Sound: nôr"məl-sē
normal, adjective
and noun. Conforming to standard, regular, usual, typical; hence normality
(also irregular normalcy).
In a sentence: “The
nation will return to normalcy.”
This word is very
much associated with 29th president of the United States, Warren G.
Harding. In the election of 1920, Harding promised “a return to normalcy”. At
that time some people thought that normalcy was a word that Harding made up or
used inappropriately. I was indeed told in social studies in high school that
he coined the word. This is not true. The term can in fact be found in
dictionaries that date back as far as 1857.
But it is true,
that people rather tend to use the word normality instead. It turns out that
Harding did not have a problem with
the English language – however he is still considered by many to have been one
of the worst US presidents.
Be that as it may,
words can be tricky.
This is the script to an episode.
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Intro and outro music in the podcast: The Jam by General Fuzz (generalfuzz.net)
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