New Words for a New World

Table 1
[Table 2]
[Table 3]

Some dates of first English usage of historically relevant modern words
found in
*1955:Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3rd ed.

First use Word Type
1600 Revolution [complete overthrow of an established government by those previously subject to it]
?An early Russian example? Followed by a more widely acknowledged English example
plt
1670 Newspaper [SAC] mxx
1726 Patriotism plt
1797 Popularize [to cause to be generally known and accepted, liked, or admired] [EG=pop-arts LOOP] mxx
1801 Liberal [SAC]  plt
1810 Strike [Concerted cessation of work by a body of workers to win concessions from employers] [SAC] ekn
1824 Star [a performer of exceptional celebrity, especially attractive to the public] [SAC] mxx
1829 Policeman [named after 1828:English Police Act] [SAC] tUt
1831 Conservative [with capital "C" to designate a political party led by Sir Robert Peel ("Bobby", the inventor of modern urban police -- see above)] [SAC] plt
1831 Chauvinism [demonstrative patriotism, ridiculed by associates and later made famous in popular vaudeville (from Nicolas Chauvin of Rochefort, a veteran soldier of the Napoleonic Empire)] G/1870 below plt
1833 Vaudeville [light and amusing stage presentation] [SAC] [SAC] mxx
1833 journalism [from French] [SAC] mxx
1836 Popularize [to simplify, render in popular form] [SAC] mxx
1839 Photography mxx
1842 Turbine mfg
1845 conservative (applied generally) plt
1846 First-class [adjective meaning of or belonging to the highest and most refined category] pbl
1850 Revolutionary [a person committed to revolution] [SAC] plt
1853 Proletariat [lowest class, pejorative] [SAC] ekn
1854 Capitalism [system of society in which profit (a word used since 1604) is freely sought by private capitalists (1792), now raised to an "ism"] [SAC] ekn
1857 Selection, as in "natural selection" [process in biology which modifies a life form by ensuring that the best adapted individuals reproduce themselves] [SAC] idl
1858 Proletariat [class of wage earners with no capital (from 1848:German revolutionary period)] [SAC] ekn
1858 Imperialism [rule of emperors, or harsh rulers] plt
1867 Dynamite [nitroglycerine mixed with inert substance, invented by Alfred Nobel] [SAC] mfg
1869 Nationalize [to take national control, to take private or other property, & make it national property] plt
1870 Chauvinism [first English use, meaning exaggerated and bellicose patriotism] [SAC] plt
1881 Imperialism [advocacy of imperial interests and expansion] [SAC] plt
1884 Nationalism [devotion to one's native land, for national independence, EG=
*1885:Irish Nationalist Party | *1885:USA minister Josiah Strong
plt
1884 Projector [a camera for throwing an image on screen] mxx
1896 Cinematograph mxx
1913 Movie [US] mxx
1916 TNT [Trinitrotoluene, high explosive] [SAC] mfg
1944 Genocide [SAC] plt

 

 

Table 2.
1913-1923:New words in the "Addenda" to
*1923:Springfield MA:Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language...., pp. lxxxi-cviii
N=88

First use Word Type
airplane mlt
  auto... mfg
  anti-... plt
  ally mlt
  internal combustion mfg
  barrage mlt
  to bomb mlt
  congresswoman plt
  decade idl
  dollar diplomacy plt
  double cross plt
  flame thrower mlt
  frisk [to search a person] plt
  gasmask mlt
  jaywalker mfg
  joy ride mfg
  Jugo Slav ggr
  Latvian ggr
  Middle East ggr
  no man's land mlt
  sewage mfg
  activated sludge mfg
  audience mxx
  attaché case ekn
  bill fold ekn
  birth control mdx
  contraception mdx
  blurb mxx
  Bolshevik plt
  Fascism plt
  breadline ekn
  motion picture mxx
  cinema mxx
  movie mxx
  close-up mxx
  Cubism clt
  Dadaism clt
  form letter mfg
  gangster plt
  outlaw plt
  getaway plt
  heterosexuality ["morbid" sexual attraction to opposite sex] clt
  hunger strike ekn
  jazz mxx
  lipstick clt
  loudspeaker mxx
  lowbrow clt
  highbrow clt
  OK idl
  ambivalent idl
  Freud idl
  Nietzscheism idl
  Behaviorism idl
  Chemotherapy mdx
  electrocardiography mdx
  empathy idl
  fourth dimension idl
  intelligentsia plt
  moron idl
  Mothers Day pbl
  newsprint mxx
  pip-squeak [soldier's slang for sound of German bullet] mlt
  postwar mlt
  prewar mlt
  post operative mdx
  profiteer mlt
  SOS mlt
  tank mlt
  plywood mfg
  questionnaire idl
  self-service mfg
  sooner idl
  Soviet plt
  spitball [& other sport terms] clt
  tango [& other dance terms] clt
  streamline mfg
  Teddy bear mfg
  vitamin mdx
  wrist watch mfg
  panhandle [to beg] ekn
  Planck's quantum constant idl
  postimpressionism clt
  psychoanalysis idl
  pussyfoot idl
  quantum theory idl
  radio mxx
  relativity idl
  superman idl

 

 

Table 3.
1933-1955:New words in the "Addenda" [mainly from 1933 to 1955] to
*1955:Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3rd ed.

First use Word Type
  And/or  
1785 Egoism idl
1807 Egotism idl
1824 Ego idl
1839 Socialism [from 1832:French socialisme] [SAC] plt
1840 Commando mlt
1843 Cartoon [Punch] mxx
1859 Lickety-split idl
1859 Nark [from Romany nak (nose); a police spy or informer] plt
1861 Job [paid position, wage-labor employment] [SAC] ekn
1868 Typewriter mxx
1876 Brie - [took that long to get to England from France] ekn
1883 Seapower [SAC] mlt
1884 Typist [SAC] mxx
1886 Colonialism [SAC] plt
1888 Walk-out [SAC] ekn
1889 Servo-motor [simple slave motor; torpedo use] mlt
1893 Anti-Semitism [SAC] pbl 
1894 Martini clt
1895 Mortician [US for undertaker] mlt
1898 War-head mlt
1899 Isolationist [pejorative term for imperialism opponents=SAC] [Later some reversal=SAC] plt
1900 Tightwad [Cf. Russian kulak] ekn
1901 Concentration Camp [Boer War] [SAC] mlt
1901 Heterosexual pbl
1902 Sexology clt
1904 Welfare policy [welfare economics, with governmental management] plt
1905 Welfare [extended in meaning to imply legislation or public policy] plt
1905 Get-rich-quick - US ekn
1905 Smog [Combination of smoke and fog] mfg
1906 Radio [first suggested as the mark of wireless telegrams according to the Radio Convention drawn up in Berlin; adopted by US Congress in 1912] mxx
1907 Racialism [antagonistic or provocative emphasis on race] clt
1911 Jinx, jynx [to put a debilitating spell upon] idl
1912 Hangover clt
1917 Deadline mxx
1919 Xenophobia [morbid dread or dislike of foreigners] clt
1921 Ambivalent [Having either or both of two contrary or parallel values, qualities, or meanings] idl
1921 Blues - US clt
1921 IQ test idl
1922 Leftwing plt
1923 Marijuana [from Amer-Spanish] clt
1923 Super ego idl
1924 ID ["identification"| Notice wide usage here in SAC] idl
1926 Beautician - US (word built from mortician or physician) clt
1928 Gimmick idl
1928 Microfilm mxx
1928 Sexy clt
1929 Penicillin mdx
1929 Tommy gun mlt
1930s Liquidate [as in Russian likvidirovat' e.g., "kulaks as a class"] [SAC] plt
1930 Whodunit mxx
1931 Servofeed; servo-mechanism [mechanical feeding of ammo at rate determined by need] mlt
1932 Nylon mfg
1935 Bazooka - US mlt
1935 Boogie-woogie clt
1939 Blitzkrieg [SAC] mlt
1939 Reportage mxx
1940 Teenage clt
1942 Napalm [NAphthenate + PALMitate, acids of aluminum salts. A jellied fuel used for incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, derived from mixture of alumnium soaps of some fatty acids] [SAC] mlt
1942 Racism [theory that fundamental characteristic of race are preserved as unchanging tradition] G/Racialism clt
1942 Radar mlt
1942 Topology [from German Topologie] idl
1943 Prefabricate mfg
1943 Total War [ID] mlt
1944 Existentialism [SAC] idl
1944 Technicolor mxx
1945 Welfare state [a polity that puts sluggards on the dole, OR a polity so organized that every member is assured due maintenance, with advantageous conditions possible for all] plt
1946 Bebop clt
1947 Cybernetics [SAC editor heard it first in 1955 from Alma Sargent] mfg
1949 Apartheid [From Afrikaans Dutch] plt
1950 Bikini [Name of one of the Marshall islands, in the Pacific ocean which was used in 1950, as the locale of an atomic bomb explosion; applied to a scanty two-piece swimming outfit for women in vogue at the time] clt
1950 Video mxx
1953 Smaze [Combination of smoke and haze] G/Smog mfg
1953 Subversive [noun meaning a subversive person] [SAC] plt

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