Over the past weekend I was doing an obvious search, and not having ANY luck whatsoever. What was going ON?
In my case, I was just trying to look up what had happened in Ethiopia during the Jazz Age (roughly 1910 - 1920, don't ask why.. it's a long story). But I was having very little luck. It was as though all records of Ethiopia had vanished for dates before 1930.
And then I read the Wikipedia article on Ethiopia (trying to read a little history about the country as general background).... and noticed a really interesting thing. Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia!
Armed with this knowledge, I popped back to my Google News Archive search and found many references to Abyssinia that predate 1930. Voila!
And after thinking about it, I realized this must happen a lot with historic searches. Consider the following list of "retro terms" I found on the HWWilson site.
For the original content, see: http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/rdgretro.htm
What terms do YOU find have undergone a significant change? Any experiences from readers?
In my case, I was just trying to look up what had happened in Ethiopia during the Jazz Age (roughly 1910 - 1920, don't ask why.. it's a long story). But I was having very little luck. It was as though all records of Ethiopia had vanished for dates before 1930.
And then I read the Wikipedia article on Ethiopia (trying to read a little history about the country as general background).... and noticed a really interesting thing. Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia!
Armed with this knowledge, I popped back to my Google News Archive search and found many references to Abyssinia that predate 1930. Voila!
And after thinking about it, I realized this must happen a lot with historic searches. Consider the following list of "retro terms" I found on the HWWilson site.
For the original content, see: http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/rdgretro.htm
What terms do YOU find have undergone a significant change? Any experiences from readers?
Abandoned towns Ghost towns
Abyssinia Ethiopia
Boers Afrikaners
Bombs, Flying Aerial bombing
Brontosaurus Apatosaurus
Chemistry, Legal Forensic chemistry
Drunkards; Drunkenness Alcohol and alcoholism
European War, 1914- World War I, 1914-1918
Feeble-minded Mentally handicapped
Game protection Wildlife conservation
Gases in warfare Chemical and biological weapons
Glacial period Ice age
Hashish Marijuana
India-rubber Rubber
Insane Mentally ill
Lodging houses, Municipal Flophouses
Ministers of the gospel Clergy
Mohammedans Muslims
Moros Muslims/Philippines
Monitors Turret ships
Negro-English dialects Black English
Outdoor relief Public welfare
Physiological chemistry Biochemistry
Sportsmen Hunters
Stock exchange/Crisis, October 1929 Business depression, 1929-1939
Trade unions Labor unions
Wireless telegraphy Radio telegraph
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteGreat topic!
Actually the Abyssinia/Ethiopia difference is not just between old and new. It's not even like Peking/Beijing. It's more like:
Abyssinia::Abesha::Ethiopia
Yanqui::Yankee::America
The country has never been called Abyssinia officially. It's been Ethiopia for a long time, at least since the 3rd or 4th century AD (I think... maybe earlier). Abyssinia was an informal name for the country, which became popular for a while from the 17th to the 20th century in Europe (never in Ethiopia itself). Even during the period when "Abyssinia" was in vogue, officially (e.g. in treaties) the Europeans called it Ethiopia.
The term Abyssinia comes from "Abesha", which is how Ethiopians (and Eritreans) refer to themselves. But it's also a historically loaded term. Some think it only applies to people from the parts that have dominated in recent times. Basically it's very similar to "Yankee" in America.
Abesha became Abashi in Arabic, and Europeans added the "-nia" and made it a country name.
So when an English-speaking person calls Ethiopia "Abyssinia" it's kind of like a Spanish-speaker calling the USA "El Pais de los Yanquis". It makes sense within a certain historical and geographical window, but it's not actually a straightforward evolution of language over time.
-nemo