, entirely right. In fact, love 708 00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:28,799 Speaker 1: is just a word is a great example because you 709 00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,359 Speaker 1: can make tons of deepities with the X is just 710 00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:35,640 Speaker 1: a y formulation. Lots of them are like this one 711 00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:38,239 Speaker 1: example that we thankfully hear a lot less of than 712 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,600 Speaker 1: we used to. Like ten years ago, this was everywhere 713 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,319 Speaker 1: you looked. Evolution is just a theory. Remember this one. 714 00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:48,120 Speaker 1: So it hinges on two different understandings of the word theory. 715 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:52,080 Speaker 1: One interpretation of the sentence is true but trivial. Another 716 00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,440 Speaker 1: interpretation of the sentence, where theory means something like unfounded 717 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:58,759 Speaker 1: speculation would up end all of modern biology if it 718 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,279 Speaker 1: were true, but his pat ly false. Yeah, it does. 719 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:06,480 Speaker 1: That statement does tend to hinge on misunderstanding of what 720 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,120 Speaker 1: theories are and what role they play in our understanding 721 00:42:09,120 --> 00:42:12,439 Speaker 1: of the world. Other things are not quite as obvious 722 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,680 Speaker 1: as a deepity, but feel vaguely deepity ish one that 723 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,520 Speaker 1: I was, one that I came across. His beauty is 724 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:21,600 Speaker 1: only skin deep like. In one sense, this could be 725 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:24,840 Speaker 1: saying physical beauty is only physical, which is true but 726 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,399 Speaker 1: not very profound. Or it could be saying beauty has 727 00:42:28,480 --> 00:42:32,040 Speaker 1: nothing to do with transcendent qualities like morality or character, 728 00:42:32,160 --> 00:42:34,920 Speaker 1: in which case is that true, like don't we often 729 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:39,040 Speaker 1: find things beautiful because they're morally good or thoughtful or meaningful? Yeah. 730 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,719 Speaker 1: Depending on how you interpret it, it it it could mean 731 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:45,480 Speaker 1: one of two, just dramatically different ideas, and the sense 732 00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:49,040 Speaker 1: in which it is obviously true doesn't really mean anything 733 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:52,160 Speaker 1: I noticed in the real world. Deepity is often shoot 734 00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:54,560 Speaker 1: by you real fast. They tend to be the kind 735 00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,080 Speaker 1: of thing that somebody doesn't just say and leave hanging, 736 00:42:57,120 --> 00:43:00,040 Speaker 1: but they say and then move on from You know, 737 00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:03,200 Speaker 1: they're talking very quickly, like they can sound good for 738 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,040 Speaker 1: half a second if you don't stop to think about them. 739 00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 1: But I was also thinking about deepity is interesting because 740 00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,920 Speaker 1: there's something about the way the words sounds that was 741 00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:17,360 Speaker 1: clearly part of the selection process for attaching this word 742 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: to this concept like uh. Originally, Dinntt says that the 743 00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 1: word was coined by a daughter of a friend of his. 744 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,520 Speaker 1: Her name is Miriam Wisenbaum, and originally she had been 745 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,839 Speaker 1: at the dinner table sort of like lightly mocking her 746 00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:34,359 Speaker 1: father for some kind of kind of overly ponderous thing. 747 00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:38,080 Speaker 1: He said uh. And then Dinnett heard this word from 748 00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:40,960 Speaker 1: her and then reimagined it because of the sound of 749 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:42,920 Speaker 1: the word fits so well with the concept that he 750 00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:46,359 Speaker 1: wanted a word for uh. And it brings to mind 751 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: the concept of idiophones, which we explored on an episode 752 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Basically, the idea that uh, 753 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:57,080 Speaker 1: certain um syllables and words sounds in our in our 754 00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:02,120 Speaker 1: minds are naturally widely associated with with concepts such as 755 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:06,520 Speaker 1: physical textures, like there are words that naturally sound slimy 756 00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:09,920 Speaker 1: to us or have certain kind of moral connotations to 757 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:14,839 Speaker 1: us that are just like sounds totally apart from semantic meaning, right, Yeah. 758 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:17,160 Speaker 1: You often see this in the like the names of 759 00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:21,920 Speaker 1: fictitious characters. Um. Part of this is is we've been 760 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,440 Speaker 1: on a Harry Potter kick at the house and so 761 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,080 Speaker 1: like a lot of the names that J. K. Rowling uses, 762 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:30,520 Speaker 1: you know that, I feel feel like they line up 763 00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:34,280 Speaker 1: with this rather well. You know, like uh um, several 764 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:39,120 Speaker 1: snape you know, that's just it drips it. It feels 765 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,040 Speaker 1: and sounds like the the the individual it is. It 766 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:46,000 Speaker 1: hisses like a Slytherin, Yeah, Slytherin itself exactly. Yeah. But 767 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:48,719 Speaker 1: I mean there is something going on here. I think like, 768 00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:51,680 Speaker 1: if you're not building a neologism entirely out of root 769 00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:54,520 Speaker 1: words that have semantic meanings, I mean, it's a different 770 00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:58,239 Speaker 1: thing to go with, like malapropism, where that's built out 771 00:44:58,239 --> 00:45:01,040 Speaker 1: of root words from another language age that have some 772 00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:04,320 Speaker 1: kind of meaning already. You wouldn't be able to tell 773 00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:08,239 Speaker 1: what deepity means just by looking at the word right right, 774 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,359 Speaker 1: It doesn't doesn't have a semantic suggestion unless you've heard 775 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,960 Speaker 1: it explain to you or heard it used. So to 776 00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:18,239 Speaker 1: what extent is possible Idiophonic residue guide the choice of 777 00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:21,719 Speaker 1: words being linked to concepts like that. I mean, I'm 778 00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:24,600 Speaker 1: thinking about it in my head itty deep bitty, the 779 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:29,040 Speaker 1: itty part of it somehow sounds like the concept to me, 780 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:32,640 Speaker 1: what brings to mind itty biddy, It brings it mind smallness, 781 00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,640 Speaker 1: So it's like a small small depth. But it like 782 00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:39,400 Speaker 1: that's kind of a stretch. It's not there's nothing you 783 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:43,880 Speaker 1: can't really get there by analyzing actual grammar, right because 784 00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:46,840 Speaker 1: itty bitty is itty bitty even in Webster's I don't know, 785 00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:51,279 Speaker 1: it's it's very much slang. Uh, it's bits. I'm not 786 00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:53,960 Speaker 1: even sure where that comes from, itty bitty, I don't 787 00:45:54,000 --> 00:46:00,480 Speaker 1: know deepitty, just in terms of in examples of have 788 00:46:00,560 --> 00:46:04,280 Speaker 1: invented terminology. Uh, this is what I was thinking about recently. 789 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:07,920 Speaker 1: Psychonaut because when you when you hear it, I mean 790 00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:09,680 Speaker 1: it's composed out of the out of the Greek. So 791 00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,000 Speaker 1: you it's easy to assume that this has been with 792 00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:15,920 Speaker 1: us a very long time, but it is more like malapropism, 793 00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:18,080 Speaker 1: and that it's built out of roots that do have 794 00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,600 Speaker 1: meanings that you could identify. Yes, yeah, because I clearly 795 00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,200 Speaker 1: it's drawing from the popular use of say astronaut, which 796 00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:28,879 Speaker 1: means star sailor or cosmonaut, universe sailor. And of course 797 00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:31,120 Speaker 1: you have the the argonauts of Greek myth, who were 798 00:46:31,120 --> 00:46:36,680 Speaker 1: simply sailors in the vessel argo um. But psychonaut. When 799 00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:38,480 Speaker 1: I was looking into it, I was thinking, Okay, this 800 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:40,839 Speaker 1: term must have been around here in the sixties. Uh, 801 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,480 Speaker 1: And it apparently wasn't. The term is widely used now, 802 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:48,440 Speaker 1: but it didn't seem to emerge until German author Ernst 803 00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:51,960 Speaker 1: Hunger used it in nineteen in the nineteen seventy, and 804 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:56,480 Speaker 1: it was subsequently picked up by various occultists and ethnobotanists, 805 00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:58,440 Speaker 1: and now it's become, you know, just sort of a 806 00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:01,960 Speaker 1: standard and really quite useful term for describing various twenty 807 00:47:02,239 --> 00:47:04,880 Speaker 1: or twenty first century individuals like say John C. Louis 808 00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:08,120 Speaker 1: or Terrence Mackinna, people who were explorers in the realm 809 00:47:08,160 --> 00:47:10,680 Speaker 1: of the mind. Yeah, yeah, but also yeah, but also 810 00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:13,680 Speaker 1: drawing in that sort of astronaut and motif of one 811 00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:16,120 Speaker 1: of one who goes out by going in and then 812 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:19,080 Speaker 1: Joe I know you want to discuss, uh, the thagomizer. 813 00:47:19,239 --> 00:47:21,480 Speaker 1: Oh right, this comes from This is one of our favorites. 814 00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:23,799 Speaker 1: It's come up on stuff to blow your mind a lot. 815 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,680 Speaker 1: So the thagomizer is something that was coined as a 816 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,200 Speaker 1: joke in a Gary Larson cartoon. It refers to the 817 00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:35,360 Speaker 1: arrangement of spikes on the tail of a stegasaurus. Uh 818 00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:38,160 Speaker 1: and it's uh So there's a Gary Larson Far Side 819 00:47:38,200 --> 00:47:42,040 Speaker 1: cartoon where a caveman is apparently teaching a class and 820 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,279 Speaker 1: is pointing to a picture like a slide projector I 821 00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,399 Speaker 1: G a slide of one of these things and says, 822 00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:51,359 Speaker 1: now this end is called the thagomizer, after the late 823 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:55,520 Speaker 1: thag Simmons, which is wonderful. Yeah. So, so this was 824 00:47:55,719 --> 00:48:00,000 Speaker 1: eventually picked up by actual paleontologists who found this hilarious 825 00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:02,399 Speaker 1: because prior to this so you didn't have a name 826 00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:04,360 Speaker 1: for the spiked tail is just the spike tail of 827 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:08,160 Speaker 1: a Stegasaurus or some other type of stegasaur. And when 828 00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,319 Speaker 1: you when you try to start breaking down how thagomizer 829 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:14,760 Speaker 1: would even work as a word, it's crazy because okay, 830 00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:17,160 Speaker 1: we have fag. Fag is the name of the caveman, 831 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:20,839 Speaker 1: victim of the dinosaur, your proper down there, right. And 832 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:24,239 Speaker 1: but then we come to almiser O M I z r. 833 00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:27,080 Speaker 1: And this is just nonsense because yes, you do have 834 00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:31,240 Speaker 1: some English words that end with almiser, but their words 835 00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:37,680 Speaker 1: like randomizer, economizer, customizer, atomizer, and these all are root 836 00:48:37,719 --> 00:48:41,799 Speaker 1: words that themselves end in um, like atom and then 837 00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,960 Speaker 1: we get atomizer. So where does the arm come from 838 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:49,080 Speaker 1: in thagom eiser? The eyser part of makes more sense 839 00:48:49,320 --> 00:48:51,560 Speaker 1: because I guess it's kind of like with tenderizer that 840 00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:54,239 Speaker 1: brings us to eyes. So if you allow us to 841 00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:59,600 Speaker 1: further u etomologize here, uh, it is just an old suffix, 842 00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:04,040 Speaker 1: like a long established suffix that that turns that allows 843 00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,760 Speaker 1: us to make a noun or adjective into a verb, 844 00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,120 Speaker 1: and then this can in turn be made into a noun. 845 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:15,719 Speaker 1: So I just etymologized. I am the etymologizer, which is 846 00:49:15,719 --> 00:49:18,759 Speaker 1: not a real word but could be could extrapolate into it, 847 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:22,800 Speaker 1: and you could follow the trails back to real words. Fagomizer, 848 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:26,319 Speaker 1: if we are stretching, would at best mean a thing 849 00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:30,440 Speaker 1: that turns one into thag simmon, which makes no sense. 850 00:49:31,040 --> 00:49:33,920 Speaker 1: And yet at the same time, the joke still works. 851 00:49:33,960 --> 00:49:36,200 Speaker 1: Like me, clearly it worked. It was picked up, it 852 00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:39,280 Speaker 1: becomes an unofficial name for this part of the dinosaur. 853 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,440 Speaker 1: I think official now is it official? Yeah, I mean 854 00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,920 Speaker 1: I think it's used in scientific publications. Well that sounds 855 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,920 Speaker 1: good enough to me. So clearly it works when we 856 00:49:49,000 --> 00:49:52,600 Speaker 1: hear it, even though it doesn't when you dissect it linguistically. 857 00:49:52,680 --> 00:49:56,040 Speaker 1: It's just nonsense. But but we buy into it. I 858 00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,200 Speaker 1: guess you know, fag was perhaps atomized or tenderized by 859 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,680 Speaker 1: the spiked tail, and you know that is weirdly a 860 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,960 Speaker 1: relayed in the term thagomizer, even though it's just kind 861 00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:09,839 Speaker 1: of a distorted echo of actual language. Unfortunately, I think 862 00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,080 Speaker 1: we're gonna have to call it here for today. We're 863 00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:14,799 Speaker 1: running out of studio time, even though yeah, but yeah, 864 00:50:14,840 --> 00:50:17,719 Speaker 1: we um we will be back with part two of 865 00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:21,799 Speaker 1: our series Uninvented Words. Here. I'm having a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, 866 00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:23,239 Speaker 1: this is this is a this is a fun one, 867 00:50:23,239 --> 00:50:25,120 Speaker 1: and I like where this journey is going because eventually 868 00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:27,719 Speaker 1: we can even get into the realm of invented language. 869 00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:29,640 Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to check out other 870 00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:34,000 Speaker 1: episodes of Invention, find us wherever you find podcast wherever 871 00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:36,319 Speaker 1: that happens to be. We're there, We're somewhere in there. 872 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:38,600 Speaker 1: If you go to invention pot dot com that'll shoot 873 00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:40,120 Speaker 1: you over to the I Heart listing for the show, 874 00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:42,480 Speaker 1: but you will find us all over the place. Wherever 875 00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:44,919 Speaker 1: you get the show. Just make sure you subscribe, you rate, 876 00:50:45,160 --> 00:50:48,160 Speaker 1: and you review huge. Thanks as always to our excellent 877 00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,200 Speaker 1: audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to 878 00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:53,520 Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode 879 00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:55,720 Speaker 1: or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, 880 00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:59,000 Speaker 1: just to say hello, you can email us at contact 881 00:50:59,200 --> 00:51:05,360 Speaker 1: at invention in pop dot com. Invention is production of 882 00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:08,040 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 883 00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:10,719 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 884 00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:12,880 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H