MILLENIA SPEAK

Isn't it interesting how every few decades a new language is born? Yet some of these terms are simply resurrected from prior decades.

The term hipster, for instance, has enjoyed a recent rebirth. In the late '50's/early '60's the term described a beatnik type to whom cool jazz and berets applied. Now, it's usage seems to be more directed at hippie/yuppie combos who don't own combs.

Another "in" term now is green. Now I don't recall this one from ages past in and of itself although Oregon certainly pioneered recycling of bottles and cans, a form of greening, in the '70's and some but not all states have followed suit.

My bad is another way of saying, my mistake. This one really crept up on me recently and the only possible genesis I can find for it was a Scrubs episode in its sixth season.
Wassup sounds to me like something you could attribute to Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd but it's actually just the lazy way out.


Dude is no longer found merely on the range.


Mostly though, it's the '60's and '70's that again prevail over time with accepted terms like cool, tough, bail, for real, chill out, neat, shades and veggies, all of which have virtually come to be accepted now as part of our normal vocabulary.

I wonder if I would even be able to understand a normal conversation 100 years from now, not that I need to worry.