Title : When Obama was a slang term.
link : When Obama was a slang term.
When Obama was a slang term.
Looking for something else — whether I'd ever blogged a particular video (I had) — I found this discussion, from 2009, of the use of "Obama" as a slang term:
So much to discuss!August 22, 2009
Sorry. I don't believe it was *ever* cool/hip to call something/someone "Obama" to mean it/he was cool/hip.
But the NYT nevertheless has this style piece:
LAST week, if you wanted to use the latest slang to tell a friend he was cool, you could have called him “Obama,” as in: “Dude, you’re rocking the new Pre phone? You are so Obama.”Yeesh. If you risked it before, go ahead: risk it! You seem pretty un-risk-averse. Chez Althouse, we've been thinking it's amusing to say, whenever anything's not quite right: Why did Obama let that happen? Or just — with a tone of sad disappointment: Obama.
This week? Best not to risk it.
But anyway, "Obama" as an adjective for cool/hip? The point is that it didn't last:
The life of slang is now shorter than ever, say linguists, and what was once a reliable code for identifying members of an in-group or subculture is losing some of its magic.... whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na... Ha ha. I like to think his linguistics scholarship focuses on the meaning of nonsense syllables in doo wop songs. (Because, really, WHO put the bomp?)
The Internet “is robbing slang of a lot of its sociolinguistic exclusionary power,” said Robert A. Leonard, a linguistics professor at Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na, formed in the late 1960s. “If you are in a real inside group, you are manufacturing slang so that you can exclude the wannabes.”
And that becomes harder, he added, as the whole world has access to your language.
Nowadays, everyone can check Urban Dictionary. The exclusionary game is up.
And what's the #1 entry over at Urban Dictionary for "Obama"? With 7468 up votes and 2099 down:
No real definition for this word is possible at this time. Check back in 4 years by then a consensus by have formed. Each person projects his personal beliefs and values onto this word, and a standard meaning isn't possible at this time.Hey, did it suddenly become hip and cool to be all clear-headed and rational?!
1. What was the Pre Phone?! Here's a Reuters article from June 2009: "Small crowds gathered Saturday for the official launch of Pre, the smartphone seen as Palm Inc’s best chance to claw back market share from Apple Inc’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd’s Blackberry."
2. Apparently, there was a moment when not only was it cool to have a Pre Phone but it was also cool to use the word "Obama" to mean cool. You could say "You're so Obama." It's recorded in the New York Times.
3. Robert A. Leonard... is the former Sha Na Na member still a linguistics professor, after all these years? Wikipedia says yes. He does forensic linguistics and is quoted as saying "I like to say I'm one of the very few people in the world who have worked with the FBI and the Grateful Dead."
4. Was it ever "suddenly... hip and cool to be all clear-headed and rational"? Will it ever be? I like to think it is. Why don't we just start acting as if it is? A teenage a cappella group became Sha Na Na by slicking their hair back.
5. What is currently Urban Dictionary's #1 definition for "Obama"? Here's the answer. You'll have to go to the link to read it. I had it displayed for a few minutes, but I clicked on one of the internal links and found it racist, so I undisplayed it.
Looking for something else — whether I'd ever blogged a particular video (I had) — I found this discussion, from 2009, of the use of "Obama" as a slang term:
So much to discuss!August 22, 2009
Sorry. I don't believe it was *ever* cool/hip to call something/someone "Obama" to mean it/he was cool/hip.
But the NYT nevertheless has this style piece:
LAST week, if you wanted to use the latest slang to tell a friend he was cool, you could have called him “Obama,” as in: “Dude, you’re rocking the new Pre phone? You are so Obama.”Yeesh. If you risked it before, go ahead: risk it! You seem pretty un-risk-averse. Chez Althouse, we've been thinking it's amusing to say, whenever anything's not quite right: Why did Obama let that happen? Or just — with a tone of sad disappointment: Obama.
This week? Best not to risk it.
But anyway, "Obama" as an adjective for cool/hip? The point is that it didn't last:
The life of slang is now shorter than ever, say linguists, and what was once a reliable code for identifying members of an in-group or subculture is losing some of its magic.... whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na... Ha ha. I like to think his linguistics scholarship focuses on the meaning of nonsense syllables in doo wop songs. (Because, really, WHO put the bomp?)
The Internet “is robbing slang of a lot of its sociolinguistic exclusionary power,” said Robert A. Leonard, a linguistics professor at Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na, formed in the late 1960s. “If you are in a real inside group, you are manufacturing slang so that you can exclude the wannabes.”
And that becomes harder, he added, as the whole world has access to your language.
Nowadays, everyone can check Urban Dictionary. The exclusionary game is up.
And what's the #1 entry over at Urban Dictionary for "Obama"? With 7468 up votes and 2099 down:
No real definition for this word is possible at this time. Check back in 4 years by then a consensus by have formed. Each person projects his personal beliefs and values onto this word, and a standard meaning isn't possible at this time.Hey, did it suddenly become hip and cool to be all clear-headed and rational?!
1. What was the Pre Phone?! Here's a Reuters article from June 2009: "Small crowds gathered Saturday for the official launch of Pre, the smartphone seen as Palm Inc’s best chance to claw back market share from Apple Inc’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd’s Blackberry."
2. Apparently, there was a moment when not only was it cool to have a Pre Phone but it was also cool to use the word "Obama" to mean cool. You could say "You're so Obama." It's recorded in the New York Times.
3. Robert A. Leonard... is the former Sha Na Na member still a linguistics professor, after all these years? Wikipedia says yes. He does forensic linguistics and is quoted as saying "I like to say I'm one of the very few people in the world who have worked with the FBI and the Grateful Dead."
4. Was it ever "suddenly... hip and cool to be all clear-headed and rational"? Will it ever be? I like to think it is. Why don't we just start acting as if it is? A teenage a cappella group became Sha Na Na by slicking their hair back.
5. What is currently Urban Dictionary's #1 definition for "Obama"? Here's the answer. You'll have to go to the link to read it. I had it displayed for a few minutes, but I clicked on one of the internal links and found it racist, so I undisplayed it.
Thus articles When Obama was a slang term.
You now read the article When Obama was a slang term. with the link address https://welcometoamerican.blogspot.com/2023/05/when-obama-was-slang-term.html
0 Response to "When Obama was a slang term."
Post a Comment