I do not wear a pocket protector nor do I dream in algorithms, but my nerdy colleagues think that I merited the title of "word nerd." I suppose that if you obsess about the difference between "that" and "which" or "less" and "fewer" as I do, you probably do qualify as a word nerd. So I chose to share with you some of my nerdiness. I am sure that Dr. Seuss would have recognized this sort of nerd.

In a recent blog entry, Randy and Jane went over the evolution of the word "nerd." Sure, some people were initially offended by the term, but most accepted that changes and the positive connotations that "nerd" has taken in a society that can never seem to get too much science and math to quench its appetite for cool things. Nerds may be clumsy with the girls (or with the boys as may be), but they sure have dreamed up some cool stuff in our lifetimes.

To illustrate the point, I thought that it would be fun to look at some of the other words that have undergone profound transformations on their way to modern meaning. One of my favorites is "barbarian."  This term was used by the Greeks to refer to anyone who wasn't Greek. Because the non-Greeks all spoke incomprehensible goblety-gook, everything they said all came out sounding like "bar, bar,..." hence the onomatopoeia "barbarian." In the same vein, the French fortune seekers who went out to California in the 1849 Gold Rush were called "Kesky Dees." They couldn't understand what their American hosts were saying to them, so they kept repeating "Qu'est-ce qu'ils disent? (What are they saying?)

Enough about the French, back to our Barbarians. Since the Greeks considered themselves to be at the pinnacle of civilization, they viewed all non-Greeks, or barbarians, as distinctly uncivilized. And this included the Romans, who were still in the care of a she wolf when the Greeks had reached the height of their civilization. Gradually, the old Greek world faded and the Romans became the new standard bearers of civilization. The Romans certainly didn't consider themselves barbarians. They started using the term for the "uncivilized" tribes that the Romans sought to conquer, notably the Celts and the Germanic tribes.  In turn, when Roman authority started to fade, the barbarians (i.e., Ostrogoths) took over the great centers of Roman civilization. The intellectuals of the day bemoaned the end of the "civilized" world. For a while, barbarian languages and laws held sway in parts of Europe, but eventually they became "civilized." Thus the great Charlemagne was a barbarian king.

 
Charlemagne, the Great "barbarian" king

As Europe stumbled out of the Middle Ages and rediscovered the great classics of Greek and Roman civilization, they rejected much that had been invented since the fall of Rome. They worked tirelessly to restore the lost glory of the ancient world in a movement that we now call the Renaissance (or rebirth). The new champions of antique esthetics spurned the arts that had been produced between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rediscovery of the classical authors, architects and thinkers. In fact, the great cathedrals that had been built across Europe during those years showed a woeful lack of understanding of classical balance and esthetics. In the eyes of this new elite, these were little more than the works of uncivilized barbarians, or in this case "Goths."

So they started calling the works of an earlier era by the pejorative label of "Gothic." Today we consider many the Gothic cathedrals such as Notre Dame or Chartres to be among the highest esthetic achievements of man, but the sixteenth century snobs saw them as little more than barbarian missteps.

 

Notre Dame de Paris front facade- stitched from 12 images
Photo created by Benh LIEU SONG, Source: Wikipedia

We have come the full circle, so "Gothic" means something very different to today's young people (just ask your teenager). The clueless elders like myself might consider these teenage Goths the height of incivility, I am sure that they view themselves in a very different light indeed. So the next time you cross a Goth in the street, just remember that we are all someone else's barbarian.

Now you know why my nerdy colleagues call me "the word nerd."

Comments