Happy birthday, bozo

T-shirt — the word, not the shirt itself — is now a century old. That’s one of the curiosities to be found in Sol Steinmetz’s book There’s a Word for It. New English words enter the language each year, and Steinmetz attempts to list words according to the first year they appeared in print. (Words, of course, may have been spoken long before they were printed in a surviving document, but there is no way to know when a word was first spoken.)

Each year I try to celebrate those words that, according to Steinmetz, have reached the century mark. I always find this interesting, and often surprising. Some words turn out to be much older — or younger — than you might think.

Adventurist is one word that sounds a century old. Now it seems dated. Today we would probably say adventurer instead. Palooka is another word that sounds like something from the 1920s. The same with ritzy.

Yet words like homophobia and craftsperson suggest a more recent, politically correct time. And then there’s jihadi, a word you might have sworn originated within the past 30 or 40 years. 

Other words from 1920 include backsplash, bongo, bozo, columnist, daiquiri, deflationary, leotard, martial art, miscue, mock-up, nonviolence, off-the-rack, paranormal, periodontist, proton, rabbit-punch, tempura, upgrade, wimp, wow and yippee.