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Start With The Words.

Enter One Word - a digital epistolary romance that examines, deconstructs, and reinvents the received language of business and marketing.

laraeastburn

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Jul 8

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*This is an excerpt from the latest One Word email - link in, well you know 🙂

“But WHY?!?!” demands our red-faced 9-year-old.
Her father has now denied her 4th request to take a small boat out on our small lake.
“Because I said so,” he finally answers without knowing exactly why. (Hey, it worked for HIS dad, right?)

Last week I stumbled upon several articles claiming the word “because” was the most important word in sales.
Hmmmm…. said my brain. Plausible assertion, right? But .. WHY?

Turns out it’s all about a 1978 psychological paper colloquially called by marketers “The Copy Machine Experiment.”

Yes, 1978. It went like this. At the CUNY library, Ellen Langer et al sent in researchers one at a time (half women, half men) to cut the line at a busy copy machine with 3 different ‘reasons.’

Image 2 shows the results that numerous marketers quote as proof that you just need to say the word ‘because’ to get people to do what you want.

EXCEPT … NO.
Because anyone with a child – or who has ever been in a relationship with another human ever – knows for a FACT that’s some bullshit.

That's why the numbers change considerably when the stakes are higher. Not HIGH, though – it’s still 20 copies in the second test (not 200). This part of the study is what all the marketers IGNORE.

The argument here is that we don’t hear what comes after “because” that’s all we need to hear. But this study is about cached language and automatic responses in low-stakes situations of inconvenience, NOT high-stakes sales situations.

I'm still going to use "because." Because it’s the right thing to do when it’s real.

I say to ads clients, “Take your time with this decision because it’s a big deal and it’s important you choose the person that’s right for your business.”

I’m NOT ever going to say, “Hire me because I’m the best.” “Because I can guarantee results.” “Because you’ll be sorry if you don’t.”

BECAUSE the word carries power.
Check your copy. Are you using it in ways that feel good? Because it matters.

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Jun 9

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Here's a word that shows up to the marketing and business party with more than its fair share of baggage.

It arrives in written English in 1340 and is already fully infused with religion. Conversion is - from the very beginning - a Christian word.

What does that mean for the way we use it business? This one just hit inboxes! If you're not signed up yet, head to that link in bio and I'll get it to you!

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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May 23

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By the time we start Kindergarten, we've downloaded and assimilated HALF the major framework we will ever have for understanding and communicating in the world.

What?!

The average English-speaker has an active vocabulary of 20,000 words. (English words in active use number over 171,000). Another 20,000 words make up our passive vocabulary - words we know exist and recognize, but never use.

As tiny humans, we absorb the history of these words (without understanding it), their baggage (without recognizing it), and their context (without questioning it) before we can even write a word.

Language acquisition means learning HOW words are used.
But rarely WHAT they mean - or WHY.

Eager to change yourself or the world around you?
Start With the Words.

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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May 18

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Every day, we attempt an action that is both utterly commonplace - and technically, ostensibly impossible.

We endeavor to move a thought from our minds into a space where someone else can hear - and hopefully participate in it.

We set out to move the ideas "in here" ... "out there."

TODAY, like all the days before, we will attempt to communicate.

We will open our mouths to speak - or put fingers to a keyboard - in an attempt to answer the call to "put ourselves out there."

But the cursor blinks. The tongue stalls. The heart SINKS.

Will I say it right? Will they get what I mean? Will they understand?

Communicating is H A R D.

It's not you. It's the words.

Before us lies the ACHING space between what we want to say and what we will say. The awe-ful gap between what we mean and what is heard.

So we reach for the flawed-most-powerful-and-only tool at our disposal. The words we have practiced and trained in since birth.
The lumbering, speeding train onto which we are born.

Words both inherited and acquired.
Language familiar and still strange.
At once beautiful and terrible.
Infinite and yet always inadequate.

At the heart of One Word - this effort you and I are taking to re-examine the words we use - is this question:

Can we TRUST these words?

IS this navigating the aching gap?
ARE we communicating?

That's the word, nerd.

*Join me for more word adventures - link in bio.

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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May 3

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I am 45 today! For my IG Birthday wish, I'd like to know ... YOUR favorite word. Throw 'em in the comments - and tell me why you it's your fave <3!

Photo @callynthphotography

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Apr 26

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Healthy lifestyle, diet, finances, parenting style, portfolio, routine, balance, mental state, marriage ...

There's no shortage of folks telling (and selling) us what's healthy in every category of our lives. Defining and marketing this particular word is big business because health is presented to us both as a) a social requirement, and b) something elusive, changing, and always just outside our reach.

Use of the word 'healthy' in marketing relies upon its nebulous nature. In other words, it shifts the responsibility of definition from the writer to the reader. From the marketer to the consumer. Because, in the absence of meaning, we will summon an array of socio-cultural norms to fill the vacuum.

Words like 'healthy' (and fit and wellness and well-being) are not DEFINING health. They are naming whatever is the current, dominant construct of health.

It's why products from radium to cocaine could at one time be marketed as "healthy." It's why veganism and meat-only diets can make identical claims to "health."

The message is: 'You know that ideal of health that is most dominant in our culture right now? This product/method will get you that.'

The Health At Every Size (HAES) and body-positive movements as a whole make this linguistic distinction crystal clear.

Their use of the word 'health' explicitly understands how the word functions in the minds of consumers - and turns it on its head. It's message: 'You know that ideal of health that is most dominant in our culture right now? It's making a LOT of assumptions. It's leaving out a lot of people. And damn it, it may just be wrong.'

Think there's not a moral imperative in this word? 150 years ago, the adjective-in-use wasn't healthy.
It was GODLY.

That's the word, nerd.

*This is a much-abbreviated version of the full entry of the latest edition of 'One Word' - a series to re-examine and re-invent the received language of business & marketing. Join the list to get it first - or explore the archives at laraeastburn.com.

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword
#linguistics #haes

laraeastburn

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Apr 6

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Here's a word that has always irked me in a marginally grating way, like a dripping faucet.

I don't hate it, exactly. I get the gist. But there's something about it that doesn't sit quite right in my ears - or in my mouth.

The way we use "monetize" in the marketing/business sense today entered our language just under 20 years ago. Like so many words quickly adopted for a digital world that exploded nearly overnight - it is BORROWED from elsewhere.

In this edition of One Word, you'll find out when, where, and how "monetize" reared its odd head online. WHY I predict it won't be around for much longer ... and what it all has to do with the tale of Rumpelstistkin (what?).

If you're subscribed, it's already in your inbox. If you're not, I'd L-O-V-E for you to join me for adventures in re-examining the received language of business and marketing!

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Mar 16

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The latest WORD is r e l e a s e d.

Do you find yourself cringing at the thought of a 'launch?" Use it even though it doesn't feel quite right somehow?

In this edition of One Word, I propose an alternative.

It took me more than 2200 characters to lay this one out. So if you're subscribed, it's already in your inbox. If you're not, I'd L-O-V-E for you to join me for adventures in re-examining the received language of business and marketing.

The link is in the bio. You'll receive a couple words a month - or thereabouts.

Because no amount of marketing matters if we don't know what we're saying (and why we're saying it)!

Thank you to @circlewithheather for suggesting 'Launch!"

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Mar 15

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laraeastburn

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Mar 2

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I've been reading the publications of E. St. Elmos Lewis since running across him when researching the 'Funnel' post. I'm more than a little fascinated by these first documented musings on modern advertising.⁣
⁣
As I cracked open 1908's "Financial Advertising," I was bemused to see that the first page, even before the preface, is blank except for 3 lines. ⁣
⁣
They are a sentence from later on in the book, but here printed as though they were poetry.⁣
⁣
And indeed they are.⁣
⁣
#speakhumanwintheinternet⁣⁣
#adsthatmatter⁣⁣
#marketwithmeaning ⁣⁣
#responsiblemarketing ⁣⁣
#sustainablemarketing⁣⁣
#startwiththewords⁣⁣
#businesslinguistics⁣⁣
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Feb 25

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"There's really no such thing as a funnel," I say again on a sales call. "There MIGHT be a COLANDER." ⁣
⁣
"Funnel" is shorthand at best. It's the word businesses use to mean the 'path' (or 'journey') a potential client takes from learning about a product/service to the of purchase.⁣
⁣
At worst, "funnel" is jargon. A phrase so overused it's been emptied of any meaning at all. A word we use when we don't actually know what we're talking about. ⁣
⁣
Today "funnel" is employed as a one-word placeholder for a series of automated systems prescribed to lead a client along the aforementioned 'journey' with the least possible effort.⁣
⁣
In our digital world, it signifies an iterative FORMULA - a series of processes, a series of mouse clicks - that ends with the typing of a credit card number & clicking the 'submit' button.⁣
⁣
Hence, the funnel has now also often come to mean whatever is necessary to guide the consumer to arrive at that final click. In this way, the funnel is still forced to consider - to the degree required to arouse & amplify - the motivations of the human behind the clicking. Enter the age of deep-dive psychology into creating and amplifying human desire. ⁣
⁣
I plunged willingly down a veritable rabbit hole researching ol' St. Elmo Lewis. I'm more than a little obsessed, maybe even be a bit smitten. This dude was EPIC.⁣
⁣
He was the first (documented) person to think about the customer's experience in consuming - attempting to define the emotional states one goes through when contemplating a purchase.⁣
⁣
For the first theoretician of advertising, the customer was so important that he amended what followers later called the AIDA formula (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) to include (by 1911) SATISFACTION.⁣
⁣
In other words, for the first modern post-Snake-Oil-Era advertisers, & for decades after them, the end of the funnel was not the purchase, but the customer's HAPPINESS with the purchase.⁣
⁣
Now that's a whole different funnel, ain't it? I'd wager it doesn't look like a funnel AT ALL.⁣
⁣
#speakhumanwintheinternet⁣
#adsthatmatter⁣
#marketwithmeaning ⁣
#responsiblemarketing ⁣
#sustainablemarketing⁣
#startwiththewords⁣
#businesslinguistics⁣
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Feb 4

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Y'all ... I am an insatiable fan of speculative fiction. My Kindle and I have been chewing through tomes for years. In 2013, in an effort to weed out the shoot-em-up space operas that didn't do it for me, I started reading (mostly) woman and non-binary scifi authors. Ah, much better.

While diving into the worlds and words of these, I, like many white folk, stumbled unawares into the mind of Octavia Butler. She was the first black scifi author I'd ever read ... and I was BLOWN AWAY. These were themes that I desperately wanted - nay, needed - in my reading. I completed her oeuvre over a year or so.

And then took it on as a mission to read and immerse myself in every single speculative fiction ever written by a black woman. That led me of course to the incomparable NK Jemisin. Then to the mind-blowing work of Nnedi Okorafor (@nnediokorafor). And next to the magic of Nalo Hopkinson (@nalohop).

I have spent the last 4 years with these 4 authors (and the YA from Tomi Adayemi @tomiadeyemi). Black American, Carribean, and African Speculative fiction actively shape and inform my worldview. In ways that introduce me to worlds new-to-me both here on this planet, in this time - and in those they imagine.

As I wrap up Okorafor's latest, I'm making my list for 2021 (and likely much beyond). And what a list it is! Check it:

Tananarive Due @tananarivedue
Andrea Hairston
Karen Lord @drkarenlord
Nisi Shawl
Rivers Solomon @rivers.solomon
Nicky Drayden @nickydrayden
Jennifer Marie Brissett @jennifermariebrissett
Bethany C. Morrow @bcmorrow

Put some #afrofuturism into your #blackhistorymonth, OK? Pick up any one of these authors and prepare to have your world rocked. And, in the words of NK Jemisin, "How Long Til Black FUTURE Month?"

#startwiththewords
#oneword
#blackfuturemonth

laraeastburn

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Jan 30

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Well here's a word that's been on my shit list for quite some time. Mainly because it's SOOOO masculine, keeping close company with the testosterone-filled verbs that always make my eyes roll - y'know, dominate/destroy/eradicate ...

I was in my first feminist theory course when I first began learning about how patriarchal structures were designed to pit women against one another. My reaction went something like, "Well, fuck that!" 'Cause, y'know, I'm super classy.

Bam. I resolved to NEVER again compete with another human outside of Scrabble (where I clearly rule, so board games don't count).

When, in my 14-years of running an adult-sized hula hoop business, there was an explosion of other hoop makers, that resistance to competition came in handy. Each of us was working to spread the joy of hooping to more people. Why would I want to compete with them? Instead I focused on improving my product, expanding the way you could use it, and excelling at customer service.

Along the way, I got really, really good at Facebook Ads. So I hosted 2 conferences for all hoop makers where we shared what we learned throughout the years about running and marketing a hooping business.

And that's how my current business was born. The way from there to here (truly finding my calling as an ads expert who helps wonderfully weird businesses do their thang) for me was by REFUSING TO COMPETE.

In English (early 1600s), it's pretty much always meant rivalry. But its Latin root didn't mean that at all. Rather, competere meant to "strive together" - (com- with, and petere, strive/aim). Its likely earliest meanings were in sports and even in war - as in the coming together to fight a common adversary.

So, once upon a time, "competition" meant to work together towards a common goal.

We are right now, right here COMPETING - 'striving together' - in the Latin sense of the term on several fronts.

Americans are competing for the soul of our country. Conservationists are competing for the future of our planet. Advocates for equity are competing for how the most vulnerable of our populations will be treated going forward.

But competition in our businesses? Not for me.
#startwiththewords

laraeastburn

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Jan 7

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In the wake of yesterday's white supremacist insurrection in the U.S., 'supremacy' is the word I want to re-examine today. And yes, it has everything to do with the language of business.

In English 'supremacy' has meant 'white supremacy' in one way or another from the moment England claimed its first overseas territories.

Supremacy technically means - the condition of being highest in rank, authority or power. It literally signifies DOMINION. CONTROL.

But it has almost never been used in exactly that way.

In English, 'supremacy' refers exclusively to God and/or the Pope. Until 1534. When it is officially used to transfer power to - and in defense of - the English monarch as head of church and state.

And then promptly after in the late 1500s in defense of its first claims overseas, where overt economic plundering begins to be translated as 'bringing civilization' to 'lesser peoples.'

By 1684, that defense is actively and exuberantly extended to "scientific" justifications (now called scientific racism) for institutional, colonial racism in the forms of physical anthropology - and a host of pseudo-disciplines that culminate in eugenics.

In other words ... "supremacy" NEVER appears in our language to declare power. It is the word men use after power is secure in order to justify power gained through economic, religious, or military force.

So in my estimation, the claim of supremacy can never have meant 'inherent superiority.' If it did, it could not be threatened.

Rather, supremacy means "We're in control and we want to stay that way."

Fuck White Supremacy.
That's the word, bird.

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#adsthatmatter
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#sustainablemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Dec 31

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Truth #1. Ads are essential to the sustainable health of a business. They are how people know what we've created and why.

Truth #2. Ads are content that we ask others to consume without their consent.

Let's reconcile these two truths.

Let's make ads that are beneficial to businesses AND the humans they serve.

Yep - at the same time.

Let's make ads that matter.

We make ads that don't behave like ads.
We say what's true.
We create messaging and media that reflect the spectrum of human experience.
We amplify hope, not pain.
Whenever possible, we entertain!

#speakhumanwintheinternet
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#startwiththewords
#businesslinguistics
#sustainablemarketing
#adsthatmatter

laraeastburn

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Dec 29

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A little too on-the-nose as we prepare to 'bye felicia' the weirdest year ever?

Nah.

It's one of the oldest words known to humankind.

Because the signifier "NEW" is as old as language itself, it has quite a story to tell. Imagine ... that you are an early human in a small, isolated community. Everything is new. You venture a little outside your known territory and find a plant, an animal, a rock formation that is completely and absolutely different from everything you know.

In that context, "new" is an important word. It means dangerous. It means 'approach with caution.' It signifies, literally, 'something we haven't encountered before.'

And it means experimentation. Someone's going to have to figure out if you can touch it, eat it, use it.

But here's the important part - that still applies today. 'New' is an adjective we ascribe to something that is unknown to the speaker - NOT something that didn't actually exist before.

And that's where the confusion begins.

Because today, when we use the word 'new,' we think we mean, "something not previously in existence."

But that's not what we're saying at ALL.

Rather, the adjective is added to indicate added VALUE that is due to its new cognitive ownership.

In other words ... 'new' often signifies immediate and impending ASSIMILATION. It means we can easily fit this-strange-and-new-to-us-thing into the framework of what we already know. It also implies that we will make it better by doing so.

Because the things that we CAN'T easily assimilate are not called new. Nope. We call those things FOREIGN.

NEW just means NEW TO YOU.

That's the word, bird.

👉 Want more word-adventures? Link in bio! #startwiththewords
#speakhumanwintheinternet
#marketwithmeaning
#responsiblemarketing
#businesslinguistics
#oneword

laraeastburn

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Dec 27

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The next word is about to drop. Don't miss it!

One Word is a series to examine, deconstruct, and reinvent the received language of business. #startwiththewords

https://laraeastburn.com/oneword (Link in bio)

laraeastburn

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Dec 10

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This word's odd story starts WAY back in ancient Greece. Where TOXON meant "bow," as in the weapon that shoots an arrow. The poisoned arrows used in hunting and war were called TOXIKON (bow) PHARMAKON (drug).

The two-word phrase (bow + drug) meant "archer's drug." But it gets shortened with time. SO when it makes the jump to Early Latin, it's the "toxicum" (bow) part that makes the leap.

And that's not even the weirdest part.

I mean, how do we get from "bow," to "poisonous," to a term that is today used to mean "harmful" in ALL kinds of ways - especially in terms of human behavior?

It's a hard term to pin down because it's covering a lot of ground. For example, originally, "poison" always indicated a drink, a tonic, a potion. In French, "enherber" specifically indicated a dangerous plant. But "toxic" ends up being a catchall in our language.

When "toxic" shows up in Early English (1890) - it belongs exclusively to the fields of medicine and biochemistry. Plants are toxic. Chemicals are toxic. Water can be toxic.

But not people. Not behavior. Not, that is, until 1974.

As far as I can tell, the (at the time best-selling) book, "Be The Person You Were Meant To Be" (Dr. Jerry A Greenwald, 1974), is 'ground zero,' as it were, for toxic behavioralism.

The author, a Gestalt therapist, uses terminology that is firmly rooted in Gestalt theory itself. People grow through taking in an idea or experience and discovering whether it is nourishing (and thus make it a part of themselves) or toxic (reject it).

There's no question that after this wide publication, the term "toxic" takes root and firmly finds its place in the popular lexicon.

So ... what can we take from this word's truly odd journey? I can't help but appreciate the word's origin in the bow. As in, harm done by one person to another. The 'archer's drug.'

Though "toxic" still retains its biochemical senses (as in toxic air, waste, environment, etc), I can't help but think its Ancient Greek roots are telling indeed.

It's the word we have for the harm we do one another.

👉 Want more word-adventures? Link in bio! #startwiththewords

laraeastburn

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Nov 19

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The word "client" is ancient, y'all. And like many things that old, its journey from there to here is a reflection of our own as societies.

PART ONE: ANCIENT (ACCESS TO POWER) - Its oldest known root meant 'to lean' - a sense that Latin carried into the Roman Empire's system of patronage. The patronus (patron) provided (financial, physical, legal, or social) protection in exchange for the services of their cliens (clients).

Not one-to-one, these relationships functioned as a NETWORK (clientela) of social interdependency.

Still, right from the start, "client" is part of a hierarchical classification, signaling one of the earliest economies to impose order on society according to social access (power).

And yep, it's colonial as all get-out. As Rome extended its reach, it used the patronage system to define itself politically, its national conquests now "client-states." It is the likely foundation of Europe's feudal system. And as Europe colonized, the patron-client system forcibly replaced the indigenous hierarchies of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with increasing degrees of cruelty.
(Parts 2 & 3 continued in comments ...) #startwiththewords

laraeastburn

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Nov 11

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The word 'platform' is a TRIP! It begins simply enough - literally, a flat surface. But specifically, one that is constructed, built - and thus, raised in some fashion.

And so it goes, unchanged, for hundreds of years, even unto today. From railroad platforms to the system upon which the entire online world has been coded. It is the framework upon which other things are built.

And it is also the raised surface from which one speaks one's mind - the pulpit, the podium, the witness box, the soapbox, the stage - and now, the Twitter, the FB, the 'gram.

In 1803, though, the word takes on additional meaning. It begins to mean not just where you physically stand, but where you stand in your beliefs. Suddenly, the same word is used for the raised surface itself AND what you say while you're standing on it.

Since etymology will generally refer to temporal origins in terms of mid-17th century or 1540s, I thought 1803 was pretty damn specific for that shift - and it's specifically tied to US politics.

So ... why 1803? The US presidential election of 1800 offers up a lot of clues. It was a hotly contested (and oddly, familiar right now) MESS. This was the first election to usher in a two-party race for the white-wig-in-chief, a serious effort to influence the electoral college ... and it got nasty, y'all!

To prep the field for his run, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend "a profession of my political faith." And then 'platform' is off like a rocket.

And just like that, the SAME word connotes both the position you speak and the position from which you speak it. It's kinda neat, right? One word now combines a physical and philosophical stand.

To "stand up," means to "stand for."

👉 Want more word-adventures? I invite you to "One Word" - a digital epistolary romance that examines, deconstructs, and reinvents the received language of business and marketing.

https://www.laraeastburn.com/oneword/

#speakhumanwintheinternet #marketwithmeaning #responsiblemarketing #startwiththewords #businesslinguistics #oneword

Speak Human, Win The Internet.

We exercise responsibility in marketing through linguistic precision, social awareness, and radical inclusivity. Lara Eastburn is a Facebook & Instagram Ads specialist for smaller business & non-profits.