Phrase that came out of the blue

[razztazz]

Nah. That term has been in circulation for 20 years.

Might be regional. I've been hearing it for about 30 yrs

 

[friar1610]

bcc

If true dat is new to you, you've not watched The Wire, ya feel me?

When I saw the first post that was my immediate reaction. In addition, I lived in Baltimore County at the time I FIRED and had a 2 year volunteer tutor gig at an inner city adult learning center in Southwest Baltimore (SOWEBO)My experience there plus The Wire make me think the expression might have originated in Baltimore. No doubt.

ETA: Did not realize this was a reboot of a pretty old thread. My bad.

 

[Chuckanut]

I'm going to have to reluctantly agree with you on this one. Try as I may, I can't help but judge people based on their use of the written form of the language. Trouble is, I encounter so many intelligent and successful young people who just don't seem to think that proper grammar is important. The complete lack of uppercase letters in a piece of prose is close to a cardinal sin in my book, but if everyone is doing it, what am I supposed to do?

A friend of mine who used to teach Language Arts in high school calls the lack of proper grammar and punctuation The Lawyer's Full Employment Act.

It was only a few years ago that some company in Maine had to pay millions of dollars in extra overtime thanks to a misplaced comma in a new law.

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-...-did-make-its-employees-5-million-richer.html

Under the terms of the agreement, the five "named" plaintiffs (those who led the suit) will each receive $50,000. Any of the approximately 127 drivers involved who file claims will receive a minimum of $100 or the amount of overtime pay owed from between May 2008 and August 2012.



The moral of the story? Words matter. So does punctuation.



That's why Maine has since edited the law, using semi-colons instead of commas.

 

[pb4uski]

For people in customer service, "Perfect!" has become a verbal tic. It bothers me slightly because I was taught to use "perfect" sparingly - as in, something that is the very best it can be. ....

Yeah... like in phone calls between heads of state.

 

[Plantman]

"Whatever". I find that phrase to be very rude. Another one I don't care for is "cray cray".

 

[pb4uski]

"Whatever". I find that phrase to be very rude. ...

It is sort of meant to be rude.

 

[Montecfo]

Might be regional. I've been hearing it for about 30 yrs

Let's see: Hammer released "2 Legit 2 Quit" in 1991. Legit dates at least to then. So yes, 30 years.

 

[COcheesehead]

Geet. Wisconsin for “did you eat?”
Typical reply: jew? In other words “did you?”

 

[Keim]

Nah. That term has been in circulation for 20 years.

More like 30. Hammer says: 2 Legit 2 Quit

 

[skipro33]

O.K. Boomer...
Respect for elders is non existent.

 

[blueskyk]

'Loosing'...now there's one you don't hear too often.

[emoji23] yes! I can’t recall the last time I was ‘loosing’ anything...perhaps some sort of plumbing repair...

 

[Andre1969]

Wow, nine whole pages of discussion about this and no one has mentioned one I've been hearing a lot lately: legit. Seems like people started using it out of the blue about 6-8 months ago, and I'm hearing it more and more from people of all stripes recently. Probably the most annoying new slang trend I've noticed over the past year.

Legit is probably one of those slang words that got so old it's suddenly new again. Probably originated with MC Hammer with that "2 Legit 2 Quit" song. Hell, it probably existed before then. (**Edit: I posted this before I noticed others beat me to the Hammer punch )

One thing I've noticed lately is that the word "Super" seems to suddenly become popular as an adjective. As in, "I'm SUPER tired" "I'm SUPER busy right now" and so on. To me it sounds old fashioned, like 1950's-speak.

And the word "Finna". As in "I'm finna go out tonight". Basically a contraction of "fixing to", "finally going to" etc. It just sounds like old fashioned country-speak to me, like something Uncle Jed or Granny would say on the Beverly Hillbillies.

Speaking of which, that show is on in the background now, and I just heard Granny say "Taint" I don't think it means that, any more.

Here's the context...
Jethro: "It's too early to do spring cleaning!"
Granny: "Taint neither!"

 

[braumeister]

Legit is probably one of those slang words that got so old it's suddenly new again.

It's been around since the early 20th century.

 

[jazz4cash]

Just received email from Goldman Sachs for their new app proclaiming “you can money”

It’s annoying to me when they make any word into a verb outta the blue.