Shove-ha’penny was a game tht required smooth coins. A ha’penny had to glide to its -place. That meant a polished coin., a case of premature ageing, if you like.
But apart from this deliberate treatment of a coin there is a natural life-span. Coins wear out. They have to be replaced. Out with Britannia; in with thistles and other ornamentation to complete the tail.
Words get worn out as well. They become collectors’ items. How often nowadays do we hear the word ‘yeomanry’ outside Dickens? And as for that word ‘autogyro’, it looked like the future and crossed the English Channel in 1928 but its inventor de Cierva was marooned when names like Sikorsky came to rule the roost.
In Christian vocabulary a word that is becoming anaemic is ‘fellowship’. This translates a Greek word meaning ‘sharing’ but it has weak overtones redolent of those Pleasant Sunday Afternoons that were once popular. It has been overtaken by words with more energy – comradeship, companionship, for example – that suggest effort expended in a common demanding task. Activists are likely to favour such a word rather than a word that has a haze of relaxation about it. When ‘fellowship’ puts in an appearance in Acts 2.42 it is flat and inconsequential. It is, of course, the English that is at fault, not the Greek.
‘Charismatic’ has had a curious development. It has an everyday application when it is applied to a leader who charms a response from a crowd. It has also developed into a classifying word for gifts of the Holy Spirit. (Some people prefer the term ‘pneumatic’ when talking of the activity of the Holy Spirit.)
Using worn-out words does not do justice to the original. We should be on the lookout for fresh ways of saying things.
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