Raising the Word Count

Each generation brings it's own verbal ideas into the world. Words like 'awesome', 'groovy' and '23-scadoo' have graced our language. We teach our children how to talk, showing them the difference between their noses and their mouths. We form each word carefully so they know exactly how to pronounce their new verbal abilities. Then, they become teenagers and introduce us to a whole new language.

My generations brought to the world phrases such as 'totally tubular' and 'gag me with a spoon'. My mother's generations gave us the terms 'outta sight' and 'keep on truckin'. I distinctly remember my grandfather referring to my grandmother as 'the cat's pajamas'. I never quite understood why he would compare her to feline sleepwear, but it made her smile.

Today's youth have introduced a whole new era of odd sounding words or gave old words new meanings. Things I used to see as being 'cool' are now seen as 'hot' and as I recall, 'dope' was something that had legality issues behind it.

Television and movies have also helped our vocabulary expand as our favorite characters would throw out some new catch phrase that would sweep the nation like a wild fire. In the 70's, a certain greasy haired, bad boy gave a minor little vowel it's day in the sun by sticking up his thumbs and uttering the phrase, "aaaayyyyyyy". In the 80's, a California surfer dude explained the waves of the ocean as 'tasty' and the good things in life were 'righteous'. A bumbling duo of the 80's taught us that when things were going well, they were 'excellent', but when the chips were down, life was 'bogus'.

In the 90's, thin women were said to be 'phat'. If that same woman was both thin and beautiful, she was 'all that and a bag of chips'. Girls that were offered something they had no intention of accepting were usually heard saying things like 'As if' or would tell someone to leave her alone before she 'went postal'.

As we left one millennia and entered the next, once again we were inundated with a new way to talk. For example, when a young person applied themselves with gold jewelry, they were wearing their 'bling', and when we'd go out to get something to eat, we were getting some 'grindage'.

In the future, I'm sure we'll have plenty of new words to play with. Our grandchildren will come in spewing words we thought we knew, only to find out that they've once again been changed to fit their lifestyles. As our parents before, we'll cringe each time the younger generation defiles the English language, and the cycle will continue for many generations to come. As they try and explain the new definition of each new word, we'll sit back in our recliners and just say "Yada, yada, yada".