Tea at Trianon: Emerging Slang

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Emerging Slang

From The Pudding:

There were some unique events in 2016 for “woke.” In terms of semantics, there’s the notion that 2016’s US election cycle whitewashed the term. Today, I see it used broadly as “political awareness,” beyond its historic racial connotations. Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” helped too (~50M streams on Spotify), which dropped in November 2016. The song’s hook repeats the phrase “stay woke,” helping to normalize the phrase.

Geographically, you’ll find early signs of “woke” in liberal-leaning blue states, such as Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and California. Relative to other states, folks in the south (specifically South Carolina and Arkansas) are falling behind on the “woke” trend. (Read more.)