![]() After securing the Republican nomination in July and invoking “normalcy” again in his homecoming speech back in Ohio, Harding was pressed on his use of the word by an assemblage of reporters. By that point, normalcy had at least moved past its mathematical origins and could be found in theological discussions, ones that Harding, a devout Baptist, may have absorbed.ĭespite the word’s sporadic track record before 1920, Harding was frequently quizzed about his supposed coinage. Merriam, the publisher of Webster’s dictionaries, found room for normalcy in its American Dictionary of the English Language of 1864, though marking it “rare.” That “rare” label would stick around in subsequent editions of Webster’s dictionaries, as well as in the Century Dictionary, published in 1889–91. ![]() Five years later, a reviewer in the magazine The New Englander, surveying the latest dictionaries from Webster and Worcester, included normalcy among the newish words that neither dictionary had yet captured (along with other items like bisexuality, orgiastic, and slackjaw). In fact, the word had been in use since at least 1855, albeit in a technical way, when it appeared in a mathematical dictionary. Normalcy was unusual enough that many commentators assumed that Harding had simply made it up-a misconception that gets repeated to this day. The Boston Globetranscribed the line as “not nostrums but normality”-correcting the candidate’s speech for him. Mencken once said that Harding’s attempts at oratory reminded him of “a string of wet sponges”and “tattered washing on the line.”) Yet not all newspapers reproduced his turn of phrase faithfully. His most famous use of the word came on May 14 of that year, when he delivered an address to the Home Market Club of Boston, stating alliteratively, “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing not nostrums, but normalcy not revolution, but restoration.”Īudio from Harding re-creating that speech survives, and it allows us to hear him incorporate the word into his less-than-thrilling rhetoric. While “sanity and normality” has a nice ring to it, Harding ended up favoring “normalcy,” despite the fact that it was far less common than normality at the time. Speaking in Brooklyn in February 1920, Harding said, “It is time to hark back to sanity and normality.” But a few sentences later, he spoke of the nation finding its way back to “the new normalcy.” Read: Why Trump intentionally misnames the coronavirusĮarly on in his campaign, Harding seemed to be testing out the word as he created a message that would appeal to those weary from the upheavals of World War I and-mirroring our own time-a deadly influenza pandemic. As a Republican senator from Ohio not known for his eloquence, Harding found himself roundly criticized for using the word, even as the sentiment it encapsulated swept him into the White House. Harding, who made “The return to normalcy” his central slogan. The question of whether normalcy is a real word that is an acceptable alternative to normality goes back a century, to the 1920 presidential campaign of Warren G. Among the related questions displayed on Google’s search-results page for the word are “Is ‘normalcy’ a real word?” and “Which is correct, ‘normalcy’ or ‘normality’?” But many of those searching for the word online may be seeking guidance for proper usage. Since the beginning of March, Google Trends, which measures the popularity of search terms, has shown a big spike of attention for normalcy. It’s ironic that this word gesturing toward a hoped-for restoration of the normal state of affairs feels somehow not quite … normal. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said he saw “normalcy” on the horizon for his state, assuming that widespread testing can be put in place: “I think you see the return to normalcy when we have an approved rapid testing program that can be brought to scale.” At the White House press briefing the next day, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked about “gradual steps towards restoring normalcy.” “Remember, when you say ‘normalcy’-I mean, we could get back normally, economically and otherwise, without necessarily saying we’re going to forget about the virus,” he said. Looking ahead to that future time, many have grasped for an uneasy word from the past: normalcy. We’re all waiting, with varying degrees of patience, for things to get back to normal-even if everyday life will never be quite the same as it was before the coronavirus pandemic.
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