Before we called it word salad, what did we say it was? It was schizophasia, or a formal thought disorder. In that context it is a symptom of severe mental health or neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, dementia, acute psychosis, or brain injuries. This meaning has been with us since 1904. Word salad became a common name for the condition.
In terms of recent meanings, it now has a social meaning and has been accepted into dictionaries as of 2017. Now it means something closer to nonsense. It refers to the logic or intelligence of a person's language rather than the person's mental state. It is a confused or unintelligible mixture of random words and phrases that lack coherent meaning or logical structure. The words together might be grammatically correct, but the sentence as a whole does not make sense. This use started in the 1970s and 1980s, it has come to its zenith in the last few years in the Trump era.
Today's papers covered the most recent version in the news:
"Reflecting on how Karoline Leavitt said that what Trump reveals tonight "will shock you if you have an honest eye listening to the president,” Miles Taylor quipped that “yes, and if your ears watch closely, you'll be doubly stunned.”
Here is a list from AI of the top speakers of word salad today:
Donald Trump Kamala Harris Gavin Newsom Shunyamurti Kanye West Marjorie Taylor Greene Andrew Tate Dean Phillips Jim Cramer Sarah Palin
Is this an American phenomenon? Perhaps. Or perhaps we in Canada live next to the largest nation in the world, so are witness to this more than other nations. And that makes it more likely we will see more U.S. figures and their word salad quotes given how funny some of them are.
This is a picture of the "egg salad" salad at Good Earth quite a few years ago. We remind Andrew the chef of this frequently, hoping he will make it specially for us one day. It seems to take on new meaning now.
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