Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture

by Paul McFedries

Language wears many hats, but its most important job is to help us name or describe what's in the world. Words define us, our actions, even our existence. And just when you think that you have all the words you need, you discover new ones, hear new uses for old ones or see them mutate right before your eyes—a neologism is born.

Those neologisms are actually one of the best ways of keeping tabs on the way our world and culture are changing. One of the people who's been keeping tabs is Paul McFedries, the president of Logophilia Limited ( logophilia is Greek for "the love of words"). His scorecard is Word Spy , a daily newsletter that has been reporting from the neological frontier since 1998 and that has more than 100,000 visitors a month and more than 12 million page views. In Word Spy , McFedries demonstrates how new words both reflect and illuminate not only the subcultures that coin them but also the larger culture in which these groups exist. Neologisms give us insight into the way things are even as they act as linguistic harbingers of what's to come. Each chapter of Word Spy is a cultural snapshot, a slice of the zeitgeist that focuses on a specific idea or sociological phenomenon, with an emphasis on the words and phrases that it has generated. These snapshots cover various aspects of modern life, including relationships, business, technology, war, aging, multiculturalism, and even fast food, all the while introducing us to hybrid If your kids can't seem to get away from their computers, they may be addicted to "fritterware" (time-wasting game software). If you're a new mother with a passion for petitioning, you may be a "lactivist" (breast-feeding activist). And if you keep finding yourself staying way later at the office than you ever imagined, you may be suffering from "presenteeism."

Word Spy is an exciting and informative travelogue through the evolving landscape of our language and, consequently, the cultures and subcultures that continually mold and shape not just the language but all of us who speak it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Linguistics, Language

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Updated to 5 stars, January 7th 2008, for being one of the most consistently interesting and amusing language-related books.


For anyone interested in the evolution of language, in particular, with an interest in tracking new words as they enter into the language, Paul McFedries' Wordspy site is an indispensable resource:

http://www.wordspy.com/index.asp

This "book from the site" is hilarious, informative, and entertaining. I highly recommend it.

*boyzilian (noun): the male equivalent of the bikini wax
*floordrobe (noun): A pile of discarded clothes on the floor of a person's room.
*carbage (noun): the accumulated garbage, papers, and other assorted detritus that litters one's car after a road trip.

[Sandip Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An fantastic archive on the history, context and origin of English words and expressions born in recent decades. Many of them have survived and thrived as a part of today’s language.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nifty little volume is proof that the English language is not only alive, it’s kicking butt and taking names. Language junkies are familiar with the author’s several dozen books and probably his website and maillist, too (for which he slips in a couple of plugs, but that’s okay). What he’s interested in here is the invention (or the organic rise, perhaps) of new words by all parts of society, from teen slang that mostly lasts two weeks to techie terms that have rooted themselves firmly in the wider culture, like “dot-com” or the verb “to google.” He avoids stunt words (deliberate cleverness by some writer) and nonce words (which appear only once and die immediately). None of his examples existed before c.1980, and all have established a track record by appearing in a variety of public media. (He’s aware of Sniglets, incidently, but points out that not one of those introduced by Rich Hall has actually entered the language.) Some new words are so obvious and so apt once you’ve heard them, you can’t believe no one ever thought of them before. (He describes S. J. Perelman’s delight when a mechanic told him his car had been “totaled.”) The chapters are organized by source or context -- modern angst, modern politics and war, activism of all flavors, political correctness (itself an apt and sneering recent invention), advertising, the Internet revolution, pop psychology, baby-boom-ism, privacy and security (not to forget 9/11, now an overused shorthand), and even “Dilbert.” He gives examples of usage from the media, too, some of which are a hoot. Still, there are gaps in the language for which no word has yet appeared, like a reasonable term for each other by adults who regularly go on dates (“Boyfriend” and “girlfriend” are a bit silly when you’re over forty). This book is a great time-sink (that’s in here, too), both fun and informative.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about words! New ones. An entertaining website, too.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting reading, if you like words (I do). Nothing to chew on, but fun frothy reading for a word nerd.

[Estela Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book about words.

[Mike Zoleski]

NEAT