The Evolution of Fix

 One of my passions is reading old books, not just any book, but specifically books on American English. A while back, I discovered a copy of The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, written by H. L. Mencken, on the bookshelf in a cabin in northern Minnesota. I knew I had to have this book. And boom,  just like that, it was mine! My copy is the 4th edition, published in 1937, although it was first published in 1919. More recently, through a Buy-Nothing group in my area, I was gifted a four-volume set of the Universal Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1898. Finding myself with a bit of time on my hands and winter weather looming outside, I decided to delve into American English. I found it somewhat humorous to read something written as “current,” knowing it was penned over 100 years ago. The books were beyond insightful and inspiring. Between the 1700s and the early 1900s, a strong divide emerged among the people of the new colonies over whether to retain “the King’s/Queen’s English” or to Americanize the language. There is much to unpack around this topic, but that's for later.

In this post, I want to discuss the evolution of the word “fix”. I believe this sums up why understanding the history of American English goes beyond Greek and Latin morphology. I believe etymology is equally important. We must understand that English took on a life of its own, affecting spelling and word meanings, when America was colonized, which I feel we too often overlook. 

When teaching prefixes and suffixes, I like to weave in roots. Some of you have heard me talk about teaching the prefix <fix> to help students understand the meaning of the word prefix and suffix.  The root <fix> means to attach, and in most words, this makes complete sense; but how do the word “fix” and the root <fix> line up with meanings? In most cases, they don't. How do you explain that to your students? Let's take a look at what etymonline.com says about the root <fix> , first usage in the 14th century. If we follow the road back to its origins, we would see that the list is lengthy, and I had to wonder about dig, dike, and ditch, but we aren’t going down that road today! But the definition of the word “fix” in etymonline.com also alludes to the shifting of meaning in the colonies as early as 1737 to include “repair”. However, not all were pleased with the additional definition as seen below. But after reading that, I couldn’t help but wonder, how did we go from the meaning “to attach” to mean “repair” something, or to “make” something?  This is where American English comes into play. My edition of the Universal Dictionary of the English Language, a four-volume set published in New York in 1897, defines “fix” as a verb in all matters of attachment. It has one entry marked as slang, where “fix” is defined as “to prepare, to make ready, to adjust, to put in order, to arrange,  to set right.” I believe this definition, though considered slang, marks the beginning of a change in the word's usage.

Knowing that the Universal Dictionary of the English Language was published in the United States, I believe it provides us with insight into the vernacular of the day. We could peek back 70 years to Noah Webster's dictionary, also published in the US in 1828, to get a better sense of the timeline of the word fix's evolution. Although I do not own a copy, I was able to access it through the Internet Archive. I did not find signs of the “slang” definition at this time. I dug a little deeper and found no mention of “ slang” in the 1898 edition either. So we can assume it was a usage spreading among the commoners of the time. It is reported that between 1609 and 1840 there were no more than one million immigrants, mostly from the British Isles or from Africa as slaves.  However, between 1840 and 1900, over 30 million people flooded in from around the world, bringing their own languages. As people moved across the nation, so did their languages and their attempts at speaking American English.

These dictionary entries piqued my curiosity; I needed to read more. In a chapter titled 3. American “Barbarisms” in my 1937 version of American English, I found some incredible quotes demonstrating how so many were appalled by the crudeness of the Americanized English use of “fix”.  In fact, the new applications of this word have made such an impact on English that it has five other mentions in this book! To some, it was purely scandalous!Henry James was among the large group opposed to the Americanization of the English language.

Check out the latest Webster Dictionary entry for the word “fix”; you will see ten verb meanings: 1. affix, attach, 2. establish, 3. discover, 4. assign, 5. adjust, 6. prepare, 7. repair, mend, 8. restore, cure, 9. spay, castrate, 10. focus, decide, settle. And as a noun, we see predicament, improper drug usage, supply, or dosage. Despite the opposition against it,  “fix” has come a long way!

So this is a small argument for understanding our American English history. While morphology is wonderful, we all know there are plenty of times we can’t connect the dots for our students; “fix” is a solid example. I hope you found this article helpful. Please leave me a comment below! 

Thanks for reading! ~ Pam