Care

With global shortages of health-care workers, child care, eldercare and care for people with disabilities, news outlets around the world have reported a crisis worsened by COVID-19 pandemic. In The Care Manifesto (Verso Books, 2020), authors observe, ‘Rhetorically at least, governments worldwide responded [to pandemic], in sharp contrast to 2019, talk is currently everywhere’ (p.7). A glimpse into care's long history adds what Raymond Williams described as ‘just that extra edge consciousness’ (Keywords, 1976) understand implications contemporary English usage. word's complexity arises not only from its status noun verb but also ability describe, variously, an action, feeling, supervision, paid or unpaid labour object itself, well strong association conflicting ‘positive’ ‘negative’ emotions. word inherited Germanic first attested before eleventh century forms. derives Old caru, cearu, carian. OED includes quotations Beowulf (c. 975–1025) documenting some earliest uses entries both (‘Cearu wæs geniwod, geworden wicun’ [sorrow was renewed, it had come dwellings]) (‘na ymb his lif cearað’ [he never cared about life]). sense 1 denotes ‘Mental suffering, sorrow, grief, trouble’ ‘Utterance sorrow; lamentation, mourning’ now obsolete. 2b entry remains active today: ‘To feel concern (great little), be concerned, trouble oneself, interest. Also colloquial phrases expressing implying lack interest concern: all I see if who cares?’ Beginning thirteenth century, other-directed action provision: ‘to take thought for, provide look after, of’. Still today, this applies many contexts, including parenting, eldercare, pet keeping, farming, health care. 5 most recent verb, indicates addition affective meaning. This denoting regard, fondness, attachment for’ dates back sixteenth could used describe one's feelings person thing. common collocation when meant about, whereas typically describes i.e. hands-on caregiving. While notes originally negative constructions (e.g. he to; they nothing; not), affirmative are Although sorrow grief obsolete, emotions mental suffering palpable two senses still active. 2 ‘Burdened state mind arising fear, doubt, anything; solicitude, anxiety, perturbation’, 3a defines ‘Serious grave attention; charging concern; heed, heedfulness, attention, regard; caution, pains’. These highlight possible perceptions caregiving burden emphasize potential physical, mental, emotional impacts on carers. Other today include meaning ‘Charge; oversight view protection, preservation, guidance’ (OED 4a) related phrase 4b), which can mean but, interestingly, deal with, dispose From late meanings mind, oversight, itself often plural, idioms ‘not world’ cares shoulders’. adjectival form careless ‘Free apprehension’, became archaic seventeenth attributed more positively connoted adjective, carefree, while suggests ‘having no about’ ‘inattentive, negligent, thoughtless’. adjective careful ‘Full grief; mournful; sorrowful’ antonym commonly ‘circumspect, watchful, cautious’ full someone something applying attention work. As concise outline semantic development illustrates, forms, has multiple competing strands over course history, become challenging Both forms show high relative frequency, being frequently than (100–1000 times vs. 10–100 per million words) typical modern usage according OED. wide range collocations modifiers explains higher frequency noun. Some consisting preceding foster intensive primary medical these collocations, refers either work provided individuals doctors, nurses, assistants, parents, other family members) institution meet material, social, and/or needs receivers Among receive reflect transactional relational nature Frequent words follow near-synonyms caregiver, caretaker, provider, home, pathway, work, package. features number draft additions 2001 comment specific mentioned above. synonymous treatment given patient worker, suggested term defined optimal sequence steps diagnosis particular disorder plan individual. workers may considered subtype teaching, domestic done service others. compensated case teaching scholars fields such feminist economics, gender studies, sociology recognized, deeply necessary undervalued disproportionately performed women, ethnic minorities, immigrants, poor. British expression community social disabilities living issue within relatives instead hospitals institutions result governmental policy aiming reduce institutional provision long-term similar shift away provisions through welfare public assistance programmes toward ideas self-sufficiency individualized responsibility well-being evident current use self-care. According OED, mid-sixteenth denoted ‘Concern regard oneself; self-interested behavior’ mid-nineteenth expanded ‘The activity taking own health, appearance, well-being’, today. Caring oneself undoubtedly important, yet self-care rhetoric rendered nearly meaningless, companies, media posts, articles labelling almost everything lighting candle spa face mask #selfcare. commodified, neoliberal version far cry writer civil rights activist Audre Lorde envisioned she wrote following Burst Light (1988): ‘Caring myself self-indulgence, self-preservation, act political warfare’ (p.131). industry capitalized individuals, sales consumer goods boomed absence affordable equitable access basic need essential survival humans, animals, plants alike. Without it, societies would cease function. Yet equitably—it highly gendered workplace women accounting 70% workforce (World Health Organization). Early connotations echo careworn, caregiving, caregiver burnout, exhausting even burden. fear responsibilities productivity compete amplified ideal vision ‘every themselves’. Thus, claims value heard everywhere, continued devaluation marginalization caregivers, tells different story. See access, emotion, empathy, responsibility, Holly Yanacek associate professor German James Madison University. Her research focuses narration, gender, ethics posthumanism nineteenth- twenty-first-century Germanophone literature culture. co-edited Animals, Machines, AI: On Human Non-Human Emotions Modern Cultural History (DeGruyter, 2021) Erika Quinn Keywords Today (OUP, 2018) Colin MacCabe.