Patricia Harrelson

I’ve always been fascinated by the fluidity and flexibility of the English language. While other English teachers found the use of contractions and slang in student papers a fault, I wanted to take a closer look and see if perhaps the student’s word choice revealed a sub-text or at least more than one level of communication at work in the paper.

I find it exciting to watch new words emerge and take hold in the language. For instance, I’ve watched with fascination as the word “text” has turned from a noun to a verb with the advent of text-messaging.

Journalists are perhaps most effective in creating, adopting, and adapting new words that eventually make it into the lexicon through formal inclusion into the dictionary. I haven’t done the research, but I suspect that poets are also a source of new words (though perhaps not quite so rapidly and directly as those moved forward by journalists), for poets know and enjoy language with particular relish.

My friend, poet Mary Meriam, has written a poem in which she introduces a new word for same-sexed partners who join in marriage. I’m not going to reprint the poem here as it is awaiting its initial publication in the CHIRON REVIEW. However, I do want to showcase the word which I initially read on the Lesbian Writers List-serve when Mary first posted her poem and the word with its definition.

Mary’s poem is lovely in setting the stage and rational for this new word, so forgive me dear poet if I do the word a disservice by plopping it down here without the poem:

The word is marae.
Will you be my rae?

rae [RAY]
-noun – the affectionate, legal, and religious term for the spouse or partner of a gay or lesbian person.

marae [ma-RAY]
-verb – to join as spouses or to take as a spouse, in the marriage of a gay or lesbian person.

The neologisms rae and marae are derived from “My Rae,” the name Lillian Faderman gave to her courageous and devoted aunt. As a new term for gay and lesbian partners, “my rae” honors Lillian Faderman’s tremendous courage and devotion to gays and lesbians. “Marae” means “sacred place” in Polynesia. At the marae, culture is celebrated, customs are explored and debated, and weddings and birthdays are held. [(c) 2008 Mary Meriam]

So what do you think? Will this word make its way into our lexicon? Would you use it?