Some years ago when someone said,”guys”, it strictly meant the male of human species. Not anymore. Now “guys” can refer to boys and girls, and man and women. And for teenagers ‘crush’ means something more pleasant and far removed from ‘compress’.
It’s time to overhaul your old vocabulary and the Wren-and-Martin rules of English grammar. Words that you happily used over a decade, or even a few years ago, may not mean the same thing now. ’Cool’ no longer refers to the climate or something with low temperature. Now, anything from your dress to life can be ‘cool’.
If you say a person is ‘gay’, chances are that people will think you are referring to a homosexual and not a happy person. A senior lecturer recollects using the word to describe a day at an English class. She heard a lot of giggles in response. Now she no longer uses the word in that context. The original meaning is lost on a teenager.
Forget using such language to fit in with the crowd; you will alienate a slightly older person from a conversation if you persist with it. So, it pays to know the contemporary meaning before using any word. Since language is dynamic, a change is welcome. There is nothing to be worried about, unless you have decided not to move with the times. However it’s up to you to choose the words you want to use. There are still some youngsters who prefer using traditional English.
Head of the Department of Centre for English, Secunderabad, India, Mr. G. Rajagopal, says “Contemporary English is perfectly all right, unless it is used very loosely.”
For him it is a matter of attitude.
Youngsters learn new vocabulary through the internet or from peers. A dictionary published now would probably include these contemporary meanings of words as well. But some usages of words are tad difficult to digest. Check this out. A dusty bike is ‘sexy’, because of its adventures. When a college student says ‘sexy food’, an older person might frown at the usage. But you don’t have to react to it. Remember that they seldom attach meaning to what they say.
Are you awe-struck when you say “awesome”? Such words are called ‘square words’ because they have more than one meaning.
Take, for instance, ‘homely’. Today, it is a compliment. But, till some years ago, it only meant ‘ordinary, plain and unattractive, even ugly’.
Are teenagers willing to go back to the ‘traditional’ spoken language? Nah! That’s not so cool.