Ridiculous!

At the risk of sounding like a snob, or an antique, I’ve been noticing an increase in – shall we say – ‘American colloquialisms’ (better known as urban slang) en vogue these days and not, in my opinion, for our betterment. I do realize that my views on this will likely produce more than a few smirks, snickers, suppressed giggles, and sarky remarks from my British friends. Yes, I do see the irony of all that I’m about to complain about. However, it’s not my fault that I wasn’t brought up with the Queen’s English! I spent my entire life proud of my ‘proper’ usage of ‘English’, only to find out (to my horror) a few years ago that ‘English’ is actually my second language!

Apparently I speak proper American-English. (Pausing for the laughter I can just about hear from over the pond).

All those years of being teased in school for my expansive vocabulary, (or the fact that my favorite [favourite] book of all time is ‘The Joy of Lex’ by Giles Brandreth) to learn that in fact I can’t even pronounce ‘Aluminum’ (Aluminium) correctly!

Yet I digress.

I grew up loving Shakespeare (though I was aware of the theory that his English may have been colloquial for its time). I inhaled the Canterbury Tales and several classics and have always been interested in the evolution of language. My grandmother and mother were very careful to insist that I use proper ‘English’ (American). I turned my nose up at words like ‘ain’t’ or ending sentences with the word ‘at’.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have unfortunately absorbed some of the older and/or milder American ‘slang’ vernacular and find myself uttering phrases I wish I hadn’t, or over-using the word ‘like’. I cannot claim perfect usage!

It occurred to me recently that today’s urban slang must make it more difficult for non-American speaking foreigners to learn our language. Take for example, the latest installment I’ve heard most recently – ‘Ridiculous’. I remember when ridiculous meant absurd or inspiring ridicule. I’m still rather attached to that definition. Apparently to some people it now means something along the lines of ‘amazing’ (in a pleasant way). It was bad enough when we had to start hearing ‘words’ (and I use that term loosely) such as ‘dude’, ‘bling’, ‘shizzle’, ‘ginormous’, ‘bass ackwards’, ‘mack’, ‘wack’, ‘lugie’, ‘bad’(meaning impressive or good), ‘tricked out’, ‘nuff. Now we have ‘ridiculous’ … and worse yet, ‘ridonculous’.

To this relic, bad means undesirable, and wack is spelled whack and is only something one might do with a stick but shouldn’t do, and mack is a type of truck or a person’s nickname perhaps. Therefore, I am holding fast to the ‘ridiculous’ I learned as a child and my definition perfectly fits my view of its current usage!


Ironically, I suspect the tables will turn on me once I am in the UK and I have to explain over and over again that, after all, English is (sadly) my second language... (and a work in progress).


I’m sure I’ll ‘bodge’ a few expressions and appear quite ‘barmy’ to some.



Gutted.