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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The article on the saying mentioned I the subject line is now
available on the QI website.

If You Take the ‘I’ Out of Illness, and Add ‘We’, You End Up With Wellness
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/05/03/wellness/

[Begin acknowledgement excerpt]
Great thanks to Maree Robertson, elliotttj, Noah Brier, Jason Zweig,
Felix Salmon, and Faust whose inquiries led QI to formulate this
question and perform this exploration. Also thanks to discussants Ben
Zimmer and Laurence Horn.
[End excerpt]

There may be a delay until the updated acknowledgement is propagated
to the distributed copies of the article.

Garson

On Sat, Mar 28, 2020 at 4:13 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
> > >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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