[Ads-l] Saying: When "I" is replaced by "we, " even illness becomes wellness

[Ben Zimmer]

1984 was right about when "wellness" started booming. The Berkeley Wellness
Letter started up that year. I wrote about the history of "wellness" in a
2010 On Language column:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Needless to say, the term was not at all in common use in Malcolm X's time.

--bgz

On Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 2:32 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The wordplay was circulating by March 1984.
>
> Date: March 18, 1984
> Newspaper: The Sunday Advertiser
> Newspaper Location: Lafayette, Louisiana
> Article: Friends - Relationships contribute to wellness
> Author: Anne McKenzie (Advertiser Women's Editor)
> Quote Page 50, Column 4
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47527823/add-we-wellness/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Roppel summarized the idea of wellness with the thought that "if you
> take the 'I' out of illness, and add 'we', you end up with wellness."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 1:35 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > The saying in the subject has been attributed to Malcolm X. Perhaps
> > someone on this list can find pertinent information about its
> > provenance. Over the years I have received a few requests to explore
> > this topic, but I have been sent thousands of requests, and I cannot
> > pursue them all.
> >
> > Malcolm X died in 1965. Here is a link to a message in the Google
> > Groups database dated October 31, 2012 that contains matching
> > wordplay.
> >
> > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/2011sias/ReSTDzKwzvs/Egm2mHW4_hMJ
> >
> > [Begin excerpt from 2012 message]
> > "When `I’ becomes `WE,’ Illness becomes Wellness."
> > [End excerpt from 2012 message]
> >
> > Today, financial correspondent Felix Salmon offered a beverage reward:
> >
> > https://twitter.com/felixsalmon/status/1243923491390357504
> >
> > [Begin excerpt of tweet from Felix Salmon]
> > I will buy $100 of @CalifiaFarms goods if they can document Malcolm X
> > ever using the word “wellness,” and $1,000 of their stuff if they can
> > document him saying this in particular.
> > (Also, it’s Malcolm, not Malcom, come on, does no one even copy-edit
> > these things)
> > [End excerpt of tweet from Felix Salmon]
> >
> > The tweet from Salmon included an image of the saying with an
> > attribution to Malcolm X.
> >
> > Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Zweig (and a few other people)
> > brought Salmon's interrogative tweet to my attention.
> >
> > Can you, dear reader, find earlier evidence? Also, when was this
> > expression linked to Malcolm X? Thanks for any help you can provide.
> >
> > Hope you, your family, and your friends are persevering through this
> > pandemic with as much safety and resilience as possible.
> >
>

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