I heard a term today on the radio: McJob. I’ve never heard this word and was fascinated by its association with McDonald’s.

“an unstimulating, low-wage job with few benefits, esp. in a service industry”  —Dictionary .com

The Oxford English Dictionary, the pinnacle of all dictionaries, logs every word ever used in the English language. Once a word makes the dictionary it never leaves. A new definition for the word may be added, but the word is never deleted. Because of this, you or I can discover what a word like icon meant in the nineteenth century versus what it means today.

How does a word make it? The philologists at Oxford have strict guidelines. The word must appear in five published texts over the course of five separate years, and its meaning must be consistent within each publication. It can appear on the internet but this requires the researchers at Oxford to print a hard copy of the evidence since changes and deletions are more prevalent on the web.

Language is one way we communicate. It is—perhaps—the single, most effective way of expressing how we feel. Some might argue that it is a living entity, an ever-changing and evolving being. Inside this being, words are born, words die, and sometimes words are reincarnated with new meaning.

Language moves with the times much like our own lives. For our English words, we have a catalog, a place called the Oxford English Dictionary.

I remember my first McJob. I remember the doldrums of my coworkers, and I remember the fun. I only lasted one day. I went on to find others until I graduated from college. Then the McJobs were replaced by McCareers. I haven’t had as many of these as I’ve had Mc’those.