Today, culture is understood as many things, ranging from artistic and intellectual achievements to local and regional practices and beliefs. Culture encompasses a nearly infinite variety of aspects of daily life. While a country as a whole can have an overarching culture, individual communities also may have unique cultures and traditions.
The best way to understand the history of the word “culture” is to begin with its Latin root cultūra, which referred to cultivation, tillage, caring for, and growing plants. In the mid-15th century, “culture” referred specifically to the action of tilling the earth to prepare it for crops, but over time, the word evolved from a sense of “cultivation of the soil” into “cultivation (of the mind, faculties, or manners).”
While the word was originally tied to the land, cultures are not necessarily tied to location. Interests, sports, and hobbies create the kinds of cultures that ignore borders in favor of shared passions. Let’s explore some of the words that have been created to describe new cultures.
“Festival”
While the word “festival” doesn’t exist in every language, almost every culture celebrates a festival of some kind, and the word conjures an image of joyous celebration. The first festivals occurred in ancient Greece and Rome, and while the origins of the word “festival” are associated with religious commemorations, today’s celebrations can be sacred or secular.
Originally used as an adjective in the late 14th century, “festival” comes from the Latin festivalis, meaning “of a church holiday.” The first recorded use of the word as a noun was in 1589, as “Festifall.” Today “festival” can refer to a wide range of events, from the Festival of Lights of Hanukkah to Coachella, one of the most popular music festivals in the U.S. There are large and small film festivals, seasonal celebrations, and local festivals for everything from cheese rolling (Gloucestershire, England) to hollerin’ (Spivey Creek, North Carolina). Whether it’s the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan, Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, or the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, all festivals share a common purpose: to celebrate as a community.
“Kitsch”
There’s a thriving community around antiquing, vintage shopping, and flea marketing. Sometimes shoppers are seeking high-quality items to decorate their homes or perhaps to resell. Others may simply browse. Each hunter has their own particular interest, but a certain genre is called “kitsch.”
The Latin expression “De gustibus non est disputandum” translates as, “There is no disputing about tastes,” or more familiarly, “There’s no accounting for taste.” It’s an expression that could very well describe all things kitsch. This German loanword literally means “gaudy trash” and has been applied to art, objects, and design that are considered to be of poor taste — or “tacky.”
Associated with sentimentality and consumerism, as well as the cheap mass-production of pop culture items, “kitsch” can refer to anything from Hummel figurines to snow globes from roadside tourist spots to Thomas Kinkaid paintings. But while yesterday’s Precious Moments collectibles might be today’s kitsch, the midcentury pop-art era, introducing brightly colored Campbell’s soup cans as art, rendered kitsch as something to be appreciated.
Though the word “kitsch” is still used to refer to anything of questionable taste, not all kitsch is, well, trash. In 2015, the first “Dogs Playing Poker” painting — painted in 1894 by American artist Cassius Marcellus Coolidge — sold at auction for $658,000. So whether you collect velvet Elvis paintings or black cat clocks, be proud of your kitsch — it could one day make you rich. (But probably not.)
“Glitterati”
“Glitterati” is a relatively recent portmanteau that combines two 17th-century terms — “literati,” referring to knowledgeable people of letters, and “glitter,” evoking sparkling light.
Coined in the 1950s, “glitterati” captured a changing attitude about who was deemed worthy of respect and attention. In the 17th century, those commanding respect were the literati — wise and well-read individuals, from authors to poets to academics. By the mid-20th century, with the advent of movies and TV and attendant celebrity pop culture, the most-beloved public figures were no longer scholars, but Hollywood stars — think Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, and Elizabeth Taylor.
While certainly not limited to movie stars, “glitterati” implied that all members of the entertainment and fashion elite have a bit of light shining off of them. Today’s social media influencers make up the modern glitterati, along with A-list stars such as Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie, Harry Styles, Ryan Gosling, Beyoncé, and Kristen Stewart.
“Disco”
Today, music aficionados might still flip through stacks of albums at thrift stores to add to their record collections, but almost 100 years ago, those shoppers would have added their purchases to a personal “discotheque,” the word used to describe the record collection. Patterned after the French word for “library” (bibliothèque), the origins of “discotheque” show us that what was once a collection turned into a music genre, a place to party, and a way of life.
During World War II, Parisian dance clubs were banned from playing live music (Nazis were targeting musicians), so they played records instead. The word “discothèque” already meant “a library of phonograph records,” and the restrictions quickly morphed the definition of the word to refer to a place where records were played.
As a figure of speech, this type of swap — where a general word or attribute is used to reference another specific concept — is called “metonymy,” such as when “the crown” is used to represent the concept of the British monarchy. In a span of about 10 years, the discotheque transformed from a library of albums to the hottest spot in town to show off one’s dance moves.
On the American rock ’n’ roll scene in the 1950s, young people started bringing their own records to clubs, and the term “discotheque” hopped over to English. By the mid-1960s, it was common for bars and clubs to be called “discotheques,” or “discos” for short. And by the 1970s, “disco” had also, naturally, become a dominant music genre played at those bars and clubs. The disco sound is typified by an uptempo beat, repetitive vocals, string arrangements, and a catchiness that inspires dancers to move. Newer technology in electronic guitars, basses, and synthesizers contributed to the 1970s musical explosion and the rise of such popular performers as Donna Summer, The Bee Gees, Chic, and Gloria Gayner.
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