New Words

I don't know if any of you have ever encountered this phenomenon, but I have a senior associate who shows up now and again at the place where I work, and kind of has a "word of the day" thing that he does.  Most people, granted, tailor their language to their audience, (like not swearing at your pastor, grandma, or dominatrix) but this guy seems to upload a new adjective and use it exclusively, and you're sick of it by the time he's gone.  "Special."  "Strong."  These are kind of okay.  The last one though, was "Tasty," and I think we're scarred for life.

"You could bring this forward, and make this whole statement very tasty."

"This is a really tasty use of green."

Bleagh.  It's like taking a word of the English language and just squeezing all of the relevance out of it and making it feel kind of icky and used up all at once.  My co-worker can't even hear it said anymore without making a face.  The strangest thing about this is that he seems to co-opt his language from others.  Herein lies our revenge for last visit's misuse of the word "tasty."

We are going to make up our own slang, foist it off on him in conversation, and see if he can carry it, like a virus, to his next stop.  Meme-like, it will worm its way into the lexicon.  That's a best case scenario.  Worst case?  The people at the next stop stare at him like something gross and brown (maybe even with a thorax) found on a toothbrush.  Examples?

ME: "We put a lot of effort in this display, and we think it turned out really hardcock."

HIM: "What?"

ME: "I said, with all the effort we put into this, I'm glad it looks as hardcock as it does."

HIM: "What?"

And so on.  I know this works, because I said it a dozen times or so in front of my co-worker today before she finally asked me to slow down and enunciate it for her.  This guy will never do that, because asking someone to slow down is like admitting defeat, and he's just not like that.  So, we're ready to put this hardcock thing into action next time we see him - if I can keep everyone else from getting the giggles.

Comments

[Brett]

It's just this sort of person that treats our language, our words, with disrespect. I liken it to rape, really. This man is raping the language. Make a proper buffoon out of him.

I'll take a swag that choadloafer takes it in the brownie bin.

[Basford]

Another brilliant Squidbag suggestion for life!

When I first started reading this, I thought the "word of the day" thing meant somebody who has one of those "word of the day" calendars and tries to slip large words into his/her conversation, with bad results. Today's Dictionary.com word of the day is "tumid". If you find somebody using that, you know they're faking their literacy - be sure to traduce their efforts.

But then you say this person is using the approach for everyday words. Blleeaaghhh.

You mentioned co-opting language of others. One place where I work, there is a manager who does this. This week, this totally pasty white product of a Southern Wisconsin farm town started using the word "Aight". You just want to slap people sometimes. But that wouldn't be tasty.

[Jesse]

I have a particular problem with using "tasty", as it's not only ridiculous, it's really fucking creepy.

In my line of work, that'd certainly be grounds for dismissal.
"my, my Johnny, what a tasty diorama."

[chagrin]

I think this whole conversation is just sudsy!!!