The Recency illusion is the belief or impression that something is of recent origin when it is in fact long-established.

The term was invented by Arnold Zwicky

Arnold Zwicky

Arnold M. Zwicky is a perennial Visiting Professor of linguistics at Stanford University, and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Ohio State University....

, a linguist at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 who was primarily interested in examples involving words, meanings, phrases, and grammatical constructions. However, use of the term is not restricted to linguistic phenomena: Zwicky has defined it simply as, "the belief that things you have noticed only recently are in fact recent".

Linguistic items prone to the Recency Illusion include:

• "Singular they
  Singular they
  Singular they is the use of they to refer to an entity that is not plural, or not necessarily plural. Though singular they is widespread in everyday English and has a long history of usage, debate continues about its acceptability...
  
  " - the use of they to reference a singular antecedent, as in someone said they liked the play. Although this usage is often cited as a modern invention, it is found in Jane Austen and Shakespeare.
• The phrase between you and I, which likewise can be found in Early Modern English.
• The intensifier
  Intensifier
  Intensifier is a linguistic term for a modifier that amplifies the meaning of the word it modifies. Examples are "very," "quite," "extremely," "highly," and "greatly." An intensifier is the opposite of a qualifier, a modifier that weakens the word modified: "fairly," "somewhat," "rather," "a...
  
   really as in it was a really wonderful experience, and the moderating adverb pretty as in it was a pretty exciting experience. Many people have the impression that these usages are somewhat slang
  Slang
  Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
  
  -like, and have developed relatively recently. In fact, they go back to at least the 18th century, and are commonly found in the works and letters of such writers as Benjamin Franklin
  Benjamin Franklin
  Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
  
  .
• "Aks" as a production of African American English only. Use of "aks" in place of "ask" dates back to the 1600s and Middle English, though typically in this context spelled "ax."

According to Zwicky, the illusion is caused by selective attention

Selective perception

Selective perception may refer to any number of cognitive biases in psychology related to the way expectations affect perception.For instance, several studies have shown that students who were told they were consuming alcoholic beverages perceived themselves as being "drunk", exhibited fewer...

.

External links

• New Scientist article (subscription only; hard copy at New Scientist
  New Scientist
  New Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
  
  , 17 November 2007 p. 60)