By David Kittredge
By David Kittredge
Whenever I pen a column, my aspirations are to write a piece that is artificial and awful. Of course, today those descriptors mean shallow and horrible. But a few hundred years ago, the word artificial meant artistic and awful meant awe-inspiring.
Regardless, my endeavors might be deemed artistic, occasionally, the awe-inspiring aspect is best left to great leaders, heroes, or God. I merely wanted to point out the changing word usages over the centuries.
The words awe or awful were originally synonymous or interchangeable with the term terrible, especially in biblical terms.
Ivan the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia, received his moniker while he was in power back in the 1500s. Although he was a mad despot, the Russian word for terrible, grozny, actually meant something quite different. Five hundred years ago in Russia, Ivan the Terrible (or Ivan Grozny) would have been thought of more as Ivan the Magnificent or at least Ivan the Great and not as Ivan the Atrocious. After all, you never want to be suspected of insulting a tyrant, Russian or otherwise.
Over the past few years, words once considered derogatory have switched roles and are now considered “good” in their meanings. Killer, a noun, has evolved from meaning murderer or destroyer to mean a very entertaining or a skillful person when used as an adjective or noun modifier. I think that the unusual juxtaposition of the two meanings was formulated in reference to stand-up comedians, who when at their best while on stage, were referred to as killing the audience with their jokes, as the crowd roared with laughter, nonstop throughout the act, barely being able to catch their breath. But I am just guessing here to try and rationalize the evolving — or perhaps devolving — denotation of the words kill and killer. In further pendulum swings, to refer to something as being bad, sick or wicked, now can mean that the object in question is good, a quantum leap in implication of which there is no justifiable rationalization, as far as I can cipher.
There are a few words that have been caught up in a fluidity of meaning in just the past few years. Viral is a common term which was always used in pre-internet times to mean a type of illness caused by a virus, connoting a bad situation. During our current internet age, the adjective viral has morphed into a word that describes a fast moving idea or image that is circulated on the internet, usually in reference to something popular and thus, typically good.
The word epic, a noun, at one point was a type of poem or novel that involved hero-like figures. The Iliad and the Odyssey are epic poems written by Homer, with heroic and godlike characters, demi or full-fledged, salted throughout the plots. Epic has transmogrified into an adjective, which is too readily used to connote a grandiose occasion such as a musical event or party. Unless the likes of Achilles or Hercules were in attendance, the event shouldn’t be considered as epic. Even if radio shock jock Charlamagne tha God graces an event with his presence, the occasion should not be considered epic or even stellar. Stellar is another overused and misappropriated term used to describe an event. Stellar was originally used in astrophysics to mean star-like. Unless you have witnessed a happening somewhere in the universe that had an ambient temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit or so, it should not be considered stellar.
Other adjectives that had vastly different original meanings in past ages were the words naughty, pretty and sly. Naughty originally referred to the poor people who had naught or nothing. Naughty people were not lewd or lascivious, but instead were lacking in material goods and/or sustenance. Pretty initially meant crafty or cunning rather than nice looking. The word nice had a different meaning than the way it is used today. Nice originally meant stupid or ignorant. “No more Mr. Nice Guy.” is a phrase that hearkens back to the early intent in that the user of the phrase feels that being when being nice to your fellow man, you are sometimes considered to be a dolt and thus are taken advantage of. “Nice guys finish last” also fits into this category. Being referred to as sly at one time was a compliment, meaning skillful or clever, rather than being sneaky or a trickster.
Way back in the mid-1970s, I was in the Navy located in the San Francisco area. Some of my shipmates were going to visit one of their old fellow seamen, who had left the service. I was invited to go along and did so. When we arrived at his house, one of my first clues that something was off was that he had a couple of motorcycles in his living room. One bike was fully assembled and just parked there, part of the décor. The other bike was in parts, which were scattered all over the now oil-stained carpeted floor. Come to find out this guy was a prospect for the Hell’s Angels, a notion I was immediately uncomfortable with. Anywho, as he and his old compatriots talked, the Hell’s Angel wannabe kept using the word righteous, a lot. If someone said something he liked or agreed with, he would respond, “righteous, man” or if he were talking about one of his Hell’s Angel buddies, he would refer to them as being a righteous dude. I thought his use and especially his overuse of the word, in any context, was quite ironic. Somehow, the term righteous and the Hell’s Angels didn’t quite mesh in my New Hampshirite, hillbilly mind, for which I was and am still very thankful for.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.