Chrysti The Wordsmith: Rat Race

The Montana State University in Bozeman this is Christie the wordsmith. Most North American English speakers know that the expression rat race refers to a working life of unrelenting struggle for wealth status and success. A relative newcomer to the language the phrase rat race in this context started appearing in print in the US in the late 1930s and more about that in a moment. Apparently there are other rat races in the language as well in the mid-1930s. Someone involved in a rat race was probably young and high spirited because at that time the term belonged to jazz fans and was the name of a dance performed in clubs to live music military dictionaries tell us our rat race is also a type of aerial maneuver a fighter race between planes at close quarters a sense that emerged in one thousand thirty one. The phrase is still a part of aeronautical language. But by far the most significant of the rat races is the one referring to the exhausting scramble for survival in the modern world. This sense of the phrase was

first printed in 1937 and gained real traction in the language in the 50s and 60s. The success of the phrase relies on the image of urban rodents vying for sustenance in a contaminated teeming environment or of lab rats made to negotiate mazes for another's benefit. Both vivid metaphors for the modern overworked employee. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman But Dave or before so Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Pseud web dot com.