Article: words: sarcastic yak captures picturesque motor-car

Before our Tuesday Juste a Mot series on new words in the language gets too far into its swing, we ought to take a look at the sort of words that are celebrating significant anniversaries this year. Do the words that enter a language in a given year provide a verbal portrait of the period? The evidence is far from clear.

What did they put beneath carpets before underfelt entered the language in 1895? With biopsy, caoline, mortician and motor-car all dating from that year, one could be excused for identifying it as a moment of great scientific and medical advance, but at the same time a masochist with flagellomania made his first appearance, no doubt boasting his masculinism. On a healthier ...

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