Monday, September 26, 2005

Words To Live By

Willard Gaylin once said, ~English is such a deliciously complex and undisciplined language which we can bend, fuse, distort words to all our purpose. We give old words new meaning, and we borrow new words from any language that intrude into our intellectual enviorment.~ Without a doubt, as a society, we are influenced by the words we hear, read, or said by other people. Its the popularity of a word or words that determine whether it has longevity or dies out due to it becoming so overused. Case in point, "that's hot" made popular by Paris Hilton is no turned into the two most annoying words uttered by a human being. Let me ask you this question, is there a word or words that you unknowingly or knowingly say that is part of your everyday speech?

One of my favorite words to say to my friends back in the day was the word psyche. As a matter of fact, we've all used that word at some point in our childhood and its like the equivalent to being punk'd without the elaborates setups planned by one's friends, family, and/or co-workers. For the most part, it was mainly all you as you knowingly led someone to believe something to be true only to pull the rug out from under him, her, or them and nobody got hurt physically, as well as, mentally. Unfortunately, psyche is no longer in circulation as a word that today's generation of kids which, in my honest opinion, should make a comback and be put back into circulation. So, if you ever have the opportunity say it to someone to keep the word alive.

You would never think three normal words such as yeah, okay, and what would become so popular that its basically part of pop culture. Essentially, man responsible for influencing this 3 word phenomenon is the man known as Lil John. You know you've made three simple word popular when comedian Dave Chapelle impersonates you and take those words to a whole new level of popularity. Working in the asylum, it can oftentimes be amusing but also frustratiing trying to talk to "my kids" and he or she is basically repeating those words just to be annoying. So annoying in fact, that I realized why most parents have become crazy, which includes my own parents as well.

Undoubtedly, the one man who teaches us new words to learn on a seemingly daily basis is Snoop Dogg. Such words from the Snoop Dogg dictionairy are: chuch, crackalackin, and fshizzle mnizzle mdizzle which has been said not only by young kids but also by senior citizens.You can't turn on the radio, television, or even watch a movie and not have some kind of Snoopism reference in there somewhere. Snoop makes the words he says fun to say and most of the time you dont feel like a complete dork saying it no matter how old you are. Destinguished rapper, clothing designer, actor, football coach, car designer, and now added to the list, creator of words.

If you ever meet me in person, there is one word that I tend to use on a regular basis and that is dude. If you think about it, its a word that has a universal meaning which can describe emotions such as anger, confusion, happiness, etc. Personally speaking, I call every one of "my kids" dude because quite frankly trying to remember 100 names can be quite difficult at times especially during the summer. In retrospect, words such as bling and crunk will and forever be are part of the mainstream, if you don't believe me open your dictionaries. In the end, there will be plenty of new words created that will be heard and said in our lifetime, and you know what they will primarily be words to live by.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Are you related to Charlie abundo from Olongapo city