Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for July 18, 2015

Since they will be writing the next generation dictionary… ugh, just the thought made me shudder

Not so judgy there, Bub!

Teenagers seem to have invented or at least claimed as their own the non-word “conversate.” It drives me batty!

Now, now, when we were teenagers, we had our own vernacular that bothered the adults. It’s part of the process of growing up and proof the English language is still vital and changing.

I teach about life in the 1700s, and it’s amazing how much the English language has changed. If we were dropped into NYC in 1750, it would be as if people were speaking a foreign language. What the heck is a belly-bone? (And NO, it is not a dirty word!)

Here come the judgy.

Teenagers are the creators of new words.

Judgy is not found in the dictionary. I say if it’s not in the dictionary, it’s not really a word. Not to say that I don’t use fake words myself. But I know they’re fake words.

My favorite is saying “Judgy McJudgerson” when talking about someone.

At least it’s not a ridiculous compound word, as in, a word created by inexplicably and foolishly combining two perfectly self-sufficient words in unholy matrimony. OK, sometimes it makes sense, but then someone comes up with something like ‘meggings’ to denote leggings for men. Is it really so difficult to say ‘leggings for men?’ If we start to fuse together every two words that happen to fall alongside each other in our language, it’s not long before we’ll have a brand new language. Or should I say ‘nanguage?’

I’m quite the computer geek, and what really bothers me is people using setup as a verb. Setup is a noun, not a verb, and using it as a verb doesn’t change that.