Several times I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve alluded to the phenomenon of meeting a word that suddenly everybody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s using. I then do research on the word or phrase and often discover that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been around since my seventh birthday, or the Punic Wars \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which-ever came first.<\/p>\n
A friend and former colleague, Jessie Farrington, mentioned the same thing a while back in regard to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Black Friday,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the day after Thanksgiving. She asked, in an e-mail, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When did people start using this expression? Now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always known that for some people the day after Thanksgiving is a big Christmas shopping day. I think this was particularly the case when the Christmas shopping season, including Christmas decorations in the stores, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start until after Thanksgiving. But, to call the Friday after Thanksgiving \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlack Friday,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when did it start?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s find out, but first, more observations on the word-has-always-existed phenomenon:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Convoluted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a popular term, particularly during political debates, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My opponent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguments are so convoluted that …\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Perhaps, but many people use it simply to mean confusing, incomprehensible. My dictionary defines it more specifically, as in intricate, twisted and coiled, and therefore confusing.<\/p>\n
If a speaker interrupts the presentation with a few too many digressions, convolution is likely to set in. Well, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153convoluted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sounds much more exotic than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153confusing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a term used mainly by those who have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153been da callidge.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Watch for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153convoluted\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the heat of this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elections, and remember, it means much more than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153confusing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Myriad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become a favorite of journalists who want a synonym for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153many.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My mommy taught me never to use myriad as a noun, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have a myriad of debts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Myriad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ought best be reserved as an adjective, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have myriad (many) debts.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s settled: You can have myriad things, but you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a myriad of anything.<\/p>\n
But wait, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more. My Merriam-Webster dictionary, while agreeing with me, does so only to a point. It mentions myriad as both a noun and an adjective. And it cites recent criticism of its use as a noun. As an unrepentant language cop, I loathe reading constructions with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a myriad of,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but, regrettably, language changes.<\/p>\n
And M-W says the noun form of myriad existed before the adjective came along. Myriad originally meant 10,000. Thus, our West Las Vegas school board recently put in motion a two-myriad raise to a top official, while teachers and the rank-and-file got 1\/10,000th of a myriad, or a whole dollar.<\/p>\n
Even writers like Milton and Thoreau once used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a myriad of.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d My regret is in having to break the news to my sister Dorothy Maestas. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the one who alerted me to what we both thought was incorrect usage. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s currently out of state; soon she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be out of sorts; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be out of explanations, so quickly I need to find a myriad of ways to give her this news.<\/p>\n
My first foray into the Google website to look up Black Friday took me directly to myriad advertising pitches. Are they still having a myriad of Black Friday sales? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reminiscent of a cartoon I once saw, in which the department store\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s manager saw Santa Claus in the kiddies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 section and asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you still on the payroll?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That was in July.<\/p>\n
There were literally 132 million sites for Black Friday, or about 13,200 myriads. I struggled getting past the many Black Friday ad pages, offering women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoes, digital cameras, laptop computers, handbags and totes, cologne, chaise lounges and serving carts.<\/p>\n
Where was my 13-year-old grandson and namesake when I needed him to navigate these websites and point me to a definition, a reason, as to why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s black?<\/p>\n
Many sources cite wars, fires, disasters and financial scandals somehow related to Black Friday. One citation goes back to Sept 24, 1869, and describes a financial scandal that rocked the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. There was even a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc40s science fiction movie starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, with that title.<\/p>\n
One of the more plausible explanations comes from Wikipedia, an online dictionary that explains the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153may have originated in Philadelphia \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But, predictably, the business world has pre-empted the term, given it a positive spin and now uses it to mean \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being in the black,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d turning a profit.<\/p>\n
Many sites identify Black Friday, whose more current usage surfaced in 2000, as the official start of the Christmas season. But in the past decade, commerce has gone way beyond that and supported moves to start Yuletide as soon as the Halloween costumes go into storage.<\/p>\n
As the season grows longer, watch for candy canes to start appearing around Labor Day. Maybe Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remaining on the company payroll was a good idea after all.<\/p>\n
See the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153decade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d above? Everyone knows it means 10 years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deka,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from Greek and Latin, meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ten,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d spawns the related word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153decimate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which many take to mean destroy utterly. Not quite. Originally it meant to kill one of every 10 soldiers, as a punishment for the entire group. Now, it refers not only to humans, but to crops, animals, even manuscripts.<\/p>\n
And that meaning serves as a perfect excuse to end this column, whose word count is approaching one-tenth of a myriad.<\/p>\n
Best to close now, lest sometime this decade the editor-boss decides to decimate a myriad of these convoluted words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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