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Word fads

#1
Magical Realist Offline
I like to take note of various word fads---the tendency for certain words to be used in a certain new way for a period of time. Take "really?" for example. Used to be asking really? meant "is that really true?" But over the past several years it has assumed a certain faddish hip function of asking "seriously" in regards to someone's outlandish words or behavior. Other new word fads I've noticed: "full on" and "nailed it!". How about "don't go there!" Or "sick" and "sweet" meaning something especially fine. And lets not forget "wow" usually said in a droll monotone voice as if the sarcastically express surprise regarding something only moderately odd. Here's another one that gets me:

"It’s time once again for whining about words. There is just so much fodder out there, how can I resist?

I do tend to go on and on about bad word usage, which, to the uptight wordies among us, is like squeaky chalk on a blackboard. Surely, people still remember chalk and blackboards – and I know some readers remember and care about speech and words and writing as well. I know because they tell me they do.

So I rail on and share the pulpit with those of you I consider fellow travelers in language. But I begin by revisiting an old friend. I have spoken about the word “amazing” before, but it deserves an encore, now that care about it has been officially, sort of, sanctioned by TV’s “The View.”

I complain that everything is amazing. Listen to any conversation or interview or any group of words spoken aloud, and there it is, ad nauseam – a new bauble is declared amazing, as is a new application for your iPhone, haircut or whatever other new little distraction is being discussed. These items may be pretty, nice, colorful, sweet, silly or maybe even mildly interesting. But please, let’s snatch back amazing from trivialization and save its use for things that truly are – a breakthrough in research on a dread disease, discovery of a new species or a near-death experience.

Earlier this month on “The View,” daytime TV’s topical gab fest among a group of women, Joy Behar, a comedian whose style I find irritating (I irritate easily, it appears), complained that amazing is overused, applied equally to someone’s outfit and something of true significance. I may have to rethink my evaluation of Behar."===http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/ma...t-amazing/


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