"Dude, that's basically awesome," so said the kid who once occupied the workspace outside my office when he saw a photo of me on my Harley. (Anyone less than half my age, even if he is a college graduate, is a "kid" in my opinion if he continues to speak as if he is still in junior high school.)
When he's not abusing "basically," every other word is "awesome." They say that the younger generation always comes up with meaningless expressions that drive the older generation nuts. This is one such experience.
The word "basically" has replaced "umm" and "ahh" as a space-filler when speaking. Most people are, like, basically, afraid of, basically, dead air when they speak, so they like, basically, fill the void with "basically" just to have some noise. Isn't that awesome?
I know that I say expressions such as "that's great" or "that's neat" instead of "awesome, dude." Used sparingly, "awesome" isn't basically so bad. But "basically" is. Hardly anyone uses "basically" to mean "fundamentally." It's just awesome, however, when they do.
Life is short: basically be comfortable with a pause of silence if you need to think while speaking. That would be basically awesome, dude!
1 comment:
This post stirred in my mind the time when I was an English Language major in college and the class was asked if "awful" carried a positive or negative connotation.
I shall not spoil the game for any reader who wants to know a little more. If anyone wants to know more, go to dictionary dot com. :)
But I do agree with you, BHD. Our younger ones (I am definitely more than half your age!) are pretty limited in vocabulary. I guess we have the chatrooms and the phone messaging to thank.
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