Sunday, September 9, 2018

Please Don't TL;DR Me


The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has just added 840 new entries to our ever-expanding language.  I get the impression that Millennials and the members of Generation Z are seriously impacting the English language. 

There were some new entries that made sense: instagramming, mocktails and salty (yes, think salty).  There were others that left me scratching my head.  Adorb; an adjective describing something that is inspiring, delightful or cute (think adorable).  Bingeable: an adjective for something that is easy to watch or a food or drink that would be easy to indulge on.  Rando: a disparaging term for someone with whom you have no shared social connection.

Just when I had gotten used to LOL (laugh or loud) and BFF (best friend forever) we have all new acronyms.  TL;DR; the response to a lengthy online message (Too Long; Didn’t Read).  GOAT: quite simply The Greatest of all Time.

It did get me thinking about some words that were once a part of our language that now have all but disappeared.  I think about the 50’s TV show Twenty Questions where one of the initial queries always was “Is it bigger than a breadbox?”  Phone booth; I am left to wonder if Superman now has to use a Porta-Potty to change his persona.  There was a time when boss did not just refer to someone we worked for but rather a really cool car.  

I probably need to cut this off before some of you send me that TL;DR message.

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