Language is a living organism.
When I learned English (starting in fifth grade) my
teachers, all of them, would have dinged me for referring to a single
individual as “they” or “them.”
But it’s more than the new pronouns. I learned that generation Zers use the word interesting as
a negative, when you don’t want to say someone or something is peculiar in a
negative way. To me, interesting is one of the highest compliments.
I learned that ending a text* with a period may be
grammatically correct, but Zers
find it negative and admonishing.
*Speaking of texts, lol and lmao
I learned that referring to another as being on the same
wavelength is a radio reference that makes me a hundred years old.
I learned that rad, short for radical, is high
praise. Not being empathetic to radicalism, this feels wrong. Sue me.
(Speaking of, “sue me” is also very baby-boomerish.)
Yikes is an expletive/interjection only grandmas use.
Bad used to mean bad. Then it became good, as in very
good. It’s back to being bad again, depending on the community.
Ms., once a neutral replacement to Miss/Mrs., is
moving towards Mx. and replaces Mr. also.
Language is a living thing, and that’s cool.
At least cool, which replaced warmly wonderful, has
stuck around since the 1950s.
