Little Words Mean A Lot

Words just don’t mean what they used to. But, our media - the newspapers, the radio stations, broadcast and cable television and even social media - just haven’t kept up with the changes.

You can’t really blame them. There just isn’t the traditional news structure - the old who, what, where, when, how - to deal with such a rapid change, kind of like watching a stomach ache in Alien becoming a deadly other-worldly threat bursting out of someone’s gut.

Pretend your dictionary is a GPS, and just as soon as you try to use a word you have long been comfortable with, it says “recalculating, recalculating.”

So, as a public service, let me give you some words and phrases which have been so changed in the past year that their original meaning is all but gone.

I’m a bit of a romantic, so let me start with a phrase that just drips of history and longing for a time gone by. A time of a stately culture, with breezes under the trees and a song whispering from the fields. A culture in a world long, long ago and far, far away.

“States Rights.”

For decades, it was a fine, honorable phrase echoing in the halls of Congress. It meant 

the citizens of particular states down south had the right to discriminate against minorities, forcing them to use separate drinking fountains and public bathrooms, sit only in certain sections of movies and courtrooms, and go to separate schools, all of which supporters of States Rights claimed were separate but equal. 

The fact that minority children got poorer grades from their underfunded schools simply proved to some people that the states were right not to waste money on them. I think some of those elected officials said “believe me, believe me” when they talked about it.

 Then schools were integrated, the water fountains too (except for the ones removed in a fit of pique) and “States Rights” was used only to block the freedom of some “other” people to practice their religion or build things like temples and mosques in areas previously reserved for churches. Or marry someone of the same sex.

You never heard any of those states arguing they have the right to have people drive on the wrong side of the road, or to require people to eat three gallons of ice cream a day, or to let children marry at 16. Oh, wait, they did have that right. But, I digress.

Now, States Rights means just one thing - it means any state has the right to oppose the actions of the federal government, just as long as the President is a Democrat. 

That sweeping power doesn’t seem to apply to Republicans. Now while people have the absolute right to grow marijuana and create a new billion dollar industry in any state that allows it, that right stops when the Republican Attorney General opposes the idea. 

Your state also has the right to pass laws regulating the insurance industry, but you can’t stop out-of-state insurance companies from selling cheap policies in your state which won’t provide needed services. It violates the rights of the state where the policy was issued.

 Then there’s the old phrase “Laboratory of Democracy.”  We used to think the states could compete with each other to decide what worked best for their residents with things like education or the social safety net. But now, if some state feels people should be allowed to carry a concealed firearm when they buy a $10 state permit, our federal government wants to allow them to carry that weapon concealed in any state. It is, after all, the issuing state’s right.

But enough with the long-winded explanations. Let’s just list a few other words or phrases which have evolved during 2017. Bigly.

* “Very, very. Really, really. Love it, love it.”  Repeating a word used to be done for emphasis. You make “it’s really big” larger by saying “it’s really, really big.” Now, it’s a double negative, which gives the phrase the opposite meaning. “My hands are really, really big” means that your hands are really very small.

* “...ist”. A double negative in a single word. It is remarkably flexible because it can be attached as a suffix to almost everything. I have a big brain becomes I have the biggest brain, which means, of course, the opposite. Works with “I am the smartest, I am the richest and I am the most powerful.” 

* “Believe me, believe me.” A plea, one that is actually believed by fewer people every time the phrase is used. 

* “I will do it, 100 percent.” This odd phrase has evolved over time, from the gold standard of purity - Ivory soap was 99 and 44/100th percent pure, although they never said pure what. Then it became “I support that, 100 percent,” which was about as far as you could go. That is, until “I am behind you one thousand percent.” Now, it has gone back to its original 100 percent form, but there is a new time element attached. “I will support him 100 percent” actually means the countdown to the floor dropping out from under him has already started.

* “I don’t remember that” and “I don’t recall.”  It used to mean that you truly do not remember something, and you will not remember it until you go on the witness stand and the lawyer questioning you hands you a document labeled People’s 16 and says “does this refresh your memory.”

* “Does this refresh your memory.”  A legal question that means it is all over, and how truthful your next answer will be is going to determine how long you will be in jail.