Words from Your Birth Year

[Paul Whybrow]

Merriam Webster's online dictionary site has added a feature they call Time Traveller.

Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster

It's a vaguely unsettling way of dating oneself, especially when you realise how young some words are, and also how many have fallen into disuse...because you've certainly never heard of them!

I was born in 1954, which spawned such words as boonies, buyback, cash flow, junk mail, sleaze and wheeler-dealer. The word wonk also appeared—which means: "a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field." Considering how much I study the world of writing and publishing, I'm a wonk! My spellchecker doesn't like it, suggesting that I replace the 'o' with an 'a'!

Anyone in need of writing prompts could use the words from their year to create a story, using every one.

What words heralded your entry into the world?

 

[Leonora]

My favourites from my year are: yay! Diddly squat, elevator music and mind-expanding. It was the sixties! Most surprising (apart from yay) is demystify.

 

[E G Logan]

Totally fascinating. My nearest year was mostly scientific terms. I'm intrigued, though, by Japanese Andromeda (is it a plant?). And WHAT is, or more probably was, a crew sock?? Answers on a postcard.
Also marinara, which has been around in this part of the world for a lot longer than that.

 

[E G Logan]

Just found out that crew socks still exist -- and some N American gents find them just the thing.