Disappearing words

Was watching a TV programme on animals facing extinction, when this thought struck me — not only animals but many words/ phrases in English too face extinction or have already become extinct.

One word which comes to mind is “PENFRIEND”. Am sure no millennial knows the meaning of this word because penfriends as a breed do not exist anymore. A friend usually in a foreign land whom we had never seen but used to correspond over long letters and exchange small inexpensive gifts in the past. I remember it was a status symbol to have a penfriend and proudly display the stamps torn off from their airmails. The joy when we received a letter from a penfriend was indescribable.Today where is the time to write long letters and where is the need? We connect through social media or mobile call ( video call too) in a jiffy. Even on social media, abbreviation usage is rampant and we do not have enough time to pour out our emotions. So …. we use emoticons.

Ask any millennial what is a “TRUNK CALL”. He/she would shrug his shoulders and say ‘ possibly the sound an elephant makes’. In an age where every dumb person carries a couple of smart-phones, how does one explain the concept of a trunk-call ?

A few decades ago, even if we had a telephone at home ( that huge black instrument made of Bakelite), for calling outstation numbers, one had to dial an operator and give him the number we want to call. After maybe half-an-hour, we would get connected. There will be lot of static and as through mindful of the distances, our voices used to become louder , marginally short of shouting. Trunk calls were expensive. So if we make a trunk call and the person we wanted to talk to was not there, still the bill would hit us. Hence the way out was to make a ‘ PP call’. Here we not only informed the operator the number we wanted but also the name of the particular person( PP) we wanted to talk to. So if Mr.X was not reachable, the trunk call bill would not hit us. Then there were “ Lightning calls” if one was in a hurry, pay more than double and instead of 30 minutes we would be connected in 15.

Remember those pink paper neatly folded containing white strips of paper stuck on them which carried short, staccato sentences. Why short words? Because payment was made on the number of words and people tended to economize. It was used only in case of emergencies  and the usual ones were a death, an interview call,etc. This was the TELEGRAM which has officially been declared extinct now.

STEAM ENGINES anyone? Those black, powerful machines belching out smoke and coal dust accompanied by shrill whistles and pulling railway carriages across the length and breadth of the country. Today’s children would have seen these engines only in old black-and-white films and the term engine today means one which runs on diesel or electricity ( cleaner fuel)

Possibly,we can say these words became extinct because of technological advancements. At the same time, human greed and indiscriminate development may lead to some other words becoming extinct too. Take the case of Capetown. If the trend spreads to other major cities, the word “ WATER” may become extinct and the next generation will have to be explained what water was.