Anna Chronistic terms

I am a freelancer. This term is almost universally understood, even in languages other than English.  Yet, at the same term, the word refers to a no longer existing profession wiped out by changes in technology.  Specifically, in Europe for some three hundred years, through the 17^th century, more or less, a group of men that were armed and skilled in fighting with a lance wandered around Europe searching for paying clients and generally found them.  The mass production of simple powder weapons that took much less strength and training to master ended the value of their services.  Still, any person not receiving a salary that is searching physical or virtual space for paying clients is a freelancer, not matter which service s/he is offering.

Changes in written communication technology have also bypassed some vocabulary.  For example, if a person is penciled in to work on a given day, the chance that the name is written in pencil is small.  Today, computer technology is our book and keyboards are pencils. Likewise, it is common practice with emails to cc a person or persons if they should be informed of its content.  Curiously, carbon copies, made by putting a carbon sheet between sheets of paper in typewriters have gone the way of those typewriters, i.e. disappeared except as a quaint period piece. Still, we cc in emails.

The revolution in long distance communication has also left behind victims.  While we still refer to the process of starting a telephone conversation as dialing, people actually press buttons today. In fact, most of those under the age of 40 have no idea what to do with a real dial telephone.  In the world of banking, money using wire transfers, which were once upon a time notices by telegraph or similar direct line means.  In 2019, modern and even not so modern banks use the Internet htlml messages to communicate money transfers. Yet, they are still “wired” in language.

In terms of the order of matters, language is also lagging a bit behind reality. It is unwise to put the cart before the horse for obvious reasons, but except on Aran Island in Ireland and few isolated places, people travel by car and motorcycle, not horse and carriage.  Likewise, a person jumping the gun leaves too quickly.  Yet, at all track events I have seen in the past few years, the started is an electronic beep, not a person firing a gun.  Still, the expression remains.

You could conclude, to paraphrase Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, that all long-lasting expressions are alike: they transfer the meaning and moment of the term, even if that term is no longer in the moment, unlike most short-lived slang, which fails to get anchored in the language for many different reasons. These outdated but ever effective terms have the horsepower, strength, to retain their places in our thoughts.