FoxNews.com: Sept. 11 Creates New Lexicon

[Benjamin Zimmer]

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213240,00.html
Sept. 11 Creates New Lexicon
Monday, September 11, 2006
By Michael Y. Park

Maybe you hear it when your co-workers mock the office manager, who's
declared a "jihad" on the petty theft of office supplies. Or, it could
be your grandmother, who's still at "Sept. 10" when it comes to
accepting your divorce and pretty much still wears a "burqa" to the
beach.

Though linguistics experts disagree on exactly how powerful an effect
the attacks of Sept. 11 and the War on Terror had on American English,
it's clear in everyday speech that the terrorist-driven tragedy and
the years of conflict that have followed have added a long list of
words to our language.
[...]
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Goes on to quote John McCarthy, Grant Barrett, and David Barnhart.


--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org