I’m going to say this very carefully so it doesn’t get picked apart. Yes, the word was around before Harding used it, and I probably should have said it wasn’t commonly used until that time.
@lapilofu if you had quoted the entire link , you would have included the following:
and The Columbia Guide to Standard American English; others, such as The American Heritage Book of English Usage, do not even bother to include it. Bryan Garner, who is generally conservative, still rails against it in his recent Dictionary of Modern American Usage, but he appears to be in a minority. Both words are fully standard in American English. (In British English normalcy remains a disfavored word.)
Yes, I read the article, but I probably posted too quickly between calls at work, and what I meant to say was not clear. Thanks for pointing that out.