"I have looked for 'normality' in my dictionary, and I do not find it there. 'Normalcy,'' however, I did find, and it is a good word." — Warren G. Harding, quoted in The New York Times, 21 July 1920
About the Word:
In the presidential election of 1920 Warren G. Harding (or someone working for him) came up with what must have seemed like a fine campaign slogan, a 'return to normalcy.' However, the word was unfamiliar to many people, and was widely considered to be an error on Harding's part. (Both normalcy and normality in fact date to the mid-1800's.)
There was a feeling that Harding's command of the English language was perhaps less than one might hope for in a President. The famed critic H.L. Mencken took particular delight in savaging Harding's use of the language (Mencken referred to it as Gamalielese, after Harding's middle name, Gamaliel): "There is, I have a notion, a foul conspiracy among words to pull Dr. Harding's legs from under him. He has tortured them for years.... He has forced them into strange and abhorrent marriages. He has stretched them as is they were chewing-gum."
Despite the widespread opposition to the use of normalcy to mean normality, Harding had the last laugh, as this sense has come to be widely accepted.
Definition:
: a normal condition or situation
Photo credit: Wikimedia
