This week: word as metaphor. Then footnotes, a quote and a book recommendation to get us out. Here we go.
Quick recap: last week I told a story from back in my tech support days where my friend, Elle, and I had ended up with different understandings of the word word. I scoured a bunch of dictionaries and found out that, yeah, word has a lot of meanings and nailing down one single definition that works in all cases is next to impossible. But we didn’t address the real problem which is that when I asked, “What’s the word, yo?” I was using word as a metaphor. So, this week, let’s dive into that particular rabbit hole and see what we can find.
First things first, word gets used idiomatically a lot. Like dozens of different expressions a lot. But one clear division stands out among all those uses: is word being used literally? Think about expressions like “from the word go,”“get a word in edgewise,” and “the last word,” all of which use word to specify a specific point in speech as noted by a single lexical word. Relatedly, expressions that use the plural seem to be more literal: “words to that effect,” “take the words out of one’s mouth,” “them’s fighting words,” and so on.
But, once you move past those literal usages, you have what we’re talking about, expressions that use word to actually mean a collection of words. Consider “word on the street,” “a word to the wise,” and “have a word with someone.” In none of these expressions is it intended that word mean only a single lexical word. Instead, you have rumors, advice, and a warning, all metaphorical uses of word*. This begs the question, in asking “what’s the word” what metaphor was I using and where did it come from?
The first part is the easiest to answer**. “What’s the word?” is most closely synonymous with “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?” As to where this particular use of word originates, well, the record gets murky quickly. Basically there are three different ideas which may (or may not!) relate to each other and that each could have contributed to the use of “What’s the word” as a synonym for “What’s happening.” Let’s break it down this way:
What’s the word on…?
“What’s the word?” may be a shortening of the phrase “what’s the word on (person, place, or thing)?” The origins of even this longer version are unclear but there are hints at it in the popularization of “the word on the street.***” The Free Dictionary, interestingly, records “What’s the word?” as a contraction of “What’s the good word?” which adds another layer of complexity as “the good word” is usually taken from a church context wherein “the good word” is taken to mean the Bible and the teachings therein.
Word up!
If you were alive in the 1980s you know this song. Written and recorded by R&B Soul band Cameo, this song was everywhere in 1986. It is also credited as popularizing the phrase “word up” outside the NYC area where it had been part of the vernacular for years. While “Word up” is not quite synonymous with “What’s the word,” they may stem from the same roots in Black culture. This discussion on Stack Exchange’s English grammar board cites several books detailing the history of word and word up and is worth reading in full.
Word.
The most heavily documented of the three phrases being examined here, Word is most likely a contraction of “My word is my bond,” a phrase with a deep history across several different cultures and timeframes. It begins in 16th century Scotland and makes its way into England and English as the motto of the London Stock Exchange. From there, it took root in Black culture through the Five Percent Nation (a cultural movement founded in the 60s) and eventually entered hip-hop where it gradually was truncated down to “word is bond” and eventually just “word.****” And, although it, is not a direct substitution of “What’s the word,” it is plausible that its frequent use could have contributed to the idiomatic use of word instead of news or situation.
As mentioned, none of these is definitive and they may not all be directly related, but I think it can be assumed that they all played some part in the popularizing of “What’s the word?” with a generation of Americans raised on a steady diet of hip-hop and rap culture. In the end, it is enough to note again that, in the beginning, word meant to speak and, as humans, all we are is what we say and do.
Footnotes
I really like Bill Bryson’s definition of metaphor, which comes from his book, Troublesome Words: “A metaphor…acts as if the two compared things are identical and substitutes one for the other.”
I’m just going to file a disclaimer here: very few of my sources for this article are what you’d call credible. However, several of them point to sources that are regarded as credible and that I do not currently have access to, so this is a case of working with what we have.
The Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms dates this to 1992 but I feel like this must be much older than that? One of the terrible joys of etymology is finding out that you’re much older than you thought you were.
It’s interesting to me how “My word is my bond” has had its pronouns shifted over the centuries as different groups try to coerce, subdue, or persuade one another.
Ex Libris
Several years ago, I saw a documentary called Bill Cunningham New York. In it, an affable older guy, bicycled around New York City taking pictures of the city’s best dressed women for a regular feature in The New York Times. I had never heard of him. But I was captivated by both the great humor and small tragedies that marked his life and I wanted to know more. Enter this book. Released posthumously, it tells Bill’s story from his early years in Boston through his wartime adventures in France, to living in a small apartment above Carnegie Hall. It is riveting, full of insights into fashion and mid-century life and I could only wish it had gone on for another hundred pages.
(Here’s an affiliate link to the book on Amazon.com.)
Stay curious,
J