The narrative of this post is the word narrative Is this a new word or something? I know it's not, but you hear it multiple times a day now on the news and other media. I don't remember hearing it that much before the last year or two.
IMO a great thread-starter! Other "new" words...
"trending up" (or down)
"on point"
Originally Posted by BillVol
Is this a new word or something? I know it's not, but you hear it multiple times a day now on the news and other media. I don't remember hearing it that much before the last year or two.
I've been mindful of my use of narrative since a friend said they thought I overused it ( and gestalt) way back in the 1970s.
Tom Hyland:
"squack and wineturtle get it"
I deeply resent your narrative of the 1970sI've been mindful of my use of narrative since a friend said they thought I overused it ( and gestalt) way back in the 1970s.
One of those words that the media falls in love with, and we here a lot for awhile - like optics. - "the optics of this situation are not good"
And its not just the media. Example from baseball is velocity - until the 1970s it was never used and guys just threw fast or had good speed. But then all of a sudden they had good velocity - which is actually wrong, because velocity in physics is a vector, meaning it implies speed and direction.
There was the big 'paradigm' craze back in the 90s. Everyone needed a new one.
When it comes to language, at least for my perception of American English, the narrative of the '70s saw a paradigm shift with Watergate. Watergate--and the succession of political scandal "gates" ever since--saw a heightening of political verbal obfuscation that Orwell foretold.
Many words and phrases had seldom, if ever, been heard before that "point in time" when Watergate began to achieve notoriety (and it seems to have been around than that "notoriety" and fame became colloquially interchangeable.) Who had used, or heard, of an expletive deleted, or executive privilege, or non-denial denials, or cancers in the little "c" sense, or enemies lists, or stonewalling, or inoperative? In just two years, all these words and phrases became prominent additions to the language.
The close of the Watergate era occurred when Gerald Ford was sworn into office and announced "our long national nightmare is over." But from that time on, every political scandal has lived in a gated community.
When I played golf, we worked all the time on "concentration". Now you have to "focus". Same in all sports.
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