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How Hipsters May be Bringing Back Vintage Language

posted by cmn32480 on Friday October 30 2015, @06:06AM   Printer-friendly
from the thou-art-a-wanker dept.

Zinho writes:

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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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @05:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 30 2015, @05:38PM (#256565)

    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.

    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.