A History of English Language

The nineteenth century and after 289
sidered as illustrating one of the sources from which new words are still being derived.
222. Old Words with New Meanings.
The resources of the vocabulary are sometimes extended from within by employment of
an old word in a new sense. We have already seen many examples of this in some of the
paragraphs preceding, especially many of the words now applied to the automobile and
the computer. But the process can be widely illustrated, for it is one of the commonest
phenomena in language. Skyline formerly meant the horizon, but it is now more common
in such an expression as the New York skyline. Broadcast originally had reference to
seed, but its application to radio seems entirely appropriate. A record may be many other
things than a phonograph disc, and radiator was used for anything that radiated heat or
light before it was applied specifically to steam heat or the automobile. Cabaret is an old
word meaning a booth or shed, and later a small drinking place. Today it signifies a
certain type of nightclub. We sign off or stand by in broadcasting, take off in an airplane,
kick off in football, call up on the telephone, and in each of these cases we convey a
specific, often technical meaning, quite different from the sense that these expressions
previously had.
A certain amount of experimenting with words is constantly going on, and at times the
new use of a word may meet with opposition. Many people still object to the use of
contact as a verb, and impact has drawn similar criticism (as in “The needs of industry
have impacted the university’s graduate program”). The shift in transitivity of verbs often
meets with resistance: transform as intransitive (“He transformed into a hero”) or commit
as intransitive (“The player wouldn’t commit to the team”). It is well to remember that
Swift objected to behave without the reflexive pronoun. Time will decide the fate of these
words, but whether or not the new uses establish themselves in the language, they must
be considered as exemplifying a well-recognized phenomenon in the behavior of words.
223. The Influence of Journalism.
In the introduction and popularizing of new words journalism has been a factor of
steadily increasing importance. Newspapers and popular magazines not only play a large
part in spreading new locutions among the people but are themselves fertile producers of
new words. Reporters necessarily write under pressure and have not long to search for the
right word. In the heat of the moment they are likely as not to strike off a new expression
or wrench the language to fit their ideas. In their effort to be interesting and racy they
adopt an informal and colloquial style, and many of the colloquialisms current in popular
speech find their way into writing first in the magazine and the newspaper. In this way
we have come to back a horse or a candidate, to boost our community, comb the woods
for a criminal, hop the Atlantic, oust a politician, and spike a rumor, and we speak of a
probe, a cleanup, a business deal, a go-between. Sportswriters are often hard pressed to
avoid monotony in their descriptions of similar contests day after day, and in their desire
to be picturesque they seldom feel any scruple about introducing the latest slang in their