Twentieth Century Language Change

1. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
IN THE 1920S
By Sean Hendley

2. 1920S AND
WW1
The 1920s was the first full post-war
decade, after World War 1 came to an end
in 1918.
Britain, as well as many other world
countries, were left in shock after the war
though people (including returning
soldiers) were hopeful for a new start, a
better society and jobs to return to.
Unfortunately this dream wasn’t reality
for all – the country had little money and
so words such as recession, redundant
and deflation were in high use.
With the recession and unemployment,
money became tight and so many turned
to crime to fund themselves and their
families, making words and phrases such

3. 1920’S AND WW1
Although the graph on the
previous slide shows that
unemployment rose considerably
throughout the 1920s, many
businesses profited from the
war.
New recourses were needed to
be imported and so many British
port businesses grew. People
visited cinemas, clubs, bars and
restaurants more often to
‘escape’ reality, creating large
revenue and, despite official
figures, jobs.

4. 1920S AND WW1
After the war people began to reflect
on the actions and beliefs of the past
few years, causing a need for words
such as fascism and Nationalism.
Goose-stepping was a word created in
the 1920s as a term to describe the
way that soldiers marched.
Black shirts was a term given to ex-
soldiers who wore black shirts and
were used to violently fight against
communism, socialism, trade unions
and to break up strikes.
Totalitarian, liquidate, bacteriological
welfare and chemical weapon are other
words and phrases with generally
negative and violent meanings used to
refer to the war.

5. PEACE AND DANCING
There is some good news – words such as
peaceful coexistence (a word created by the
Soviet Union meaning that the communist
states could live peacefully with the
capitalists), was created along with words
including non-violence and security.
As people tried to think positively with an
enlightened spirit by visiting clubs, bars and
cinemas etc. a vocabulary for a wider style of
leisure and wealth was created, including
words such as flapper, (a young fashionable
female intent of enjoying herself), and bright
young things meaning a young fashionable
person exerting exuberant and outrageous
behaviour.
Black bottom, the Charleston, the camel

6. 1920S AND FASHION
Fashion and beauty were becoming priorities of
everyday lifestyle as people became more
conscious of their appearance when going out
dancing and socialising.
As new wealth was being created people were
given opportunities that they previously didn’t
have and so new tastes and fashions were seen
in the spot light. In America Vogue was
expanding and was acting as a ‘standardisation’
for fashion, educating women on what to and
not to wear – almost like Johnson's dictionary
but for clothes and etiquette. This influenced
the fashions here in the UK.
Beauty salons and fashion boutiques were
opening in towns and cities, again creating
more wealth and jobs. Beauticians, beauty
salons, beauty queens, bathing beauties, perm,
shingled, bingled, Eton crop, sweatshirt, Levi’s,

7. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
This post-war era proved to be one of
exploration in technology, science,
infrastructure and travel.
Leading on from beauty and fashion,
face-lifting (a new
compound/hyphenated word) was a new
thing. Medical and scientific terms such
as penicillin, oestrogen, insulin, photon,
proton, Geiger counter and cosmic ray
were words used in the English
language.
Exploration and curiosity of a more
distant place occurred also, creating the
need for words such as astronaut, space
travel, rocket ship and spacesuit.
Travel on Earth began to develop too;
words such as by-pass, hit-and-run,

8. TECHNOLOGY AND LEISURE
Radio, television and film were industries
that grew immensely over this period of
time, requiring a huge new lexicon. Some
of these new words and phrases include:
crystal set, valve set, news bulletin, news
reader, outside broadcast, on the air,
commentary, commentate, broadcast and
programme. Note: most of these words
derive from Latin/French.
Along with these new words were the
creations of novels such as the Great
Gatsby – again building on the idea of a
new wealth and leisure, creating the need
for words such as flicks and cocktail bars.

9. CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND SEXUAL
EXPLORATIONThis was the era in which people began to
feel more comfortable talking about sex,
the words sexy, heterosexual and lesbian
were first recorded in the 20s, showing
that homosexuality and homophobia was
known, but not discussed as these words
were not yet recorded. However fag,
pansy and queer were recorded and in
use at this time.
The use of the word lesbian shows us that
lesbianism was socially acceptable,
though being ‘gay’ wasn’t. This idea is
solidified as this was the era that many
men went to the burlesque theatres to
watch female strippers - stripping is
another new word).
All of this nudity and talk of sex brought