Lost words in a new world
The 12 days of Christmas are a time for new hopes and reflection. The practical division of time into years and the passage of the old into the new spurs retrospection, nurtures expectations – and reminds us of the value of our past rituals. Years ago, for instance, we used to write down those words that sounded new. Then we would flip through a couple of dictionaries to find out what they meant and jot down the definition next to the once-new, now-revealed word. We kept track of those words by recording them in a notebook, compiling our own collection of new words every year, putting emphasis on neologisms. We noticed that as time passed, the words and their meanings were slowly – almost imperceptibly – fading from public and private usage. And more time passed. We counted the new words every year. We enriched our vocabulary with the words that were offered by new poets, new generations, the achievements of technology, multimedia, the popularization of science, new manners, fashion, television scriptwriters, agitators, political commentators and the distortions of political correctness. We varied our syntax with tabloid titles and text messages. But we missed those old, mysterious, often magical words, some of which we once believed «had fired up our youth.» Words like «citizen,» a forgotten word, even in the circles of civic society, where only economic terms have meaning; it’s a word that brings to mind Thucydides or Robespierre. There are also words like «society,» whose derivatives have been consigned to the flames of modern times – «social justice» and «civil rights» are now just charred relics, as are «nation» and «state.» These are words that are locked up in dictionaries and are waiting for better days – if, that is, the silverfish nesting in their dusty pages don’t destroy them first.
