Re: Youth slang

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:12:41 -0700, Bob Cunningham
<exw6sxq@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 01:10:29 -0000, Mitch
<maharri@xxxxxxxxx> said:

On Aug 4, 12:28 pm, que.sara.saraDEL...@xxxxxxxxx (Sara Lorimer)
wrote:
Mitch <maha...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(Knowing this is a terribly small sample...)

...

Executive summary: I don't think it's changing that much.

Are you sure you're up-to-date with the latest slang?

No. That is, no, I'm not sure. Or rather, I'm pretty sure that I'm
not. The point was that I would expect there to be all sorts of new
slang (and that may very well be so, nothing special comes to mind),
but what stands out is that I hear slang from my youth still being
used. Weird because it's not weird. Or something.

I've never been able to hear 'swell or 'groovy' except as old-
fashioned or period or ironic, but 'cool' I still hear being used in a
non-ironic way.

I've been so used over the years to accepting "great" as a
mere term of approval that its use to mean "large" tends to
seem a little strange to me.

Doctor: The patient has a great swelling in his foot.
Nurse: What's so great about a swelling? ... Oh, you mean
big.

When I lived in New Jersey, it seemed that some TV ads kept mentioning
Great Gorge as a vacation spot. That's one of the few uses of "great"
to mean large that I can remember. AmE "great" seems to be synonymous
with BrE "brilliant," more or less.

--
Al in St. Lou
.

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  • Re: Youth slang
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