The word evanescent has appeared in eight articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 22 in the Opinion essay “Is Slang as Swell as It Used to Be? Yas!” by John McWhorter:
That is but one example of how evanescent slang is in the historical record of language. With Looney Tunes, another example is Bugs Bunny’s catchphrase “What’s up, doc?” We’re so used to it now, but when was the last time you called anyone “Doc”? One of Bugs Bunny’s creators, Tex Avery, reportedly got it from his youth in Texas in the 1920s, when it was slangily current to address people as “doc.” If it weren’t for Bugs, not many of us would know that people called one another “doc” in the old days.
Black slang changes eternally as well. In 1934, Zora Neale Hurston listed fading expressions like “syndicating,” to mean gossiping, and double-descriptive phrases like “more better.” Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1970s and 1980s, I recall that some Black teenage guys that I knew would dismiss peers they found ineffectual as “oaks.” I am not sure of the term’s geographic range, I’m pretty sure it was mostly obsolete by the 1990s and I’d be challenged to find any record of it now. It was spoken, not written, and has thus vanished like autumn leaves.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word evanescent in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.
If you want a better idea of how evanescent can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.
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Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
