Checking my language for 1907

14 Comments / Journal, Writing / By

One of the challenges with writing an alternate history fantasy is the language.  Basically, I have three sources I check which I’ve listed in the order that I generally go to them.  This is mostly based on ease of use where “ease” means I don’t have to leave my desk.

  1. Etymology Online
  2. Google Books. I set the date range to cover the hundred years prior to when I am writing.
  3. Oxford English Dictionary. This is definitive, but large and paper.  The online version doesn’t include sources unless you are a subscriber OR if your local UK library has arranged for a subscription.

Here are words I looked up today to see if they were in use in 1907.  What I typically do is write the piece and then go back to check on things that either I or a reader flags.

Note: I’m not trying to find out when the word or phrase originated, just if it were in use.

  • to spot (as in gymnastics) — Inconclusive.  I changed it to “keep an eye on.”  (As a side note, I learned that “spot on” for “absolutely correct” doesn’t come into use until the 1920s.)
  • fixative — Yes! Alcohol and casein fixatives for pastels came into use around 1890
  • slide rule — Yes! In use from the 17th century through around 1974.
  • Industrial Revolution — Yes! In print at least since 1840.
  • “Keep your eye on”  — Yes! At least since 1824.
  • “cool his heels” — Yes! At least since 1825
  • “stunt” — Yes! Since 1878.
  • cafe au lait (As used to describe a light-complexioned African-American) — Yes! Since at least 1869.
  • okay — Yes! In use since 1839.

The maddening thing, of course, is there’s no way to catch all the language anachronisms.

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14 thoughts on “Checking my language for 1907”

    1. Lisa Spangenberg

      Some other sources:

      The Anglo-Norman Dictionary:
      http://www.anglo-norman.net/gate/

      The Middle English Dictionary:
      http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/

      The Dictionary of the Scots Language
      http://www.dsl.ac.uk/

      If you’re interested in cognates or *PIE then the American Heritage Language Dictionary is exceedingly useful, and often, more up-to-date than the OED.

      There are some older dictionaries here, including various 18th and 19th century slang compilations.
      http://www.fromoldbooks.org/

  4. Gregory

    Well now we know what you’d do with a time machine. And might I say, that is a sad, sad use of a time machine.

    -g-

    P.S.
    While you’re back there, please save the thylacine.

  6. Lighthill

    I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate this as a reader! I once read a historical piece where Christopher Marlowe alludes to his homosexuality as his “lifestyle”, and I couldn’t take the rest of the thing at all seriously.

  8. Julia

    God, yes, Mary. You are AWESOME. One of the reasons I can’t stand Cory Doctorow is that all his characters have distinct Canadian-isms. Even the American ones. And NO ONE CATCHES IT. Except me, the translatitude reader, who is thrown out of the story each and every time. It ruins the experience for me. I’m so glad you’re taking the extra time to keep the experience culturally intact.

  9. Jaws

    “Fixative” was used in photography from approximately 1842 (paper to Royal Society in London discussing the relative merits of positive and negative photographic images)… which later ended up in patent litigation and lots of nasty letters back and forth between English and French developers of photographic equipment and methods, with a level of vitriol seldom found even on Fox News!

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