I urge any parent to read Robert Macfarlane’s article, A word to the wild, in the recent National Trust magazine (Autumn 2015) about our vanishing natural words. It’s a bombshell to any parent who has a garden, enjoys woodland walks or strolls and playtime in urban parks.
In brief: Robert, a landscape and travel writer, was astonished to discover that the 2007 new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary (aimed at 7 to 9 year olds) had omitted some key words connected with nature. The reason – they were ‘no longer considered relevant to a modern-day childhood’.
Children apparently no longer need know or care about things such as an acorn, bluebell, buttercup, conker, heron, pasture, poppy, willow.
Their replacement? You’ve probably guessed – MP3 player, chatroom, cut-and-paste and voice-mail, among others. The disconnection with nature ‘is greater than its ever been. Nine out of ten children can identify a Dalek, but only three out of ten a magpie’. Children spend more and more time on computers and less and less time outdoors.
Robert went on a mission to collect local words, phrases and descriptions about nature, and discovered over 3000 of them in various dialects across the country. For example, he cites in the article that a Roak is an East Yorkshire term for a sea-mist that rolls into shore, and a Hazeling, in Hertfordshire , means of a spring morning, warm and damp and good for sowing seed.
The rich collection of his research, findings, and personal reflections can be found in his latest book, Landmarks (2015), which encourages readers to re-engage with the language of the natural world.
Plants and us 