Terminology

Have you seen the latest Geico commercial? The one where former Cincinnati Bengals RB Ickey Woods does The Ickey Shuffle while shopping at a supermarket?

We all know by now – as the saying goes – about 15 minutes and auto insurance and all that. But, do we know why Ickey was doing the dance? He just received his cold cuts. And that’s what he called them as he did the shuffle. Cold Cuts.

But, who refers to deli meat as cold cuts these days? I remember that term, from childhood. Ham, bologna or other sliced and packaged meat – often purchased for school lunchboxes – were called cold cuts. Later, they were called ‘lunch meat.’

These days, however, if you go to the deli at your local supermarket, you just get deli meat.

The cold cuts conundrum started my mind going on one of its blog-building expeditions. When you think about it, the terminology we use each and every day is evolving. Language is a living, breathing entity.

Remember when the World Wide Web was new? We actually called it the World Wide Web.  Or the Information Superhighway. Later, as we tried to be cute, it was ‘The Net,’ which was short for the internet. Now, we simply refer to it as the ‘internet…’ or you do a Google search. Or you just ‘Google’ an item. (Like Ickey Shuffle…or car insurance…or the history of the internet).

And speaking of highways, whatever happened to the freeway…or the expressway. Around here, I remember that big road being called ‘the expressway.’ (Remember a business called ‘Expressway Furniture’?). But these days, it’s just ‘the interstate.’ Or it is I-40. I-75. Or the I-40/I-75 split.

Or just ‘the split.’

Freeways are free, I guess, because some near-by roads have tolls. We have no tolls. But we do have the interstate.

Dating terminology has changed over the years, too. When we came of age, we dated (our romantic relationships were described as 'dating’) as in Jack and Jill are dating. Jack dated Jill before they broke up. Etc. Etc.

Holly teases me about this fact. She’s not keen on the phrase.

But, when you go back a few years before our generation, young couples were said to be ‘going together.’ Earlier still – in the Happy Days era – boys and girls ‘went steady’ (or were described as going steady).

My question to the millennials is this: What do you call it now? (And will your children find that terminology equally outdated?).

Recently, the Associated Press relented on its long held distinction between the words over and more than.  ‘Over’ referred to a directional qualification (you held your hand over the desk) but if you were describing a number, you used ‘more than’ (as in ‘more than 100,000 fans filled Neyland Stadium for the game). Now, AP says you can use the terms interchangeably.

For those of us who were raised on the more than/over issue as it was formerly taught, this is a difficult transition to make. Language is, indeed, evolving. It changes all the time. 

Yesterday’s monotony is today’s meh.

The key – especially for those of us who work on the front lines of language usage – is to master the transitions without trying too hard to intentionally sound cool.

JG

Originally posted 9/10/2014