Third World War…
I was in a meeting recently in which one of the participants referred to China and Mexico as Third World countries because of their economic status. Since my recollection of the definition of the numbered worlds reflected an established politically democratic system as the leading criteria, I needed clarification.
According to the open Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, it turns out that the similar term “third estate” was coined by economist Alfred Sauvy in an article in the French magazine L’Observateur of August 14, 1952, describing the people of the French Revolution who were not part of the clergy (first estate) or the nobility (second estate). The term was then migrated over to a global status during the Cold War to describe countries (third world) that were not part of either the NATO or the USSR “worlds”. That would, of course, include Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Finland, and Austria, hardly considerable as economically or politically backward countries.
While my fellow meeting participant correctly identified China and Mexico as Third World, he did so for the wrong reason. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. Thanks to the continual degeneration of languages, the term “third world” has evolved since the dissolution of the Soviet Union to include the least developed countries — the same way that “voice recognition” (the automatic process of recognizing who said something) is used incorrectly synonymously with “speech recognition” (the automatic process of recognizing what is said).
Corruption of language is often slow, but inevitable. Webster was to blame for many of the strange spellings contained within English, as he became the definitive source of “correct” spelling after his creation of the dictionary — poorly timed, as it came to fruition during a period of extreme flux in the language. Jonathan Swift recognized in the early eighteenth century the continual corruption of English due to slang and contemporary speech translating to the written word.
I suppose I am as guilty as the rest with regard to spelling, allowing personal preference to influence usage. The word “barbecue” is spelled with a “c”, but I prefer “barbeque” (with a “q”) within my own fledgling business name. And, while easily recognizable and often accepted, “website” is still not officially one word, although I have always used it so.
We ain’t done butcherin’ the Queen’s English yet…
“…the continual degeneration of languages…”
“…Corruption…”
“…continual corruption…”
Speaking (heh) of language and how it is used, consider how significantly different an impression would be given if you’d used “the continual transformation of languages”, “Evolution” and “ongoing modification”.