To: Professor Carolyn Hanlon
From: Sijia Liu
Subject: Proposal for the word choice for writing word analysis essay
Date: November 16, 2010
The word I chose is trophy wife. This interesting compound is formed by two words rich in meanings in historical and social contexts. Originally, the affective sense, of the word “trophy” per se is commendatory and that of the word “wife” is neutral, however, under certain circumstances, the compound “trophy wife” has denoted a pejorative meaning. According to Oxford Dictionary Online, “trophy wife” means a young, attractive wife regarded as a status symbol for an older but affluent man. This kind of meaning is usually used by the outsiders who do not appreciate the huge age gap of the marriage. “See, how come that trophy wife leads a comfortable and easy life?”. This way of using the word shows a heavy emphasis on the pure pulchritude of its connotation. Sometimes, “trophy wife” can undergo a concrete to abstract transference, i.e., “trophy wife” stands for the symbol for status. However, according to William Safire, when the word was first coined by Julie Connelly in 1989, the coiner originally gave the word a connotation of accomplishment and acumen. With the passage of time, the meaning has been degraded. On the other hand, because this word can be widely used by everyone in the society, the wives themselves try to avoid the derogatory sense by saying that “trophy wife” means the kind of wife who has her own career and she does not only rely on her much older husband. Moreover, the use of the word is flexible. For instance, a soccer player, Kevin Nolan, from England once said that he kicked his missus out of bed this week and slept with the trophy, meaning that he helped his new club beat the previous club he belonged to.
The term?s etymological origins are disputed. The 1950 one appeared on The Economist magazine, referring to the historical practice of warriors capturing the most beautiful women during battle to bring home as wives. Other scholars believed that what William Safire mentioned in his article is the origin for this term. The changing affective sense and meaning from ancient to now offer me rich sources to start a diachronic study of the compound and analyze the word by tracing back to its social and historical perspectives. By analyzing the semantic changes, I can probe into the reasons that push the changes and influence on our language generated by the social and personal values. The argument could be “The semantic change of ?trophy wife? has witnessed the degeneration of social value, and the swelling of individualism, from other-awarding competitions to self-and-other-awarding competitions.” The title of this paper could be “Are Wives Afraid of Trophy Wives?”
Works Cited
Bird, Simon. (2010). “TROPHY WIFE; Nolan kicked missus out of bed so he could
cuddle cup.” The Daily Mirror, 1 May. 2010. ProQuest. Web. 14 Nov. 2010. Chatham. (2010). “Top 5: Trophy Wives.” Global Post. 25 Jul. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
Conner, Vilma. (2009). A Trophy Wife. Born Again Virgin. Web. 15 Nov. 2001
Partridge, Eric. Origins: An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. New York:
Routledge, 2009. Print.
Safire, William. (1994). “ON LANGUAGE: Trophy Wife.” The New York Times. 1
May. 1994. Web. 14 Nov. 2010.
Skeat, Walter W. Etymological Dictionary of The English Language. Oxford: The
Clarendon Press, 1910. Print.
“Trophy wife.” Oxford English Dictionary, additional series 1997. Web. 15 Nov. 2010