Old words with new meanings

A word often defines an age. While World War II popularised “spiv” (a flashy dresser living on black market dealings), the current crisis — as much a global struggle for survival as any clash of arms — has enriched the English language by investing old words with new meanings. One such is “woke”, which Britain’s political right denounces as a battering ram that will destroy the ramparts of social orthodoxy.

Not that London, where I have been marooned these past three months, betrays any sign of the linguistic revolution grinding away under the surface. Forbidden by the authorities even to idle on a park bench — something I enjoy doing in Europe — although Boris Johnson cycles merrily around the capital, I decided this week to make a longish journey by empty bus and emptier tube. It was a dead city I rediscovered, the noisiest sign of life being the screech of ambulances whose flashing blue lights proclaim illness on board as grimly as the doleful “Bring out your dead” that became familiar during the 14th century Black Death, which polished off more than 75 million people.

Today’s Brits would call it “amazing”, their favourite all-purpose adjective. Once it was “brilliant”, both words being used indiscriminately. “Brilliant!” exclaimed the post office clerk when I repeated my address to collect a parcel. David Cameron, the former prime minister, says he went to an “amazing” school — Eton of course. A TV appeal for sick animals asks for an “amazing” contribution.

As “amazing” and “brilliant” illustrate, old words are being pressed into service in new senses almost as if Britain were running out of words. One to suffer humiliating demotion is “scallywag”. Today’s meaning of a “scamp” or “rascal” is not as unflattering as the “undersized animal” Collins cites, but comes nowhere near the wartime — yes, the same war that produced the despicable “spiv” — guerrilla fighters trained to put up a last-ditch resistance in the case of a Nazi occupation. Hundreds of underground bunkers built for heroic “scallywags” to defend London are now being unearthed.

People of my generation may be surprised at the resuscitation of “furlough”, which once reeked of colonial privilege. Time was when expatriate sahibs in India spent their “furlough” — passage-paid, long “Home leave” — in the UK. In today’s Britain, “furlough” is the government’s 80 per cent contribution of wages to keep businesses going. Truly can a contemptuously smiling Humpty Dumpty declare in a scornful tone, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

My stick-in-the-mud Concise Oxford Dictionary might dismiss “woke” as the “past of wake” but it signifies a militant culture that forced several American politicians to apologise on the eve of the presidential election for earlier breaches of political correctness. Even Barack Obama acknowledged the significance of woke. “If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb”, he said, “then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because ‘Man did you see how woke I was? I called you out!’”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary swings with fashion to claim that “woke” is being “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”. It was first heard in Harlem in 1962. Ten years later, a character in Barry Beckham’s play Garvey Lives! vowed to “stay woke”, quoting the Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey: “I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon’ stay woke. And I’m gon’ help him wake up other black folk.” More recently, the singer Erykah Badu introduced it to mainstream consciousness with “I stay woke” in her song Master Teacher.

Here in England, the conservative press is preparing for a long siege by what it calls “the Wokerati”. The popular Sun recently branded Prince Harry and his black American wife, Meghan, who are accused of abandoning their station, “the oppressive King and Queen of Woke”. A white male columnist explained in the Sunday Times “Why I won’t date ‘woke’ women”. We are solemnly warned that “woke” culture isn’t a laughing matter. It’s the new enemy that must be fought and vanquished, now that the imperialistic foreigners of the European Union have been banished to Brussels.

Re-enter the “spiv”. All hell broke loose this week when people were outraged that the catering firm which claimed the free school meals it supplied cost £30 a box could not have spent more than £5.22. Edward Heath, also a British Conservative prime minister, coined the expression “the unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism” to describe such profit-driven exploitation of scarcity.

It’s time for “spivs” of the World to Unite. They have nothing to lose but their scruples.