From patriarchy to snowflake: five keywords you need to know

Symbolically, snow and snowflakes have long been used to represent purity. Since around 2006, snowflake has regularly been used to describe people. Its usage has increased so much that the word was officially added to the dictionary in 2016. An overly-sensitive, or easily-offended person, or one who believes they’re entitled to special treatment on account of their supposedly unique characteristics. Often paired with ‘special’, the phrase is used in a derogatory way to deride those particularly on the left of the political spectrum, and those with progressive liberal views. The author Chuck Palahniuk used the term 'snowflake' as an insult in his 1996 novel Fight Club. But way back in early 1860s in Missouri, USA, a 'snowflake' was a person who was opposed to the abolition of slavery.

It’s a phrase you’ll hear in debates about business regulation, matters of road safety or in arguments over what we choose to eat and drink. But the Nanny State evokes a type of bossy matron telling us to tie our shoelaces, or eat our vegetables. In his column in the 3 December 1965 edition of The Spectator magazine, the Conservative MP Iain Macleod used the phrase ‘Nanny State’ for the first time, when discussing the proposed introduction of a speed limit on Britain’s motorways. The phrase then soon became part of our political discourse and our national conversations. But is it inherently sexist?

The word patriarchy is having a moment. Since the #MeToo movement use of the word has spread, but the word itself has been around a very long time. The word patriarchy describes a system that we can all see to be true: the majority of power - almost everywhere in the world - nestles in the hands of men. Patriarchy originates from the Greek words meaning ‘the rule of fathers’.

Originally the phrase came from American business culture and the corporate world of the 1940s. Social psychologist and behaviourist Kurt Lewin came up with a way of colleagues giving one another feedback about their behaviour at work without fearing they might be condemned for doing so – they needed to feel safe before speaking out. This concept then broadened into general, more therapeutic contexts, such as counselling. Nowadays, a safe space is generally a quiet room where, say, if you suffer from a panic attack, you can go for a break from the hurly burly of the events taking place in the outside world.

Sovereignty is something we’ve heard a lot about in recent months, the word features heavily when Brexit is discussed. In law, our constitution has the sovereignity of parliament at its heart. It’s ironic that when the word itself is considered so quintessentially English it actually originates from France. A French jurist in 1576 coined the first known use of the term - meaning the absolute and perpetual power of a republic.

For more information on each of the words examined in this series, listen to Keywords for Our Time.