by Joyce D. Sinclair

Created on: January 31, 2011

According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, the 19th century poet and author, “A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging; it is the skin of the living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which is it used.”

People have long understood the importance of words, which is why they painstakingly carved their written words into stone and wood to record the events of the day.  With Gutenberg’s world-changing machine, it became easier to mass produce our words and share them with everyone.  As trade spread goods, words were not exempt; they were the catalyst for ideas and invention.  Words are the barometer for what people are thinking and feeling in any given time and situation.  Facebook and Twitter can attest to that.  As countries invaded others either through force or through influence, words change and evolve and adapt just like people would. 

Many texts from centuries ago have miraculously escaped tyranny, persecution, and oppression.  Written works, which include religious texts, scientific treatises, historical anecdotes, political manifestos, and literature/poetry are still read and studied today.  In order to study these properly we need to understand the words that were used then and in the context it was used.  To expunge these words from current dictionaries would be irresponsible on a historical, academic and sociolinguistic level.  We would no longer be able to truly understand what we have gone through throughout history and in the world of literature without written word.  We look to history so that we do not repeat the mistakes of our past, and written word is the best source we have as a first person narrative to the times of our ancestors. 

According to aforementioned Holmes quote, words have different meanings in different time periods (i.e. during the 1960s, the word “gay” went from meaning “happy” to meaning “homosexual”) and in different locations (i.e. in England and other English-speaking countries, “fag” means “cigarette,” whereas in the United States, it mainly means “homosexual” as well.).  Every year, new words are voted on to enter into the dictionary, but the vast majority of these words aren’t actually new words at all, but existing words (or combinations of existing words) with new meanings. 

Language doesn’t lose words; it just adds new words to its lexicon and new meanings to old words.  The greatest thing about language – and I mean any language – is that it is a living entity.  It is constantly changing and evolving and morphing into something new, individually catered to our own particular varieties to make it ours.  Who is to say what words are unused?  To get rid of these words would be to deny they exist, and to deny our past.  

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