|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Everytime I use this word it never looks quite right to me, but then I go with it anyway knowing that I would probably be more comfortable with normality; but, still, normalcy rings true to my ear and I've never delved into "why." Someone recently mentioned their same uncomfortability with the word in the course of a post after they used it, and that got me to thinking. And, now, I just got around to reading AWAD Mail #69 and found this citation:
From: Eleanor Dugan (duganek@aol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--bloviate
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/bloviate.html
President Warren G. Harding is also partially responsible for adding another
cobbled word to the English language. A grammarian wag once commented that,
"Harding came from a small Ohio town called Normalcy to which he constantly
desired to return."
I've hear this before, but always took it as a joke on Harding's scandals, not as the origin of the word normalcy. So, since this reeks of Urban Legend to me I set off on a search for the origin of the word.
The word form is cited as American also normalcy in Cambridge's definition of normality. And out of 13 citations there, only one, Merriam-Webster's, gives any clue to origin, Date 1857, which automatically debunks the Warren G. Harding theory. And normalcy also appears as a form in Webster's 1913, almost a decade before the Harding administration, and the Encyclopedia Britannica cites his campaign slogan as "Back to Normalcy." There's nothing in Quinion, Atomica, etc.
It definitely seems to be an Americanism. Other than that, I'm lost.
Anyone have anything on this? Could I beg some help from the OEDers out there? (oh, idea!...checking the Urban Legends site as we speak...)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
dr. bill gave this a while ago: http://www.thirdlion.com/ATM23.html; scroll down a bit. Edit: Quite agreed, dr. bill; I quoted your link was merely to kick the discussion forward, not to close it.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Keiva: thanks for the pat on the back, but I didn't know nearly as much as WO'N cited.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,363
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
529
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
