Catchphrases

[indieretailer]

Has anyone thought about the origin of popular catchphrases? Do you ever wish some were never created?

I had to chuckle when I read the blog posting where CHILLAX was used in one of the responses.

I first heard the phrase in the mid-90's from my husband who was working in detentions at the central jail and one of the inmates used it to tell his buddy what he was up to during lockdown --- "Just chillaxin'" (Never let them see you sweat, least of all in the big house!)

I hadn't heard of the term again until last year when I read an article about college- bound preppies in The New York Times. Now I doubt that they did time w/the same dude.

[Will]

I am generally not hip enough to learn the latest catchphrases. I used to rely on Gilmore Girls for all my hip lingo needs, but since that show ended the last catcphrase I learned was "don't tase me bro."

[mbhunter]

I'm rapidly getting old -- and if I used catchphrases very often people would see exactly how rapidly -- but I do occasionally let monster slip in as an adjective. I also make words up, like fantabulous.

[Kathryn]

When I was in HS, I picked up the phrase "my bad" (meaning "my fault," "my mistake") from a group of marching band camp instructors from a college in western Kentucky. It was only much later that I learned the phrase isn't really typical of rural white hicks, but has its origins in pickup basketball (and is more generally associated with urban blacks!) And when I first heard it, it was *long* before it broke out into the mainstream (circa 1984 or so). I'm still not quite sure how a phrase associated with black pickup basketball got incorporated so ubiquitously into the vocabulary of a handful of white college kids from western Kentucky...

[USCGamecocks]

Urbandictionary.com has a lot of them

Digging for mine...

Either... that's shady or your shady. Or Don't hate.

[72Tiger]

Originally Posted by Kathryn

When I was in HS, I picked up the phrase "my bad" (meaning "my fault," "my mistake") from a group of marching band camp instructors from a college in western Kentucky. It was only much later that I learned the phrase isn't really typical of rural white hicks, but has its origins in pickup basketball (and is more generally associated with urban blacks!) And when I first heard it, it was *long* before it broke out into the mainstream (circa 1984 or so). I'm still not quite sure how a phrase associated with black pickup basketball got incorporated so ubiquitously into the vocabulary of a handful of white college kids from western Kentucky...

I was born in 1972, and grew up in Memphis, and remember hearing 'my bad' all the time. My high school calculus teacher even used it when someone would correct him. Definitely used on the court to call a foul on yourself during pickup games.

[purplefdu]

wicked. I will say wicked till the day I die, cause thats just what NE people say. I did get to see it come into being cool and go out again in NJ though

And Will I would imagine Gossip Girl would meet your needs

[hermione]

We live too hermetic a life these days to know what's in and what's not anymore. But when I was a sophomore in high school, the phrase "da bomb" suddenly exploded (hee hee) on the social scene and all all my classmates were using it. Everything was "da bomb" - "That's da bomb!" or "You're da bomb!"

I'm not sure if it was used anywhere else other than in Hawaii (where "da" is often used instead of "the" among the locals - a pidgin influence.)

But I was and still am too prudish to say it ... it was bad enough typing it.

[vacationofwealth]

Mine is "spare me your antics!" or in shorthand SM