We seem to live in a world now where novel words appear from thin air. Some of these words stay around and eventually make the dictionary, others fade quickly in popularity and are gone. Tradwife is one of those that will fade but will serve some useful purpose on the road to obscurity. Also spelled in the hyphenated form trad-wife the meaning of the word starts to reveal itself. This is the obvious portmanteau of TRAD for traditional and WIFE for female spouse.
A tradwife is one who adheres to the traditional values, roles, and responsibilities that a wife has had for generations. They are grounded in religion, traditional attire, etiquette, homeschooling, and modesty. If they are homemakers, they are proud of this occupation, and are starting to share these opinions widely on social media. They have become the new influencers in that
Before there was social media, we believed that the occupation of tradwife had faded from our culture in favor of feminist beliefs that “You can have it all baby.” As women have experienced the stress and complexity of that lifestyle some are opting to return to more traditional roles, thus the tradwife culture is now being widely shared.
Nonplussed is one of those adjectives we hear, nod as if we understood, and try to move on to another conversation. Nonplussed means surprised and confused to a degree that you do not know how to react. You could substitute confused, or puzzled and get the same meaning, but not look as astute. If you look confused (nonplussed) by all this, it is because nonplussed has two meanings depending on which side of the pond you are living.
In England nonplussed means perplexed, confused, or bewildered. But in America nonplussed can mean not surprised, not impressed, unphased, or not bothered by an event. This confusion may come from transitional use of the word, and we seem to be in that changeover where the definition will go from bothered or perplexed, to laidback or unimpressed.
Strange but true, but do not be nonplussed by the shifting meaning of nonplussed, instead take it in a nonplussed fashion and move on. You cannot be right or wrong in the use of the term because it means the same thing, and the opposite thing all at the same time.
