Happy 30th Birthday ‘Anglosphere’!

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So here’s something of an oddity; the Oxford English Dictionary thinks the word ‘Anglosphere’ is a mere thirty years old this month.

Usually with the. English-speaking countries considered collectively; esp. the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (and sometimes other countries), regarded as a group with a shared historical and cultural heritage. Quot. 1995 is from a science fiction novel set in a futuristic version of the world; the Anglosphere refers generally to the English-speaking parts of it. 1995 The tiny old houses and flats..had mostly been refurbished into toeholds for young Atlantans from all around the Anglosphere. N. Stephenson, Diamond Age ii. 373Citation details for N. Stephenson, Diamond Age 2004 To be part of the Anglosphere implies the sharing of fundamental customs and values at the core of English-speaking cultures. J. C. Bennett, Anglosphere Challenge ii. 79Citation details for J. C. Bennett, Anglosphere Challenge 2013 The UK lags not only behind France and Germany, but also the rest of the Anglosphere including the US and Canada, in terms of job satisfaction. London Evening Standard 10 October 61/5

Just thirty! It’s barely out of university! It can’t even afford a house of it’s own!

Now – at least to me – the word ‘Anglosphere’ has the feel of a word that comes from a distinct time and space, a 1950s space of smoke filled rooms, packs of Camel Cigarettes and circular templates of blast radii and fallout. It’s not a word born of dial-up, of Friends, of Windows 95, and of the End of History.

It is – instinctively – un-90s in feel and concept.

1995 The tiny old houses and flats..had mostly been refurbished into toeholds for young Atlantans from all around the Anglosphere. N. Stephenson, Diamond Age ii. 373

And yet here we are, the first reference for the term ‘Anglosphere’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1995’s ‘The Diamond Age‘ by Neal Stephenson – first published in the United States in February 1995.

The US hardback cover…
…And copyright page.

A quick check on ‘The British Newspaper Archive‘ has the first use in the UK and Ireland as the 6th October 1996 in the Sunday Tribune in an article about rugby.

And in the New York Times? In a November 14th, 2003 review of the rather excellent ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World‘.

Stephenson, interestingly enough, doesn’t use it in the sense that it’s used today – the United States flanked by the other English speaking nations – but to speak of a distributed, tech heavy polity that apes the styles and mores of an older, pre-suez Britain.