# Calling a Depression a Depression

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 17, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287 "2010-01-17T04:49:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287/21 "2010-01-19T16:51:41Z")

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> [@BigNik](#):
>
> What **RealityChuck** says is right, but the term was invented in the 1890s to describe what was currently happening without calling it a “panic”, which was the common term of the day.
> 
> “Recession” was created after the Great Depression as a milder form still. I believe at least the term “recession” (and possibly the term “depression”) were originally invented by the Wall Street Journal, but I don’t have a cite.

I can see a trend here:

Pre-1890s: “Panic”.  
Post-1931: “Depression”.  
Post-1940s: “Recession”.  
Post-2000s: “Downturn”.  
Post-2020s: “Move along now, nothing for you to see here”.  
Post-2020s: “Fluffy bunny tickles”.

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**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287/22 "2010-01-19T17:40:51Z")

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> [@Ace309](#):
>
> How are you defining ‘depression’?

The definition I’ve always heard was:

A downturn is when your neighbor is out of work.

A recession is when your brother-in-law is out of work.

A depression is when you’re out of work.

(I’m in my sixties, and used to hear stories about living through the Great Depression from my parents. What we’re going through now isn’t even close.)

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**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287/23 "2010-01-19T18:25:28Z")

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So will recession be a dirty word after the current Great Recession and we’ll have to move onto something even more euphemistic? I vote softening as the next word.

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**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287/24 "2010-01-19T18:56:55Z")

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> [@Shalmanese](#):
>
> So will recession be a dirty word after the current Great Recession and we’ll have to move onto something even more euphemistic? I vote softening as the next word.

I dunno. I kind of likes **jjimm** ’s “Fluffy Bunny Tickles” idea. I mean if we’re going to resort to euphemisms, let’s go all in.

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**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-a-depression-a-depression/525287/25 "2010-01-19T21:37:42Z")

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There was someone in the Ford Administration who tried to call the 1974-75 recession as “sideways waffling”. Didn’t catch on.

I have to say the OP assertion that the USA has been in a depression since since 2001 is flat out stupid.

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