From Fresh Air from WHYY, on National Public Radio
No Language Legacy: Where's The Sept. 11 Vocab?
By Geoff Nunberg
They were instant cliches, but they needed saying anyway. September 11 was our Pearl Harbor. It would change the way we think and create a new normal. It defined a generation. And from the beginning, people looked to the language to bear witness to how utterly differently we were seeing the world.
Ten years later, it's not so clear. I've been making a list of all the words I've been tracking since 2001 that were connected to 9/11 and its repercussions. They're a jumble: axis of evil and "the army you have," cakewalk, coalition of the willing and "connect the dots," "dead or alive" and "don't touch my junk," evildoers and enhanced interrogation. But the one thing that jumps out at me is how ephemeral they are. Most have already disappeared, and apart from "9/11" itself, few of the rest will be around a decade from now....