History NewerThanTheyThink / Terms

* The earliest use of the term "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East#Usage_and_criticism Middle East]]" by the US government dates to 1958. The term had existed before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, but was vaguely defined and often included India and Afghanistan, and frequently overlapped with "Near East". By 1958, it had settled into its modern definition as "the countries formed from the eastern half of the Ottoman Empire, plus Saudi Arabia and Iran."

* The earliest use of the term "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East#Usage_and_criticism Middle East]]" by the US government dates to 1958.

* "Meritocracy", the word describing the idea that social mobility should be based solely on skills, was coined in 1955 by a group of British sociologists (Jean Floud, Alan Fox, Michael Young; all three worked closely together and used the term in academic writings at the time, but it's not clear which one actually invented it), with Young's 1958 book ''The Rise of the Meritocracy'' popularizing it (despite Young portraying the concept very negatively, arguing that it created social inequality).

* "Meritocracy" was coined by in 1956 British sociologist Alan Fox, and popularized two years later by another British sociologist, Michael Young, in his book ''The Rise of the Meritocracy''.

* Acronyms (innovative words formed from the initials of a phrase, such as radar or laser) in English are no older than World War I -- certainly, there has never been any confirmed instance of an acronym older than this. This is not helped by the fact that "acronym" is often [[NonIndicativeName abused]] as a synonym of "initialism", or that some so-called "acronyms" (such as the Greek for "fish" being composed of the initials of the Greek for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour") are actually acrostics (the phrase was devised so that its initials formed an already-existing word). Indeed, "radar" is a double case -- originally a [=WW2=] acronym for "[=RAdio=] Detection And Ranging" (deliberately palindromic to [[JustForPun reflect]] how radar works), it has since become an acrostic for "Royal Association for [=DisAbility=] Rights" (who, amongst other things, operate Britain's National Key Scheme for public toilets). Various folk etymologies, especially for swear words like For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Ship High in Transit, are 100% wrong [[RuleOfFunny but still amusing.]] The first recorded use of the word "acronym" itself was in 1943.

* The term "penny farthing" for a bicycle with one directly driven large wheel and one small, only came into use in the 1890s to mock the old-fashioned vehicles which had by then been superseded by the chain-driven bicycle we recognize today.

* The term "devil's lettuce", a euphemism for marijuana, may sound old-timey, but nope. It first [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/devil%27s%20lettuce appeared]] in 2003.

* While Alison Bechdel first articulated the UsefulNotes/TheBechdelTest in a 1985 ''Dykes to Watch Out For" strip, the term "Bechdel test" first [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bechdel%20Test appeared]] in 2007.

* While Alison Bechdel first articulated the BechdelTest in 1985 ''Dykes to Watch Out For" strip, the term "Bechdel test" first [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Bechdel%20Test appeared]] in 2007.

* Currently, the monarch of Ancient Egypt is only known to have been called "pharaoh" (which means "great house," i.e. court or palace) from the middle of the New Kingdom onward. This period excludes everything from the country's unification to the building of the great pyramids, the Hyksos' invasion, and even some of the famous earlier New Kingdom monarchs like Hatshepsut and Tutankhamun (which also makes it BrieferThanTheyThink--by more than half of the so-called Pharaonic period). Granted, the usage is still older than most countries that still exist today--but looking at it another way, Egypt was already an ancient country when it started.

* The phrase [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throw_under_the_bus "throw under the bus"]], meaning "to blame someone unfairly", is first attested in 1982. It was popularized by American news media during the 2008 US presidential election season.

* The earliest known use of the expression [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throw_under_the_bus "Throw under the bus"]] dates to 1982 and remained obscure until entering American political discourse during the 2008 presidential election cycle.

* The term "come out of the woodwork", meaning "to emerge from hiding after a period of obscurity", first [[http://www.word-detective.com/2011/01/out-of-the-woodswoodwork/ attested]] in 1964.

* The metaphorical use of the term "red line", meaning an action justifying war, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_line_(phrase) dates]] to 1975, being used by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to describe the US's policy of supporting Arab states as long as they refrained from attacking Israel. The term's first use in American politics appears in a May 1994 Reuters article regarding negotiations with North Korea over the withdrawal of reactor fuel.

* In 1955, only one Fortune 200 corporation had an executive with the title "Chief Executive Officer"; twenty years later, in 1975, all of them did, per [[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/51340/576.pdf;jsessionid=108F5CC5D095423AF4E957408FE0964B?sequence=1 this study]]. The earliest citation for the abbreviation "CEO" in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to 1972.

* The first known instance of the phrase "piece of cake", in the meaning of "an easy task", [[https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2015/04/30/a-piece-of-cake/ dates]] to 1942, apparently having arisen during WW2 as Royal Air Force jargon.