A Word From Glynnis Chantrell

The London Marathon - History in a Word

Paula Radcliffe excelled in the London Marathon of 14 April 2002, performing record times as a debutante in the women's section of this famous race: she made history as does the word marathon itself which brings to mind a famous journey in 490BC. According to the writer Herodotus, a messenger ran 22 miles [* distance references vary] from Marathon to Athens to pass on the good news of the Greek victory over the Persians. The modern race is 42.195 kilometres.

This race, as is the case with every event recorded by language, is a living link with the past. We saw the flags flying and the less experienced competitors flagging in the later stages. But did we stop to think of what these words hold beneath that identical spelling. They are probably closely linked. The flag used as an emblem is possibly onomatopoeic expressing the sound of flapping in the wind; or it may come from the now obsolete English word flag which meant 'drooping'; we haven't yet found evidence of the ultimate origin but we do know that it is found in all the modern Germanic languages and was apparently recorded first in English. The flag meaning 'become tired' was first used to mean 'flap about loosely' and may also be related to flag 'drooping'; the movement described is less energetic but the onomatopoeia is still there.

Whatever the fortunes of the various runners, they were all involved in a common endeavour and there was a lot of national pride in Paula's win: what does this word reveal in its history? The legacy we have from Old English winnan is the sense 'strive, contend'; one early notion was not of coming first but of the general effort made together with other people. This is therefore a word worthy of everybody's common endeavour in the Marathon. In Old English there was also the sense 'subdue, take possession, acquire', so by using the word ?win in modern contexts, part of that early notion of competition, the will to overcome, is there too.

The crowds were there in force along the course to watch runners from all over the world. The word crowd started to be used as a noun from the mid 16th century. Before then it was a verb, first recorded in Old English meaning 'press, hasten'; it is related to Dutch kruien 'push in a wheelbarrow'. In Middle English, the verb took on the meaning 'move by pushing' and 'push one's way'; this led to its use to mean 'congregate': obviously all that pushing led to a build-up of people. I don't think there was too much evidence of pushing along the marathon course though, just appreciation and clapping.. The verb clap is an imitative word; in Old English it meant 'throb, beat'; it was in Middle English that it represented the sound of striking the palms together.

I wonder what the impact of 2002's race will be on all of us? Well, the competitors may be affected physically and the spectators will be left with wonderful visual memories; the figurative use of impact 'the effect of something on someone' has only been around since the early 19th century. Before then the word was used literally; it was first recorded in the sense 'press closely, fix firmly' (the origin being Latin impact- from impingere 'to drive in'). This ties in with the interesting snippet of information passed on by one of the media reporters who said that over the race distance each runner would lose one centimetre in height: this through shocks to the spine causing the vertebrae to press closely, drive into one another.

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Learn about the history of more everyday words in the Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories.