New words, and when they were first used (part 3)

For every word ever used in the English language, there was a moment when someone used that word for the very first time. So on that theme, this week I take another look back through history to find out when a few words were originally used for the first time.

An elderly man teaching a youngerly child how to ride a bike.

1611: Elderly

The word 'elder' has been around since before the 12th century, and yet the word 'elderly' wasn't used until 1611. It seems like an obvious oversight to go over four centuries before someone had the idea to add 'ly' to the end of elder to refer to old people.

Having said that, the word 'younger' has also been around since before the 12th century, and we still haven't had the bright idea to refer to young people as 'youngerly'.* I suppose George Lucas came close when he used 'younglings', but as yet no-one has yet thought to use the word 'youngerly'.

* Except me. (c) Charles Fudgemuffin.

New words, and when they were first used (part 2)

I often like to recycle old ideas, and this week is no exception, as the Charles Fudgemuffin blog takes another look at a variety of words, and when they were first invented.

Regular muffins.
Well, regular in that they're not fudgemuffins,
but muffins which can talk are certainly not regular!

All of the following 'first use' dates were taken from racist dictionary Merriam-Webster*.

* See previous blog post.

1703: Muffin

When the word 'muffin' was first used in 1703, the word 'fudge' had already been in use for 29 years, with its first recorded use being in 1674. The word 'fudgemuffin', however, only came into common use fairly recently!

New words, and when they were first used

The word 'gravity' was first used in 1504.
It's also the name of one of my short stories!

When I use words each day I generally assume that most words have been around forever. However, of course every word had to at one time be used for the very first time.

Here are the earliest known usages of a variety of words, according to racist dictionary Merriam-Webster*.

* See below.

1504: Gravity

In 1687 Isaac Newton published his theory of gravity. However, according to Merriam-Webster, the word 'gravity' had been in written use since as early as 1504. Hmm, something doesn't add up. How can you talk about something before it was even discovered!?

1627: Messy

Apparently, the word 'messy' was first used in 1627, so presumably up until 1626 people must have been really tidy.