Survival of the Wittiest

‘Killjoys and scatterbrains might have propelled the evolution of the human species. This is, essentially, the theory proposed by linguist Ljiljana Progovac in a new paper published in PNAS Nexus.

Progovac argues that clever verb-noun compounds like killjoy—which has a bit more punch than joy killer—were the earliest forms of verbal wit and helped the species survive. They enabled our ancestors to both soothe tempers with humor and compete with words rather than with fists. The wittier the human, the more likely that human would survive…’ ( via Nautilus)