The 40s and 50s

Another book in my Christmas order arrived today. It was published in 1952. My current read, For Love Alone was published in 1945. And how language has moved on since then. I keep coming across quite a few words that I think have fallen out of common usage - I sure don't know what they mean, anyway. I'd pull out the dictionary and check them out as I'm going but we've packed the dictionaries away! How about this for an example: "I am not enceinte with any instincts. I am austere." Well, I think I know what austere means... When I read material like this, I worry that we are losing our grip on the language, losing our words, like losing marbles if you like. But surely language is evolving, new words are added to dictionaries all the time. But the "old" words seem to carry more value, somehow, then all the new-fangled, sometimes slightly silly and sometimes almost "non" words we keep adding to our vocabulary... But it's not just the words that have changed so much in just a few decades. It's all the social stuff too, the manoeuvering between men and women, which is what For Love Alone is all about, really. It's another dense read, 502 pages long and I'm just scratching the half way mark. With my stack of books to read continuing to mount up, I do realise it's a huge task ahead to read all the books I want to. Luckily, they're all different and so far, have all been mostly very enjoyable to read.