Hey, Happy New Year! Wait... is that still a valid statement? Is the year still new? Well, maybe; but it is older than it was a second ago. 0h 0m 0.0...0s was the newest part of the year and everything that has followed has just been older than that. So now, how long are we going to be wishing everyone a happy "new" year? I have seen people wish each other till even a week into the year if they did not meet since Dec 31st. Then, with that understanding of "new", can I call a housefly a "newborn", a week after its birth? Perhaps not, because it survives for only about a month.
Let us say I buy a car. I would continue to call it a "new"
car for a few weeks at least. But if a movie is released, it cannot be a
"new" movie for a few weeks. So it looks like there is a huge variation
in our definition of "new" and yet we apply the right duration in the
right context, without even thinking so much. So, can we retrospectively come
up with a factor that proportionately correlates with the changing definition
of "new"? Yes, I think so, and as you might have already guessed, it
seems to be the lifespan of the object.
I have (joblessly) compiled some of the common things
that can be "new" for a while, how long we usually consider them "new"
and what their usual lifespan is.
Object Period of
"new" Lifespan
Movie Few days 1
month
Product launch Few
days 1 year
Paint Few days 4-5
years
Minister Few days 5 years
Job Few
weeks 10-20 years
Restaurant Few weeks 10-20
years
Car Few
weeks 10-20 years
Human 2
months 60-80
years
Discovery Weeks/months Forever
House Few
months 30-50 years
Marriage Few
months 40-50 years
Country Few
years Forever
As you can see, how long something can be called
"new" usually depends on how long that object is going to be in existence.
However, there are other factors involved too. From the examples, a discovery
and a country could potentially last forever but a discovery, after several
months, would not be called "new" anymore. In this case, an
additional factor is how fast the "new" category is refilled. There
are new discoveries, and not new countries formed, every day and our memory is
short-lived.
Secondly, there are a lot of context-dependent usages even for the
same object. A 2 week-old car might be old enough to remove the plastic covers
off the seats but may still be new enough to not let a reckless friend drive.
Nonetheless, the reverse is true for vintage cars, wine, cheese, etc. So
basically, we nudge the usage of "new" to either side, depending on
what value a product being perceived as "old" or "new"
carries.
So is the year still "new"? Well, it is
definitely older than it was when I earlier posed this question. But hey, 2020
will live for a year. So, let's give it some benefit of the doubt.
Happy New Year! :-)
Image source: Internet
