The New Greeks

The love of FLaG words is something that began early in English. Even if we dismiss the writings of Ælfric as a oneoff, there is still enough to show that borrowings from French were racing ahead by the early 1300s. But it is also something which has lasted long, with a preference for such words still with us—despite the recent growth in English–based terminology in fields such as computing. It is therefore no surprise that many inventions from the 1800s and 1900s bear Greek and Latin names, even though the ancients had never seen such a thing as a telegraph or a sonogram. I find the question of what to do about these words hard, and my answer may be not the one you would expect.

Now, not all the terminology for modern inventions need bother us at the moment. Much technology is not in the everyday lives of folk. But three inventions in particular I feel are so common that we should think what we will do about naming them: telephone, television, and bicycle. All three are made of Greek and Latin words, but their particular derivations shouldn’t worry us. The words are only words, chosen to name something new, and it is only where they were chosen from that is our concern.

I don’t fully blame the inventors of these words for looking to FLaG words when naming new technology. There was no existing word in English that could have covered these, simply for that they are wholly new things. Of course, as already said, there wasn’t any such words in FLaG tongues either for these things, and it is the reflex to seek them there instead of English that is the problem. I cannot put thoughts into the heads of those people, but I think that seeking words from FLaG was likely driven by the view that they are somehow ‘better’ for use in science and technology.

So what can we do? I would normally say that we ought seek to find an English compound to take the place of these words, and work to forward that. But I feel—and it is not something I often feel—that such a thing would be, how to say, ‘fake’. No tongue had a word for these things until they were invented, and a good many languages have names for these inventions which are like ours. Even German, which made native forms for all three inventions, still sees some use of words from Latin and Greek roots. Few tongues have successfully made native words for all three. Maybe only Icelandic has done it in all Europe! We would be working to shove a boulder up a hill if we went down that path, and so if we’re earnest about making this work, another approach must be found.

Therefore, I want to put forward another way, something which works with how folk speak but still fits our goal. If we wish to ‘unsnob’ English, so to speak, it is enough to take away the idea of FLaG words, if not their essence. We need only say, “we are not beholden to Greek or Latin, even if some of our words come from there”. The way to do this is to look at how ordinary people—those without any knowledge or care for such tongues—have shaped the words in English. More specifically, what variants or contractions exist which stamp English speech on such words?

For these three inventions such words exist: telephone is phone, bicycle is bike, and television is telly or maybe teevee. In each case the word is based upon the original, but mars or obscures its origin enough to take away the snob value. Even though they come from FLaG, it gives me great pleasure to say such words, for I can only think how uncouth those who value Greek and Latin must think them. What is more, there is no resistance among the average speaker to such words, for they are already in their wordstock. We only need say that they can forget the original and use the everyday words in all contexts. It is a soft win, and one we must not be too unbending to take.