"novel" once again

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/5/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   Consider. I first encountered the broad use of "novel" among undergraduates
> twenty-odd years ago, and more than sporadically since. This is plenty of time
> for a semantic shift to spread and establish itself. In fact, it may have been
> around for many years among unsophisticated speakers before I noticed it.

Michael Skube made the same observation about undergrad usage in a
Washington Post column, "Writing Off Reading" (I posted this when it
came out):

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/18/AR2006081800976.html
Washington Post, August 20, 2006; Page B03

College students nowadays call any book, fact or fiction, a novel. I
have no idea why this is, but I first became acquainted with the
peculiarity when a senior at one of the country's better state
universities wrote a paper in which she referred to "The Prince" as
"Machiavelli's novel."
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--Ben Zimmer

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