Twentieth Century Therapeutics and Rip van Winkle

Van Winkle Words

The Hidden History of Coined Words ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190466763.003.0016 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 192-205

Author(s):

Ralph Keyes

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Greenhouse Effect ◽

Science And Technology ◽

Horace Walpole ◽

Alarm Clock ◽

Long Time ◽

Rip Van Winkle

Many coined words lie dormant for a time, a long time even, then – like Rip Van Winkle – re-appear when needed. Such “Van Winkle words” include serendipity, which languished for nearly two centuries after being coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, before twentieth-century developments in science and technology needed that word to describe discoveries-by-chance. Changing circumstances are the alarm clock of slumbering words, waking them up as demand for such terminology mounts: greenhouse effect, vegan, groupthink. Slangy terms such as cool, chill, hip and vibe that sound so contemporary routinely turn out to have a long historical provenance. So do muggle, hobbit, and grit. Once these terms do reappear, they are typically thought to have been coined recently. This exemplifies what linguist Arnold Zwicky calls the recency illusion, “the belief that things YOU have noticed only recently are in fact recent.”

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Capitalist Development in the Twentieth Century: An Evolutionary-Keynesian Analysis. By John Cornwall and Wendy Cornwall. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 269. $59.95.

The Journal of Economic History ◽

10.1017/s0022050703542462 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 63 (3) ◽

pp. 927-928

Author(s):

GEOFFREY M. HODGSON

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Capitalist Development ◽

Cambridge University

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Some Polish Composers of To-Day

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200053596 ◽

1948 ◽

pp. 25-28

Author(s):

Andrzej Panufnik

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Fertile Soil ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Progressive Group ◽

Karol Szymanowski

It is ten years since KAROL SZYMANOWSKI died at fifty-four. He was the most prominent representative of the “radical progressive” group of early twentieth century composers, which we call “Young Poland.” In their manysided and pioneering efforts they prepared the fertile soil on which Poland's present day's music thrives.

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