Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Mid-century: TV and science ·1968
Workfare
work welfare
- Meaning
- A welfare system in which benefits are conditional on working.
- Source words
- work + welfare
- Coined by
- James Charles Evers
- Year
- 1968
Background
Evers, a US civil rights activist and mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, used the word in 1968 speeches. Richard Nixon popularised it in 1969; Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform made it federal US policy.
Mid-century: TV and science
Two engines dominated: television (sitcom, televangelist) and post-war big science (pulsar, transistor). Many mid-century coinages came from scientific style sheets and industry journals.
Two words, one coinage.
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