{"id":107343,"date":"2022-12-04T05:11:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T10:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=107343"},"modified":"2022-12-04T05:11:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-04T10:11:25","slug":"fighting-words-founding-fathers-irked-england-by-inventing-american-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2022\/12\/04\/fighting-words-founding-fathers-irked-england-by-inventing-american-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Words: Founding Fathers Irked England by Inventing American English"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 Thomas Jefferson, America\u2019s third president, coined the words \u201celectioneering\u201d and \u201cindecipherable.\u201d John Adams (No. 2) came up with \u201ccaucus.\u201d James Madison (No. 4) was the first to use \u201csquatter\u201d when referring to someone who occupies a property or territory they don\u2019t own.<\/p>\n

As they set out to build a new nation, America\u2019s Founding Fathers were determined to give the fledgling republic its own identity and culture by making up new words that were unique to the American experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thought by many of the early presidents \u2014 Jefferson, Adams, [George] Washington and others \u2014 that they were doing something important,\u201d says Paul Dickson, author of \u201cWords from the White House: Words and Phrases Coined or Popularized by America\u2019s Presidents.\u201d \u201cIt was this belief that we were separating ourselves from the British.\u201d<\/p>\n

The practice of making up new words outraged British purists, some of whom viewed Americans as people without a language who stole England\u2019s mother tongue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the first words that the British really went crazy over were the words \u2018congressional\u2019 and \u2018presidential.\u2019 They said they were barbarous,\u201d Dickson says. \u201cBut those were words we needed. George Washington, one of the words he created \u2014 and again, this helped frame who we were \u2014 he talked about his \u2018administration.\u2019 That word never existed in terms of a noun to describe the body of people that ruled with you in your Cabinet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In some cases, the presidents didn\u2019t come up with the words and phrases. Some were created by speechwriters, aides and other acquaintances and then popularized by the president. For example, John Jay, Washington\u2019s secretary for foreign affairs, is said to have coined \u201cAmericanize.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key nonpresidential figure who helped codify these new Americanisms was Noah Webster, who published his first dictionary in 1806. Webster fought in the Revolutionary War, which secured America\u2019s independence from England. While wandering through a New York military camp filled with war veterans, he saw the need for a unique American language.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was hearing voices of Indigenous people. He was hearing Irish brogues. He was hearing all sorts of different kinds of language and different kinds of speaking, and heavily accented,\u201d Dickson says. \u201cAnd he realized that this country is going to be a big mix of different people, different interests, and it needed a new language. It needed something called the \u2018American language,\u2019 which is a term he created. \u2026 Noah Webster actually said that creating a new language was an act of defiance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While future presidents also coined new words, Dickson says the founders were particularly prolific. Jefferson alone is credited for coming up with more than 100 words, including \u201cbelittle,\u201d \u201cpedicure,\u201d \u201cmonotonously\u201d and \u201cottoman\u201d [footstool]. Fittingly, he also invented the verb \u201cneologize,\u201d which is the practice of coining new words or expressions.<\/p>\n

Instead of saying \u201cwithin doors,\u201d Washington created the word \u201cindoors.\u201d The first president also came up with \u201caverage\u201d [medium sum or quantity] and \u201cNew Yorker.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Adams borrowed from the classic Spanish novel, \u201cDon Quixote\u201d to create the adjective \u201cquixotic\u201d [unrealistic schemes]. The first recorded uses of \u201chustle\u201d [to move rapidly] and \u201clengthy\u201d [long, protracted] came from Adams\u2019 journal entries.<\/p>\n

Although the earliest American leaders started the practice, neologizing eventually became something of a presidential tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were certain presidents that have a knack for this, and some of it was conscious. Some of it was sort-of semi-conscious,\u201d Dickson says. \u201cIt became, it was, sort of, the American way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite inventing numerous memorable words and phrases, America\u2019s early leaders fell short of coining a term to describe themselves \u2014 the extraordinary group of men who founded the United States and created the framework for its government. That didn\u2019t happen until a century later.<\/p>\n

In the 1920s, President Warren Harding dubbed them the \u201cFounding Fathers\u201d and in doing so, created one of the most memorable and iconic Americanisms of them all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 Thomas Jefferson, America\u2019s third president, coined the words \u201celectioneering\u201d and \u201cindecipherable.\u201d John Adams (No. 2) came up with \u201ccaucus.\u201d James Madison (No. 4) was the first to use \u201csquatter\u201d when referring to someone who occupies a property or territory they don\u2019t own. As they set out to build a new nation, America\u2019s Founding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107346,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107343\/revisions\/107346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}