Koru: Words We're Watching
Photo credit: New Zealand Crown CC-BY 3.0 NZ
The country of New Zealand, Australia's remote neighbor to the southeast, is likely to be getting a new flag soon. Just what that flag will look like is yet to be determined, but a government-appointed panel announced September 1st that the choice has been narrowed down to four designs. This shortlist is a refinement from 40 selected earlier out of more than 10,000 submissions.
One of the possible winners has a symbol on it that goes by a name unfamiliar to most Americans: the koru. Koru is originally a Maori word — the Maori people being the first to settle what they call Aotearoa — but it's also part of New Zealander English now.
You've probably seen a koru. It's a simple spiral shape, often in black and white, that suggests an unfurling fern frond (a phrase worth saying five times fast: unfurling fern frond). The koru is an important motif in Maori carving and tattooing, where it functions as a symbol of creation. According to Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the circular shape of the koru expresses the idea of constant movement, while the inward coil implies a return to the point of origin — the symbol thereby as a whole suggesting that life is constantly changing while also essentially staying the same.
While we're at it, that seems an apt analogy for the English language as well.
#wordswe'rewatching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry.
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