I wonder about the evolution of words for technology

[2naSalit]

3. Interesting question.

I have spent a lot of time pondering such things. For most of my childhood I was exposed to multiple languages and cultures via immigrants including family, so I guess it was natural for me to be curious about them all. So I included linguistics in my BA degree.

What I can say, briefly, about human history prior to the industrial technology age is that many words were developed by a sound a thing made, in other cases its color or a sense it stimulated. There were many ways and means employed over millennia.

In the post industrial, it is often accomplished through reassigning words to name a thing as well as describe its function or even use it as slang, the word google* might be a reasonable example, the word has morphed its way through the parts of speech in just a couple years compared to the shifts made over far longer periods of time in the past for other words and the language of origin is a factor to consider.

So many variables, worthy of a scientific inquiry if one or more haven't been done. I bet there have been a couple, at least, modern language morphology is a popular subject in linguistics. I confess, I don't keep up with the academics these days. It's a very deep subject.


*Although a recent article I saw last week indicated that the word fuck has found its way into every part of speech so there's that... it is a better example.