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Archaic words are making a comeback, thanks to hipsters' love of all things old. The Washington Post's wonkblog has an article examining how hipsters may be bringing back vintage language, and the effects it is having on modern culture. This may be a passing fad, as hipsters themselves are now making jokes about bespoke water; if they're not careful the charming anachronism may go mainstream and become unfit for hipster irony.
BTW, this submission was inspired by a comment thread here about craft/artisanal beers. Apparently, the old words are not just re-entering the hipsters' language but getting co-opted by marketers hoping to woo the hipster pocketbook. Some linguistic shift may result.
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How Hipsters May be Bringing Back Vintage Language
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
If the thunder don't get you, then the lightning will.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Friday October 30 2015, @07:51AM
Bespoke, peruse, smitten and dapper are hardly "vintage" words any more than the word "word" is vintage. They aren't common, buy yet never fell out of usage. Any half way well read person would find them in recent works as well as much much older ones. Is that a new trend, just because somebody was so poorly read they actually made it out of the 7th grade without encountering those words?
I had the same thought, Frojack. I'd add that words such as 'bespoke', 'smitten' and 'dapper' are not just not vintage, rather they are in fairly common usage in the UK. Perhaps some Soylentils from across the pond could validate that (or call me an ass -- I'm used to both) for me.
It may *seem* to some that such words are uncommon, but that's much more likely (IMHO) because many people (Americans in particular) don't read books any more.
That's not to say I think that 'hipsters' (who or what ever they are -- I'm guessing they are those who waste their time following trends rather then creating their own ideas and practices?) read more books than any other group. More likely one of the 'cool' kids took an English lit class in college and thought such stuff would make them seem smarter and/or get them laid more often. I imagine it worked too.
And the 'hipsters' were duly impressed and expressed their hard-fought individuality by copying other people.
This is nothing new or interesting. Nor is it particularly newsworthy.
I guess I'm going to have to start submitting more often again. Sorry for being lax.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday October 30 2015, @01:31PM
'bespoke', 'smitten' and 'dapper' are anglicisms some throw into their speech to convey sophistication. It's not really different from earlier times like post-WWI America when people laced their expressions with French, or 19th century society (and, really, much longer than that) when people did the same with Latin and/or Greek phrases.
This current spate of terms does feel like the result of a drinking bet between hipsters over craft ales, in which they bet they could use social media to get other people to start using obscure, effete terms in everyday conversation.
Ah, but we got in our daily quotient of hipster mocking, and, really, isn't that what it's all about in the end?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday October 30 2015, @01:54PM
words such as 'bespoke', 'smitten' and 'dapper' are not just not vintage, rather they are in fairly common usage in the UK. Perhaps some Soylentils from across the pond could validate that
In use in the UK, not archaic, but not very common because (in the cases of bespoke and dapper) what they apply to is not very common; but they are exactly the right words when they are needed. Bespoke has an entirely practical meaning, and dapper is usually used positively. Smitten is usually used sarcastically, like "Why the hell is he smitten by that bitch?".
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday October 30 2015, @03:12PM
"bespoke" has always bothered me because it is so opaque etymologically speaking. I guess the way I sooth my bother is with the sense of "arrange", but it appears that bespoke has gone through a whole range of meanings, suggesting that it has always been a hipster tool.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bespoke [reference.com]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday October 30 2015, @05:50PM
Bespoke : The word is odd - perhaps it originated that something is made to a spoken order.
In the link to "bespoke water" (I realise it's a spoof) the word "bespoke" is misused. It does not mean "superior"; it means made to a customer's order. Obvious example, as in your dictionary link, is clothing, particularly men's suits. A bespoke suit is one that you are measured for and you wait for it to be made. It is a practical matter, especially if you are a funny shape. You could say "made to order", but that is two extra syllables.
But there are other examples. I used to do cycle racing (Tour de France style) and most of us had bespoke bike frames - made to order by a myriad of small builders that had nothing to do with the mass-market makers like Raleigh (but Raleigh would have a small workshop making bespoke bikes for its own professional team. I had two bikes made this way and I gave the builders what was almost an engineering drawing of what I wanted.
Another example is English shotguns - Purdy of London make bespoke guns to fit your arm length and accomodate any other peculiarities you might have, like being right handed but with a blind right eye.
The word is not there for snobbishness; it has a practical meaning and use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @05:38PM
I'm an American and I do occasionally use peruse in my everyday speech, as in "I will be over here perusing the electronics aisle for a bit". I know at least a few people who use smitten in everyday language. Dapper seems a bit old-fashioned to my ear but not that old. The only one of these that I have not used or heard others use is bespoke. *Shrug* Perhaps I just don't move in the right crowds. And, no, I'm not a hipster by any stretch of the imagination; I have no patience for those effete posers.