Old English in LoTR

1 December 2002

This month, Peter Jackson’s film The Two Towers hits theaters in the United States. It is the second installment of Jackson’s dramatization of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. It seems an opportune time to take a look at Tolkien’s use of language to set the tone and environment of Middle-earth, particularly his use of Old English.

Tolkien was not simply a writer of fantasy stories. He had a day job as a professor of philology at Merton College, Oxford. He was one of the world’s foremost experts on Old English and his 1936 essay, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, revolutionized the teaching and study of Anglo-Saxon literature, treating the poem as a work of literature for the first time, rather than just a historical artifact. The Middle-earth stories about hobbits and wizards were simply a hobby and a way to amuse his children.

One of the things that inspired Tolkien was what he perceived to be a lack of English-language mythology. The tales and stories of the ancient Britons were never written down and were wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons. Similarly, most of the tales of the Anglo-Saxons were lost with the Norman Conquest. Even Beowulf, although written in Old English, is about a Geatish hero, from what is now Sweden, who travels to what is now Denmark to fight the monster Grendel. In writing The Lord of the Rings, and the accompanying books, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion, Tolkien was attempting, in part, to create a mythology for England, and it made sense to use Old English associations as the means to link his tales with Britain.

Tolkien does this in several ways. He resurrects dead or little-used Old English words and uses them in his books, usually as names but also as terms for items of cultural significance, like smial and mathom. He also uses words that are not lost, but perhaps a bit archaic or evocative of older days in England, words like barrow or farthing. And in one case he even uses Old English in its entirety to represent the speech of one of the peoples of Middle-earth, the Rohirrim.

Geography of Middle-earth
Throughout his books, Tolkien uses Old English words, or words coined from Old English roots, as names for places, people, and things in Middle-earth. Even the name of his world itself, Middle-earth, is taken from the Old English midden-erd. As Tolkien wrote in a 1956 letter “Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd < middel-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumenē, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell)." Tolkien is not the first modern writer to use the word. It has been in continual, if rare, use since Old English; Shakespeare, for example, uses middle earth in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Hawthorne uses it in The Marble Faun.

Tolkien takes his name for the hobbits’ homeland, The Shire, from scír, an Anglo-Saxon term for an administrative district. The word is still in general use, found chiefly as a general term for district or in place names, such as Yorkshire. The hobbits’ Shire is divided into four districts, which Tolkien calls Farthings. That word is from the Old English féorðing or féorða, meaning a fourth. In the real world, the word is best known for its use to denote a quarter of a monetary denomination or other measure, especially a quarter of a penny. One particular low, wet region in Eastfarthing is called the Marish, a word from the Anglo-Norman mareis, meaning swamp. Again, this is not a unique Tolkien usage; the word has been in occasional usage since the 14th century. Spenser uses it in the Faerie Queene, as does Tennyson in Dying Swan.

Old English terms are not just used by Tolkien to evoke pleasant images of days gone by in England. He also uses the Anglo-Saxon for the names of darker places. In The Lord of the Rings, the hero, a hobbit named Frodo, must journey to Mordor, land of Sauron, the Dark Lord, to destroy a magical ring. The name Mordor bears a striking resemblance to the Old English morðor, or murder, a similarity that could not have been lost on Tolkien. Also, another evil-doer, the wizard Saruman dwells in the fortress of Isengard, Old English for iron court, from the isen (iron) + gard (enclosure). At the center of Isengard is the tower of Orthanc, an Old English word meaning contrivance, skill, intelligence, or as Tolkien glosses it, cunning mind.

Placenames from the languages of some of Tolkien’s fantastic creatures also sometimes come from Old English. The underground Dwarfish city of Dwarrowdelf is from dweorh (dwarf) + gedelf (mine, pit). Derndingle, the meeting place of the giant Ents, means secret valley and is, in part, from Old English, dyrne (secret) + dingle (valley, of unknown origin)

Characters and Creatures of Middle-earth
Tolkien occasionally dips into Old English for the names of characters. He does this most often with the names of the people of Rohan (see The Language of Rohan, below), but with others as well. The protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, a hobbit named Frodo, takes his name from the Old English fród, meaning wise. Nor did Tolkien invent the name of the wizard Gandalf. That name appears throughout Norse mythology. The meaning, magical, gaunt, or wand elf, depends on which Germanic language you take it from. The evil wizard Saruman’s name is also from Old English, searu (cunning) + man, as is the name of another wizard, Radagast, from rad (skillful) + gast (spirit). The Hobbit has a character, a man who can change into a bear at will. His name is Beorn, an Old English word for warrior or hero. And the monstrous spider, Shelob, takes her name from she + the Old English lobbe (spider).

Other dark creatures go by Old English names. Most famous perhaps is orc. Tolkien adopted the word, which has been in occasional use in its current form since the late 16th century, as the name for the race of evil minions of the Dark Lord. The ultimate origin is somewhat vague, with several candidates presenting themselves. It may be related to Orca, the name of a genus of whales. The sense of a sea monster may have led to a more general usage. The term orcneas appears in Beowulf as a plural form of a type of monster. It may also be related to or influenced by the Latin Orcus, another name for Pluto, the god of the underworld (and the source of ogre).

Sometimes accompanying the orcs on their raids are wargs, or wolves, especially wild and vicious ones. Tolkien coined the word, basing it on the Old Norse vargr (wolf) and the Old English wearg (criminal, evil person).

Tolkien also borrows trolls from Scandinavian myth. Originally large and quite fearsome, over the centuries trolls shrunk and acquired a subterranean existence. The word was adopted into English in the 19th century. Tolkien restores the monster’s size and fearsomeness. Although a new adoption to the general English vocabulary, the word has a longer history in the dialect of the Shetland and Orkney Islands, where the term has survived (modern form: trow) as a relic of the Norse language formerly spoken there.

And in the first book of The Lord of the Rings, the hobbits encounter a barrow-wight, a supernatural being that guards the treasure in a barrow or grave. The term was actually coined in the 19th century by Andrew Lang, a writer about myths and legends. It is a compounding of barrow and wight, an Old English term for a living creature, especially a human. This sense long ago fell out of use. Wight also has had a sense of a supernatural being since c. 950. This second sense also fell out of general use, although writers, like Lang and Tolkien, have made occasional use of it over the centuries to evoke an archaic atmosphere.

A barrow is a mound of earth and stones erected over a grave. Originally from an Old English word for mountain, that sense has long passed out of the language, except in the names of particular hills. The term survived as a local term for a grave mound in the Southwest of England. It since has enjoyed a revival as an archeological term. Tolkien uses it the sense of a grave mound, especially those found just outside the borders of the Shire.

Tolkien, however, doesn’t restrict Old English to the names of evil races of creatures. Ents, kindly giant tree-creatures likely get their name from Eoten, an Old English word for giant. And the Woses, or wild men of the forest, are from the Old English wudewása, wudu (wood) + *wása (unknown)

Things of Middle-earth
Tolkien also resurrects some Old English words to give names to things found in Middle-earth. One such example is mathom. It is an Old English word, meaning a treasure or something valuable, that fell out of use in 13th century. Tolkien revived it with a new sense, that of a hobbit’s trinket or useless heirloom. Tolkien also revived mathom-house, which had meant a treasury in Old English, but in Tolkien’s world becomes a museum stuffed with old curiosities.

Another such hobbit word is smial. Tolkien uses it as a term for a hobbit’s hole, especially a large and grand one. It is based on the Old English smygel, or burrow. And living in the Great Smials is the Thain of the Shire. Thane is an Old English word for a warrior who is charged with ruling lands of the king. Tolkien uses it to denote the leader of the hobbits in the Shire.

Kingsfoil is the name of a plant with healing powers, coined by Tolkien. The original sense of foil, which is from the Old French, is the leaf of a plant. This sense has long been obsolete in English, giving way to the modern sense of metal hammered very thin, like a leaf. But Tolkien used the original sense when he names this plant, literally king’s leaf. He also uses the Old English athel, or noble, to form the Elvish name for the plant, athelas.

The Language of Rohan
Tolkien did more than simply resurrect Old English words as names of places and things in Middle-earth. He actually used the language to represent the language of one of the peoples of Middle-earth, the Rohirrim (the word Rohirrim is a Tolkien coinage, formed from roots in the fictional Elvish languages he created). Of course, most of the dialogue spoken by the people of Rohan is in modern English, but throughout the books Tolkien gives us snippets of Rohirric/Old English.

Rohan, in Tolkien’s tales, is a land of men, peopled by a fair-haired, Nordic-like race known for their excellence as horsemen. When it comes to representing their speech, Tolkien simply uses Old English. Throughout the explanatory material and the appendices to Lord of the Rings, Tolkien uses the conceit that he translated the material from ancient languages and that these are actual myths and legends, not stories of his own creation. In using Old English to represent Rohirric, Tolkien was choosing a language that had analogous relationship to modern English as Rohirric had to Hobbitish. He writes, “the language of Rohan I have accordingly made to resemble ancient English. The language of Rohan was related (more distantly) to the Common Speech, and (very closely) to the former tongue of the northern Hobbits, and was in comparison with the [Common Speech] archaic. In the Red Book it is noted in several places that when Hobbits heard the speech of Rohan they recognized many words and felt the language to be akin to their own, so that it seemed absurd to leave the recorded names and words of the Rohirrim in a wholly alien style.”

Tolkien goes on to note, “this linguistic procedure does not imply that the Rohirrim closely resembled the ancient English otherwise, in culture or art, in weapons or modes of warfare, except in a general way due to their circumstances: a simpler and more primitive people living in contact with a higher and more venerable culture, and occupying lands that had once been part of its domain.”

The Rohirrim refer to themselves as the Eorlingas, or in Old English “the people of Eorl,” Eorl being the first king of Rohan. Their name for hobbits is holbytla, or hole-builder, from the Old English hol (hole) + *byldan (to build).

The names of the people of Rohan, for one thing, are all derived from Old English words. The king of Rohan is Théoden, which means king in Old English. His nephew and heir is Éomer, a name that also appears in Beowulf and means renowned rider, and Théoden’s niece is Éowyn, or joyful rider. His counselor, who is secretly in league with the evil wizard Saruman is named Gríma, or mask. Gríma gives the wizard Gandalf the nickname, Láthspell, or lað (hateful) + spell (message), because Gandalf always seems to appear when things are at their darkest. And the Rohirrim give the hobbit Merry, who befriends Théoden, the name of Holdwine, from hold (loyal) + wine (friend).

The Rohirrim are renowned horsemen and they treat their horses almost as well as they do their children. The horses’ names in the books are also from Old English. The most famous, Shadowfax, is somewhat updated for the modern reader. It is from sceadu (dusky, shadowy) + feax (hair). Another horse is named Arod, the Old English word for swift or quick and another is Hasufel, or hasu (gray) + fell (skin). And the name for the royal horses of Rohan is Mearas, from the Old English mearh, or horse (and the etyma of the modern word mare). As warriors, the Rohirrim fight on horseback, organized in troops called éoreds, which is an Old English word for a mounted company or legion.

Place names in Rohan are also from Old English. The capital is Edoras, or the courts, and the king’s hall is Meduseld, or mead-hall. Districts in Rohan are Eastemnet and Westemnet, from the Old English emnet meaning plain or level ground. These two districts are also known as the wold, or open country, plain. It is from the Old English weald or forest (Cf. modern German Wald). The sense of forest dropped out of the English in the 15th century. The sense of open plain, stemming from the deforested plains of England, arose in the 13th century. This latter sense fell out of common use by 1600, although it remains in poetic use and in the names of places, e.g., the Cotswolds.

Others districts are Eastfold and Westfold, from folde or district, country. The entire kingdom is known as The Mark, which stems from three related, but distinct Old English roots, all carrying the sense of border, boundary, or land. The boundary sense has remained current in English, although the sense of land or country has become archaic. This latter sense is preserved, however, in its modern German cognate.

Tolkien gives us very few actual sentences in Rohirric/Old English. One that he does is a greeting Éomer gives to the king, Westu Théoden hál, This, substituting the appropriate name, is a traditional Old English greeting meaning Hail, Théoden, or literally “you be healthy, Théoden.” Although Tolkien modifies the spelling a bit, in Old English the first words would actually be “Waes thu.” Similarly, Éowyn bids good-bye to Théoden with Ferthu Théoden hál, or “farewell, Théoden,” literally “go with health, Théoden”

Other Old English words appear individually in the speech of characters, giving the reader a sense of their language and mythos. Éowyn calls the Lord of the Nazgul, a wraith-like servant of Sauron, the Dark Lord, a dwimmerlaik. The word, demerlayk, meaning magic or occult, appears in Middle English and is from the Old English roots dweomer (illusion, phantasm) + -lác (suffix of action or condition). Dweomer appears again in the Rohirric name for the Elvish forest of Lothlórien, Dwimordene, dweomer + denu (valley)

The Rohirrim call the fortress of Minas Tirith Mundburg, from the Old English mund (protection) + burð (fortified town). The flower that grows on their gravesites is Simbelmynë, from symble (always) + mynd (remembrance). And a series of ancient statues depicting a race of squat, primitive men are called the Púkel-men, from the Old English púcel (goblin) + men.

So, here we have an example of a writer who is philologically savvy and who uses this knowledge to good effect. Tolkien went further than simply reusing Old English words. He even invented several languages (or at least some basic grammar and a few hundred vocabulary words) for his creations to speak. But the Old English usages are especially effective. They seem vaguely familiar and evoke images of ages past, when at least the possibility of magical creatures seemed real.

Word of the Month: Weapon of Mass Destruction

1 December 2002

The word (actually it is a noun phrase) of the month is:

Weapon of Mass Destruction, n., a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon. Sometimes radiological weapons are included in the definition. Also WMD. In use since at least 1937. Pre-1945 uses of the term referred to conventional weapons of great destructive power, such as the bombing of cities by aircraft, and chemical weapons.

Weapons of mass destruction have been all over the news lately. The United States is gearing up for war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein continues to develop them. The United Nations has sent inspectors to Iraq to ensure that he does not, in fact, possess such weapons. And in the midst of this, North Korea announces that it has a nuclear weapons program, in violation of agreements it has entered into with other nations.

Presented here are a number of terms associated with weapons of mass destruction.

ABM, n., abbreviation for Anti-Ballistic Missile, a missile designed to shoot down other missiles. It is often used in reference to the 1972 ABM Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union that severely restricted development and deployment of ABM systems. Since 1963.

A-Bomb, n., nuclear weapon, especially. a fission-only weapon. It is an abbreviation for Atomic bomb. From 1945.

Alpha Radiation, n., a type of nuclear radiation consisting of a helium nucleus (2 protons and 2 neutrons) stripped of its electrons. Alpha particles are the most damaging of the types of ionizing radiation to the human body, but the least dangerous as they cannot penetrate the skin and only travel a few centimeters through the air. Generally, alpha radiation is only dangerous when the radioactive substance is swallowed or inhaled. The term was coined by Ernest Rutherford in 1899.

Anthrax, n., disease, primarily of sheep and cattle but that can infect humans, caused by Bacillus anthracis. It is often considered as a biological warfare agent, although it is readily treatable with common antibiotics. From the Latin, after the Greek word for coal, so-called because of the black pustules that develop on the skin of those infected. It has been in use since 1398 in the sense of any dark, malignant pustule; since 1876 in the sense of the specific disease caused by B. anthracis.

Beta Radiation, n., a type of nuclear radiation consisting of an electron. Beta particles have greater penetrating power than alpha particles, but are less damaging to living tissue. The term was coined in 1899 by Ernest Rutherford.

Binary Weapon, n., a type of chemical weapon consisting of two, less-toxic chemicals that are mixed to produced the chemical agent. Contrary to popular conception, binary weapons are not more effective than the less sophisticated unitary weapons, but they are safer to store, handle, and dispose of. From at least 1973.

Biological Weapon, n., a device that uses pathogens or toxins to cause harm to people, plants, or animals; a pathogen or toxin intended for such use. From 1946. Biologic weapon appears as early as 1933. Bacteriological weapon is used in the same sense from 1925.

Chemical Weapon, n., a device that uses toxic chemicals to cause harm to people, animals, or equipment; a chemical agent intended for such use. From 1920.

Conventional Weapon, n., any weapon other than a nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological weapon.

Dirty Bomb, n., 1) a nuclear weapon specifically designed to maximize the release of long-lived radioactive isotopes (fallout), 2) a radiological weapon. From 1961 in the first sense, 1993 in the second.

Dual-Use, adj., used to describe equipment and material that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction but which also has legitimate, peaceful uses. Since 1989.

Ebola, n., a filovirus that causes an acute and lethal hemorrhagic fever. Ebola is sometimes speculated upon as a potential biological agent, although no one has been reported as having weaponized it. Since 1977. The virus takes its the name of the Ebola River in Zaire, site of a 1976 outbreak. The Soviets successfully weaponized the related Marburg virus, named for Marburg, Germany, the location of a 1967 outbreak in a laboratory.

Enrich, v., to increase the percentage of Uranium-235 in a sample of uranium ore. Naturally occurring uranium is over 99% Uranium-238, which is not fissionable. To use uranium as a fuel or in a weapon, the percentage of fissionable U-235 must be increased to the point where a nuclear reaction can be sustained. Low-enriched uranium is used in most commercial reactors. Highly enriched uranium is used in naval reactors and some specialized facilities. Very highly enriched uranium is weapons grade (see below). From 1945.

Fallout, n., radioactive debris from a nuclear detonation that is then deposited over a large area downwind of ground zero. From 1950.

Gamma Radiation, n., a type of nuclear radiation consisting of electromagnetic emissions with a very short wavelength. Gamma rays have greater penetrating power than alpha or beta particles, but are less damaging. Term coined in 1903 by Ernest Rutherford.

Ground Zero, n., the point on the earth’s surface at or, in the case of an airburst, directly below the detonation of a nuclear weapon (1946); the site in lower Manhattan that had been occupied by the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed on 11 September 2001.

H-Bomb, n., a thermonuclear weapon. It is an abbreviation for hydrogen bomb. From 1950.

IAEA, n., Abbreviation for International Atomic Energy Agency. The U.N. organization, headquartered in Vienna, responsible for nuclear safeguards under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty and for nuclear weapons inspections in Iraq. From 1956.

ICBM, n., Abbreviation for Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. An ICBM is a missile with global range, usually armed with a nuclear warhead. From 1955.

MIRV, n., Abbreviation for Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicles. MIRVs are multiple warheads carried by a missile that are capable of striking different targets. From 1967. MIRV is also used as a verb meaning to arm a missile with such warheads.

Mustard, n., dichlorodiethylsulphide, a colorless to pale yellow, oily liquid used as a chemical warfare agent. Mustard is a vesicant, causing severe chemical burns on the skin and eyes and, if the aerosol is inhaled, in the lungs. It is so called because of its color and garlicky smell. Mustard was first used by the German army at Ypres in 1917. It is also known as Yperite from Ypres and as Yellow Cross (German, WWI) and H (US), from the markings used on shell casings containing the agent.

NBC, adj., US military abbreviation for Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical.

Nerve Agent, n., a class of chemical weapons. Cholinesterase inhibitors, nerve agents block the action of that enzyme at nerve synapses, resulting in paralysis of the parasympathetic nervous system and eventual death through suffocation. The Germans first developed nerve agents before and during WWII. The term nerve gas has been in use since 1940, although technically none of them are gases.

Neutron Bomb, n, nuclear weapon designed to minimize blast effects while maximizing emission of neutrons. The intent of the American weapons designers was to irradiate invading Soviet tank crews while minimizing collateral damage to the West German countryside. This type of nuclear weapon was officially designated as an Enhanced Radiation Weapon. From 1960; enhanced radiation from 1976.

Nuclear Weapon, n., a weapon that produces its destructive power through the rapid and uncontrolled release of energy from the fission or fusion of atomic nuclei. From 1945.

OPCW, n., Abbreviation for Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international organization, headquartered in The Hague, charged with overseeing implementation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Plague, n., disease caused by Yersinia pestis, also known as bubonic or pneumonic plague. The word is also used more generally for any lethal, communicable disease, a pestilence. Plague is often considered as a potential biological warfare agent, although it is readily treatable with common antibiotics. From the Old French plage, meaning a blow, stroke, or wound. This is also the original English sense, especially a blow of divine retribution, as in the ten plagues of Egypt. Plague, meaning divine retribution, has been In English since 1382, the pestilence sense since 1548, and used for the specific disease since 1601.

Plutonium, n., a transuranic, radioactive metal that is often used as the fissionable material in nuclear weapons. The name was coined in 1942 by its discoverer, Glenn Seaborg. It is named after the planet; neptunium and plutonium follow uranium on the periodic table, just as the planets Neptune and Pluto follow Uranus in the solar system.

Proliferation, n., the increase in the number of states possessing nuclear weapons. From 1965.  Also in use is nonproliferation, the prevention of such an increase, especially by diplomatic means or in context of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and counterproliferation, the prevention of such an increase through the threat or use of force (1993). Proliferation is also sometimes called as horizontal proliferation, to distinguish it from vertical proliferation the increase in size and sophistication of arsenals in existing nuclear weapon states (1989).

Radiation, n., particles or electromagnetic energy emitted as the result of nuclear decay, fission, or fusion. From the Latin. In use since 1570 to denote visible light emitted by a radiant body, since 1896 in the nuclear sense.

Radiological Weapon, n., a conventional bomb jacketed with radioactive material with the intent that the material would be spread by the detonation, creating a continuing health risk and material disposal problem.

Ricin, n., toxin found in castor beans. Ricin has been used as a biological agent in assassination attempts. Since 1896; from plant’s Latin nomenclature, Ricinus communis.

Sarin, n., Isopropoxy-methyl-phosphoryl-flouride, a nerve agent. In 1945, the Allies gave it its military nomenclature of GB (G = Germany, B = second nerve agent). The name sarin is from a German acronym coined in 1938 by Gerhard Schrader after the names of individuals involved in the discovery: Schrader, Ambros, Rüdriger, and van der Linde. Iraq used sarin in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo used an impure form of the agent in its 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway.

Smallpox, n., disease caused by Variola major. The name is from the small size of the pustules that form on the skin. From 1518. The disease was eradicated in 1980. Samples of the virus were legally retained in the United States and Russia and probably illegally at other locations. The Soviet Union illegally weaponized smallpox following its eradication.

Soman, n., Pinacoloxy-methyl-phosphoryl-fluoride, a nerve agent. The name comes from its German designation, coined in 1944. The significance of the name soman has been lost—unlike the other nerve agents, all Nazi documentation on soman fell into Soviet hands at the war’s end. The Allied military designation was GD (not GC, as that was an existing medical designation for gonorrhea).

Special Weapon, n., US military euphemism for a nuclear weapon.

Tabun, n., Ethyl N,N-dimethyl phosphoramicocyanidate, a chemical nerve agent. The first nerve agent, its discoverer, Gerhard Schrader, coined the name in 1937, allegedly as a meaningless code name. Allied military designation was GA. Iraq used tabun in its war with Iran.

Thermonuclear, adj., denoting a nuclear fusion reaction, one where hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium, releasing energy, as in a hydrogen bomb. The name comes from the large amounts of heat required to initiate the fusion reaction. From 1938 in reference to stars; 1953 for weapons.

Toxin, n., a naturally occurring toxic substance, whether produced by natural means or synthesized in a laboratory. Toxins are classified as biological weapons, but have more in common with chemical weapons than with pathogens. The term has been In use since 1886.

Uranium, n., a chemical element, the heaviest found in nature. Uranium-235 is used as a nuclear fuel and weapons material. Named after the planet Uranus by the element’s discoverer, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, c. 1790.

VX, n., O-ethyl S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate, a chemical nerve agent. VX was developed by the United States in 1952, based on discoveries made by the British. VX is heavier and less volatile than the G-agents. The name was coined in 1955, allegedly V = venomous and presumably the X = experimental. VX was the only V-series nerve agent developed (the Soviet VR-55 is a VX analog).

Weaponize, v., to make into a weapon, particularly in reference to nuclear, chemical, or biological capability. The verb is also used in the sense of to populate with weapons, as in “to weaponize outer space.” Since at least 1993.

Weapons Grade, adj., applied to fissile material suitable for making nuclear weapons. From 1961. Journalists in 2001-02 have used it for biological agents that have been specially prepared for easy dissemination, although this is not a usage in the biological weapons community. It is sometimes jocularly used to mean something pungent or hot, as in weapons-grade salsa.

Yield, n., the explosive power of a nuclear weapon, usually expressed in kilotons, or the thousands of tons of TNT equivalent. It is sometimes expressed in megatons, or millions of tons of TNT equivalent. The Hiroshima bomb had a yield of about 12 kilotons. A modern strategic warhead would have something like 300 kilotons in yield; a modern tactical weapon would have something around one kiloton.

American Dialect: New York Speak

1 November 2002

One of the most distinctive dialects in the United States is that found in New York City. Often called Brooklynese (a misnomer as the dialect is common to all five boroughs, plus parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, and not just Brooklyn), the dialect has been introduced to the world via Hollywood, from the Bowery Boys to the Sopranos.

New York is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the country. Not everyone there speaks with the New York dialect. And unlike the dialects of other regions, like Boston or the South, the New York dialect is class-based. The higher you are on the social ladder, the less likely you are to sound like a New Yorker.

In the 1966, linguist William Labov conducted a classic study of the pronunciation of the letter R in New York department stores. Like their Boston compatriots, New Yorkers tend to drop the letter R; it is a non-rhotic dialect. Labov went to three different department stores and conducted undercover “interviews” with employees, counting the number of Rs in the pronunciation of phrases like “fourth floor.” He found the most Rs at upscale Saks. Macy’s, a mid-range store, had fewer and the discount Klein’s had the least. He also discovered that in all three stores, stock boys were more likely to omit the R than managers, and sales clerks fell between the two extremes. When Labov asked them to repeat themselves, all the employees used more Rs the second time around, when they were speaking more carefully.

This class difference in speech means that New Yorkers are often a bit embarrassed to be caught speaking their own dialect. They don’t celebrate their pronunciation as do the Bostonians, Baltimoreans, or Southerners.

So what makes New York speech so distinctive?

Non-Rhotic Dialect
We’ve mentioned that New York speech is a non-rhotic dialect. Much like the speech of New England or the South, New York drops the letter R after a vowel, hence the Yawk in Noo Yawk and source is pronounced as sauce. And like New England (but unlike the South), New Yorkers retain the R at the end of words if the next word begins with a vowel.

And like New Englanders, New Yorkers will actually insert an R at the end of words if the next word begins with a vowel. So I saw it becomes I sawr it, and idea often becomes ideer.

Closed Vowels
Another pronunciation difference is that New Yorkers pronounce the vowel sounds in words like walk, talk, and dog with the mouth more closed than most other Americans do. Most Americans will pronounce these vowel sounds as “ah,” as if a doctor were examining their throats. New Yorkers say them like the vowel in the first syllable of coffee.

Irish Influences
Three pronunciation habits made their way into New York talk at the turn of the 20th century. The first is replacing an S sound with SH. Office becomes offish and serious becomes sherious.

The second is the substitution of T or D for TH. These and those becomes dese and dose, and thirty-third street becomes tuh-eety tuh-id street.

The third is often represented as toity-toid street, but this is not quite accurate. Rather, the substitution should be an UH-EE sound for ER and vice versa. Oil becomes erl, boil becomes buh-il, and girl becomes guh-ill.

All three of these Irish borrowings are fading from the speech.

Dropped H
New Yorkers also drop the H at the start of some words. Huge becomes yuge and we’re not humans, we’re yumans.

Central Gs and Ts
New Yorkers also do interesting things with Gs and Ts in the middle of words. They distinctly pronounce the Gs in words like Long Island and finger. And the often reduce the T in two-syllable words like bottle or settle to a glottal stop.

NYC Words and Phrases
Aikies, interj., child’s call laying claim on something, dibs. Etymology unknown, perhaps from an English dialectical term. In NYC use since at least 1934. Often no aikies.

Brownstone, adj. and n., a residential building, originally a single-family dwelling for the wealthy, now usually converted into several apartments. From the stone used in the façade. Adjectival use since 1858. As a noun since the 1940s.

Bunk into, v.phr., to accidentally meet someone. Alteration of bump into. From 1942.

Ditzy, adj., scatterbrained, irresponsible, absent-minded. From c. 1976. Probably a variation on dizzy. Originally a NYC term, this has gained wider currency.

Egg cream, n., drink made from seltzer, chocolate syrup, and milk (there are no eggs or cream in an egg cream). From 1906. Evidently, early recipes for egg creams did mix egg and cream with the syrup, but by the 1960s this had been abandoned in favor of plain chocolate syrup.

Elevator apartment, n., apartment in a building with an elevator (1912). Cf. walk-up apartment.

Floor-through, n., apartment taking up an entire floor of a, usually small, apartment building (1964).

Fuhgeddaboutit, interj., denial of possibility, NYC equivalent of no way, Jose. From at least 1985.

Hero, n., a submarine sandwich. From 1947. Probably from the idea that it was a “heroic” deed to eat an entire sandwich. Often attributed to New York restaurant critic Clementine Paddleford, but there is no evidence that she ever used the term. An alternate theory is that it is an alteration of the Greek gyros, but this is unlikely. Gyros is a later addition to English and no one would mistake a gyros for a sub.

Hey, I’m walkin’ here, interj., used when bumping into someone, the NYC equivalent of “excuse me.”

Mook, n., a low-life, a disreputable person, a fool. From 1930, of unknown origin. This word is made famous by its use in many police dramas.

On line, adv., in the queue. Millions of Americans go on line to access the internet, but they wait in line. Except in New York, where you wait on line. From at least 1958.

Regular coffee, n., coffee with milk and sugar. Elsewhere in the US, regular coffee is coffee with caffeine. Witness this exchange on the TV show Law & Order:

Waitress: “What would you like?”
Detective Briscoe: “A regular coffee.”
Waitress: “How would you like it?”
Briscoe: “Regular.”

Youse guys, n., you, form of address. Youse guys is to New York what Y’all is in the South.

New Jersey Words and Phases
Bennie, n., summer visitor to the Jersey shore. Found in Monmouth and Ocean counties. From c. 1977. Origin unknown. Several theories prevail. Possibly from the name Benny, a common name among Jewish families in NYC that visited the shore. Possibly from someone who wants the “beneficial rays of the sun.”

Jersey barrier, n., temporary concrete barrier used on highways. Not so much a New Jersey-specific term, but so called because jersey barriers were an invention of the state highway department in the 1950s.

Jughandle, n., a right hand exit lane at a highway intersection that curves back to cross the original road at a right angle, facilitating a left turn. From 1961. So called because of the shape.

Shore, n., the beach, in particular the New Jersey shore, from Sandy Hook to Cape May. New Yorkers go down the Shore (no to) on summer weekends.

Correction: Hub City

1 November 2002

In last month’s issue, in the article on New England dialect, we said that Boston was called the Hub or Hub City because Bostonians considered it the hub of the universe. While this may be true in the hearts of Bostonians, it is not the exact origin of the term. The term is from a quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (father of the jurist), who said in the 1858 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, “Boston Statehouse is the hub of the solar system.”

Slang in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Part 2)

1 November 2002

(This is part two of a two-part article. The first installment appeared in last month’s issue.)

Last month, we took a look at Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (BtVS), a popular US television series that uses slang, both real and created, to set the mood and establish the characters. The show follows the exploits of Buffy Summers, the one girl in all the world endowed with the preternatural powers needed to slay vampires and fight the demonic forces of evil. Aided by her friends Willow and Xander, as well as by her “Watcher” Giles, she works to rid the world of evil, starting with her hometown of Sunnydale, California.

In the first part of the article we examined how BtVS used actual slang terms and phrases to good effect. This month, we will look at how the writers use a few derivational rules and patterns to create a wide variety of unique slang terms. We will also examine the speech patterns of a few of the characters to see how the writers and actors use language to establish and shape the characters.

Derivational Patterns
The bulk of slang usage in BtVS, dubbed Slayerspeak by fans, consists of nonce derivations and particular repeated patterns of speech and word formation. These patterns are few in number, but the writers use them to generate a cornucopia of unique slang terms.

Nonce Names
BtVS is replete with nonce names and references to people and characters. While these usages are seldom repeated, they are formed using a few reusable patterns. One of these patterns is to use an adjective or descriptive noun followed by -man, -lady, -boy, -guy, -girl, etc. Thus we have sissy-man, praying mantis lady, larva boy, dead boy, research boy, exchange-o boy (referring to a foreign exchange student), stalker boy, fun talking guy, mystery guy, corporate computer suit guy, supportive boyfriend guy, didn’t go to college guy, pushing-away girl, percepto girl, soliloquy girl, knowledge girl, and destructo-girl among others.

Similarly, nonce names are also formed using mister, miss, and Ms. followed by a descriptor. Hence we have Miss Motormouth, Miss Trailer Trash, Mr. Excitement, Mr. Mutant, Ms. Invisible, Miss Well-Proportioned, and the lengthy Mister ‘I’m the lead singer I’m so great I don’t even have to show up for a date or even call’ among others.

Nonce Derivations
The writers use a limited number of derivational affixes to form a large number of nonce terms.

Perhaps the most common suffix is -y, used to convert nouns into adjectives. A serious student is bookwormy, vampires are vampiry, and Buffy’s one-time date Owen is not just a boy, he’s Oweny. Buffy complains that the cream rinse she just bought is neither creamy nor rinsey and for a scourge of the demon world she has not been that scourgy lately. Her friend Xander opines that a breakfast bar he just ate tastes cardboardy. Someone who betrays is backstabby. Monsters stalking one in the dark are lurky and those that are intent on destroying the world are apocalypsy. And if they do it on Halloween, they’re Halloweeny.

Similar, but used less frequently, is the suffix -ly. For this one we only get dogly, denoting an unattractive boy and its antonym boyfriendly. A college fraternity is fratly.

Something with a particular quality is described as -like. A domineering mother is described as Nazi-like, boys are guy-like, and the prom queen is Evita-like.

On the other hand, something without a particular quality is described as -less. Buffy complains that her slaying duties make it difficult to meet boys and hence she is a dateless monster. Dinner eaten out of a plastic bag is plateless, and a summer vacation in Tuscany is beachless in comparison to one in Maui.

The suffix -able is used to turn verbs into nonce adjectives. We have doable meaning possible, unmeshable referring to things that don’t combine, lunchable describing a sexy male, and skippable denoting something unpleasant. The suffix -worthy is also used on occasion to serve the same purpose. We find both cringeworthy, meaning scary, and yawnworthy, meaning boring.

The suffix -age is used to convert verbs into nonce nouns. Hence we have slayage meaning death, missage referring to the absence of a boyfriend, and breakage of hearts. When a boy and a girl like one another there is sparkage.

Similarly, the suffix -oid is combined with a noun to create a descriptive term for a person. A corporate drone is a zomboid. A disreputable character is a sleazoid. And a slave to fashion is a trendoid.

The characters use various geographical suffixes to describe abstract states. A relationship enters dateville when romance and flowers are involved. High school career day for the Slayer is in mootville because she already has a calling. Someone currently in neurotic city needs a visit to therapyland, and someone who is nervous and irritable needs to go to decaf-land.

Other qualities are described as factors. Hence we have coolness factor, ick factor, and creep factor.

Mode is another noun used as the basis for repeated compounds. When Buffy wants to go on a date and doesn’t want her slaying duties to interfere she is in see-no-evil mode. A person worried and pacing back and forth is in pace mode. And when the gang wants to discover what type of demon they are facing they go into research mode.

The patterns of nonce formulation are not restricted to individual words and terms. The characters in BtVS also form phrases out of set patterns. One of the more common of these is [adjective]-much? A clipped form of Are you ____ much? that is used as an insult. Buffy’s schoolmate, who doesn’t know Buffy is the Slayer, overhears Buffy discussing corpses and responds with Morbid much? Buffy herself asks a friend if they are Pathetic much? And Xander, rather unsympathetically, asks a troubled friend Having issues much?

Pop Culture References
In the first half of this article, we discussed who pop music is given short shrift by the writers, but other aspects of popular culture are not. The dialect used in BtVS is that it is studded with pop culture references. The characters use pop culture icons to describe and compare and to form new words and phrases.

Movies get their share of referring phrases and terms. One who has been taken on a wild goose chase has been Keyser Soze’d, a reference to the movie The Usual Suspects. Willow’s boyfriend is in a band called Dingoes Ate My Baby, after a line from A Cry in the Dark starring Meryl Streep. Buffy designates two cowboy vampires as Butch and Sundance (and their “real” names are Lyle and Tector Gorch, after characters in Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch). And Buffy dubs a submissive housewife as Stepford. Xander refers to a vampire who picks up an unsuspecting Willow in a bar as Mr. Goodbar. When another Slayer wants to charge into a nest of vampires, Buffy calls her John Wayne. A group of marauding vampires is out in Magnum Force. School cafeteria vegetables are Soylent Green and a pack of teenagers bent on destruction are winged monkeys. Xander refers to Sunnydale as Monster Island, home of Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and their ilk. And criticism is a little Gene and Roger, a reference to movie critics Siskel and Ebert.

Likewise, television is not immune. To act the role of a skeptic is to Scully, after the X-Files character. Buffy declares that monsters pretty much just want to kill, crush, destroy, a reference to destructive androids from the TV series Lost In Space. When Giles remains calm in the face of impending apocalypse, Xander calls him Locutus of the Borg, a Star Trek: The Next Generation reference; and when a new watcher, younger but still tweed-clad and English, arrives to take Giles’s place, Buffy calls him Giles: The Next Generation. A smart person is referred to as Mr. Wizard, a teen-aged witch is a Sabrina, and Buffy calls another Slayer Pink Ranger, a reference to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Comic books get their share of hits. A call from Giles is a Bat Signal. Also from the world of superheroes, an alternate reality is Bizarro world, a Superman reference, and a football player is referred to as the Hulk. Xander also intones this looks like a job for Buffy, echoing the Superman catch phrase. And a sixth sense is spider-sense after Spiderman.

A summary is referred to as the Cliffnotes version. To dress in cheap and unfashionable clothing is to see the softer side of Sears after an advertising slogan. A boy who tries to kill his girlfriend is going O.J. An unobservant boyfriend Helen Keller. A cosmetics salesman, a male, is called Mary Kay. An abusive mother is referred to as Mommie Dearest, a reference to the Joan Crawford biography. Telling someone to calm down can be done with the command Ridilin, and a poor excuse is a twinkie defense.

Use of catch phrases from American pop culture is also prevalent. Buffy describes a failure as a swing and a miss, a reference to baseball commentary. She compliments Xander by saying she will accept no substitutes, an advertising cliché. An uncertain choice is phrased as what’s behind door number three, recalling Monty Hall and the game show Let’s Make A Deal. And when someone answers one of Buffy’s questions incorrectly, she responds with, “sorry! That’s incorrect but you do get this lovely watch and a year’s supply of Turtle Wax...” Also from game shows, when Xander wants to be clued in, he refers to himself as those in our studio audience. Willow uses inquiring minds want to know, an advertising slogan for the tabloid National Enquirer for the same purpose. Football gets a few hits. Mistakes are pointed out with the phrase flag on that play. Buffy says she would like to turn over her slaying duties to another and say, “I’m going to Disneyland.” Finally, when she wants to point out what should be obvious to the casual observer, Buffy intones this just in...

One catch phrase comes in for repeated use. It’s from the children’s television program Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. In that show, Mr. Rogers would invite the viewing children to sound out difficult words with the phrase Can you say...? In BtVS, the phrase is used to emphasize a specific point. Hence we have can you say stuck in the ‘80s? used to describe a vampire in outdated clothes. Also used are can you say, over-reaction?, can you say, sucking chest wound?, and can you say...get a life!?

Character Speech Patterns
Most of the major characters on BtVS have distinctive styles of speech (accents, use of specific words and catchphrases, etc.) that set them apart from the others. Several of them don’t have a distinguishable accent, which is to be expected as Southern California does not have a unique accent. But most have their own catchphrases and distinctive patterns of speech.

Buffy Summers
Buffy, the show’s protagonist, is a Los Angeles native, having just moved to Sunnydale at age 16 at the start of the series. Sarah Michelle Gellar, a New York City native, plays her. Despite her New York roots, Gellar has no discernable regional accent. She is a veteran actor since early childhood and her accent is the generic American one that predominates in Southern California and in American film and television.

Although she is the star, there are few distinctive usages that mark her speech. She is fond of totally, using way as an intensifier (as in way cool), and so as a generic noun. She also frequently uses deal as a noun (What is her deal?), non- as a negation, and thing as a generic noun. None of these are unique to her, but she uses them a bit more often than the other characters.

Willow Rosenberg & Xander Harris
Willow and Xander are Buffy’s best friends. Willow is a shy, bookish, computer nerd, who under Buffy’s influence emerges from her shell to not only become one of the group’s leaders, but she also dabbles in magic and becomes a rather powerful witch in later seasons. Alyson Hannigan, who has lived in Los Angeles since childhood, plays Willow.

Again, the generic American accent characterizes Willow, but she does have several distinctive usages. She is fond of the exclamation Aha! And she has a tendency to use infantile terms. To Willow someone who is tired and upset is cranky and something comforting is a blanky (from security blanket). She also has a tendency to speak in sentence fragments. She is fond of the formulation [adj.] now to indicate her mood, as in bored now or shutting up now.

Xander, which is short for Alexander, is the show’s everyman. He has no special powers or unique abilities. Xander is played by Nicholas Brendon, a Los Angeles native. Xander has no distinctive usages, although he is just about the only character to use the interjection Man! Which he does quite often.

Rupert Giles
Giles (he goes by his last name) is Buffy’s “watcher,” a member of a powerful and shadowy organization that trains and prepares the successive Slayers and assists her in fighting evil. By day, he is the local high school librarian. Oxford-educated and seemingly a mild-mannered, tweed-clad scholar, Giles has a darker past. As a young man he rebelled against his watcher destiny, dropping out of Oxford to pursue a life of crime and black magic. Known as “Ripper” to his old friends he was capable of great violence and cruelty. The “Ripper” days came to an end when Giles accidentally killed one of his friends. Guiltily, he returned to school and accepted his destiny as a watcher.

Linguistically, Giles is the perhaps most complex character. He is played by veteran English actor Anthony Stewart Head. Head primarily uses the standard Received Pronunciation for Giles, but occasionally when the old Ripper personality emerges, Head uses his native South London, working-class accent.

Of course, Giles gives the writers opportunity to introduce Briticisms into the mix. Giles’s insults include bloody, pillock, bugger off, and Berk. He uses hello as an exclamation. He also makes cultural references that would be unknown to most Americans, referring to Bovril and Weetabix for example. Occasionally he attempts to identify with his teenage charges by using, or more accurately misusing, their slang. Phrases like I’m down with it just don’t roll trippingly off Giles’s tongue.

Cordelia Chase
Cordelia is Buffy’s high school rival. Cheerleader, prom queen, she is everything that Buffy wanted to be before she become the Slayer. Cordelia doesn’t like Buffy or the other Scoobies much and doesn’t hang with them—except during the period when she was slumming and dating Xander. She is played by Charisma Carpenter, a Las Vegas native, which means she shares the same regional accent with Southern Californians.

Cordelia, along with Buffy, is the most likely to lapse into Valley Girl speak. She is fond of saying As if! She shares totally, to deal, and so with Buffy. To Cordy, dating a college guy is so huge! Her favorite exclamation is Hello!, which is also used to a lesser extent by Buffy. In one episode, Cordelia thinks that one of Willow’s spells has gone awry and turned Xander into something ishy, an out-of-region (it’s from Wisconsin/Minnesota) word for disgusting. That is a linguistic oddity, but since Southern California is the melting pot of American dialect, it is not a totally unreasonable thing for her to say.

Angel
Angel is vampire, but a vampire with a soul who no longer feeds on humans. He was Buffy’s primary love interest in the first few seasons (before being spun off into his own show, taking Cordelia with him). Angel is some 240 years old, originally from Galway, Ireland. He is played by Buffalo, New York-native David Boreanaz.

Giving linguistic credibility to this character would be a daunting task and the writers and Boreanaz wisely don’t even attempt it. He speaks with a generic American accent. Unlike the other characters, Angel usually avoids slang locutions, although he is occasionally caught saying common slang phrases like hang out and show (appear). Evidently Angel has lost his Irish accent after 100 years in America, which is just as well since when Boreanaz attempts one in several flashback scenes of Angel’s early years he is very unconvincing.

Spike
Spike, a.k.a. William The Bloody, is another vampire, but an evil one. He is younger than Angel, only some 120 years old. Spike is English, although he is played by American James Marsters. Unlike Boreanaz, however, Marsters delivers a rather effective English, working class accent. He slips occasionally and the fact that he is a Yank can be recognized by English viewers or by those with a trained ear, but overall his feigned accent is effective and convincing.

His character also gives the writers opportunity to introduce Briticisms that Giles would never utter (except as Ripper), such as shag, poof, gob, sod off, mate, cuppa, telly, chuff-all, bugger all, what all, fancy (verb, to like), nick (to steal), go (noun, an attempt), bint, arse, wanker, bugger, ponce, that sounds proper, and I don’t feature it (I don’t like it). His favorite term of endearment is pet.

Faith
Faith is another Slayer. The character is from Boston, Massachusetts, as is the actor who plays her, Eliza Dushku. She’s not a major character, only appearing in one season and part of another, but she is an example of how the writers use the actor’s native accent to good effect. The broad New England A is apparent in her speech as is the dropping of Rs (her dingy hotel room isn’t Spartan, it’s Spahtan). And she uses terms like wicked that mark her as a Bostonian. Dushku’s accent is natural and not overdone. It is not a heavy one and may not be immediately apparent to the casual viewer, but if one listens for it, it is obviously there.

Faith’s signature phrase has nothing to do with Boston, however. When she’s good, she’s five by five. How this bit of radio jargon got into her speech patterns is never explained, nor is the meaning and more than once the other characters muse over what it might mean. Other slang sayings unique to Faith include the use of girlfriend as a term of address, usually to Buffy.

Kendra
Kendra is yet another Slayer, but unlike Faith, one that fails to deliver the linguistic goods. The character is from the West Indies, but she is played by American Bianca Lawson. Lawson’s accent is so obviously false that she would make Miss Cleo cringe. This despite the producers investing in a dialogue coach who tried to train her in the local dialect of a specific Jamaican village. Marti Noxon, the co-executive producer, comments that Kendra’s accent is “indecipherable...I could never tell you where she was from,” and further notes that during filming the writers kept asking, “Where are you from? What is this?”

Mr. Trick
BtVS is linguistically limited in one crucial respect, the lack of ethnic characters (other than English). None of the major characters are people of color, and surprisingly for a show set in Southern California, none are Latino. There are, however, some African-American secondary characters, the most significant of whom is Mr. Trick, played by K. Todd Freeman.

Trick is a vampire. He’s witty, urbane, a sharp dresser, and he speech patterns are distinctly African-American. Trick even notes the lack of fellow African-Americans in Sunnydale: “admittedly, not a haven for the brothers—strictly the caucasian persuasion in the Dale—but you gotta stand up and salute their death rate.”

He uses the verb to be to indicate habitual or continual action, as in they always got to be swordfighting. And he use African-American slang terms like rep (reputation) and chump.

Linguistic Significance of BtVS
In the great scheme of things, BtVS is not a linguistic watershed. But it is an excellent example of what creative writers can do with an ear for slang and a small bag of derivational tricks. Joss Whedon and company have created a distinct style of American English for their show. The language helps set the mood and adds depth to the characters. Whedon and BtVS are not the first to do this, nor will they be the last. But they have done it quite well.