At a yardsale yesterday, I got my hands on four annual updates (1958-1961) for the World Book Encyclopedia. I also got a copy of "The Lookies" a WBE supplement that leads kids to look stuff up in all the encyclopedia's [thanks hand model!] Anyhoo, whilst tearing up annual updates, I came across the New Words And Phrases section from 1959 and I thought I'd share some of it with both of the LATENT readers:
Nuclear dread? Check. Rockets? Check. Space Travel? Check. Fast cars? Check. Hula hoops? Check. Baseball? Check. Looks like we got the 50s all sewn-up.
Beat Generation. Young people whose chief idea is to "live it up" while remaining "cool." Members of the beat generation express their dissatisfaction with materialistic values by unconventional behavior and attitudes, the avoidance of responsibility, and studying uncommon philosophies.
Beatnik. A member of the beat generation.
Blast-Off. The launching of a rocket.
Boatel. A motel built over the water, where people can moor their boats during the night.
Bottoming Out. Reaching the lowest point in an economic recession.
Cartnapping. The removal of a grocery cart from a grocery store without retuning it.
Countermissile. A missile to be used against a ballistic missile.
Flight Station. A compartment that duplicates conditions of space travel of such experimental purposes as testing the effects of space on the human body.
Hoopster. A person using a hula hoop.
Hot Dog. A racing car driver.
Hula, or Hoola, Hoop. A plastic hoop in any of several sizes which a person keeps in circular movement around his body by a motion similar to that of a hula dancer.
Impact Shot. A rocket aimed directly at an object in space, such as the moon.
Megacorpse. A million dead persons, such as could result from nuclear warfare.
Moonshot. The shotting fo a rocket to the moon.
Nighter. A baseball game played at night.
Olympiad. A group of competitive examinations held every year by universities for outstanding first- and second-year high-school students.
Orbit. A determinable circular, or elliptical, course. An artificial satellite is in orbit when it moves around the earth, the sun, or the moon.
Parkette. A female parking attendant.
Re-Enter. To return from outer space to the atmosphere of the earth.
Roadomania. A craze for fast driving.
Slumlord. An owner of an apartment building that is unfit for human habitation.
Space Law. The legal problems, such as ownership, of outer space, which extends upward from about 50 miles above the earth.
Space Mail. To mail (a letter) into space.
Thermonuke. A thermonuclear weapon.
Nuclear dread? Check. Rockets? Check. Space Travel? Check. Fast cars? Check. Hula hoops? Check. Baseball? Check. Looks like we got the 50s all sewn-up.
5 comments:
I love words. And you've inspired me to look up some of these words from forty-eight years ago in modern dictionary sources. Fascinating. Some are still here (Blast off, Slum lord, Hula hoop, Re-enter). Some are listed with entirely different meanings:
Hoopster: a basketball player.
Hot dog: to perform fancy stunts or maneuvers (as while skiing or surfing); a show-off.
Moon shot: a towering home run in baseball.
Parkette: a small piece of unused land converted into a green space, recreational area or playground.
But most have vanished from the modern dictionaries I've consulted. Perhaps these words never cemented in the common lexicon. They existed for only a brief moment in time.
Regardless, I have discovered some modern equivalents or words spelled similarly that I hope will not exist in fifty years:
Boatel = boater, an immigrant who exhibits a large amount of his/her ethnic pride
Cartnapping = identity theft
Impact shot = impact rifle
Megacorpse = megacorporation or megadrive
Nighter = all-nighter
Roadmania = road rage and road kill
Space law = space out, Space Ghost, Space Cowboy (okay, the last two on Urban Dictionary)
Space mail = email
And the definition for Beat Generation was blatantly derisive. A dictionary with biases? I'm shocked. Now it is defined thusly: A social movement of the 1950s and early 1960s which stressed artistic self-expression and the mores of conventional society.
Just noticed. The next word below beatnik in this dictionary is beat off. I am having a post-modern moment. Check the Websters in fifty years and that word will mean something else entirely. Hmmmm... it's possible ....
My secretary is on vacation. The Beat Generation stressed artistic self-expression and THE REJECTION of the mores of conventional society. Nobody caught that? Neither of you?
We try to be gentle readers.
I posted a comment here the other day and it never appeared. Censorship?
Are you sure you published it and didn't just preview it? I don't have the power to delete another's comments. Nor would I. Djpegleg?
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