A little while back I wondered on Twitter, why do people use the word “killer” to define their most popular, innovative and ground-breaking work. Randy the Yearlyglot confirmed that the term came from the 80s and wasn’t anything notable until the Internet went ahead and made it into a media affliction.
Really, it is all just an exercise in semantics that got out of hand. Don’t get me wrong, I am on the front lines when advocating for enriching our language with figures of speech, new vocabulary and expressions, thus escaping the dreadful clutches of possessing 50 everyday words, generously sprinkled with boring, unimaginative cursing whenever one fails to come up with a proper noun, article or verb conjugation. I love metaphors, especially the ones so subtle you don’t even realize what they are at first glance.
But inverting the settled semantics of the language and its components in order to make your speech seem more puffed and “pumped”? Give me a break.
While the usage of the “killer” word to describe mostly life-affirming work is disturbing, it’s not the worst example out there. Today, I want to complain about another such word that is being thoroughly overused in similarly inappropriate context. This word is “shit”.
Indeed, why are people so fond of referring to their supposedly best work as shit? The original meaning of the word is so painfully and blatantly inversed that it almost comes out a full circle. In this light, “epic shit” or “awesome shit” sounds like a disaster to me.
What do we get? Shit is an expletive used to describe waste, the by-product of human body. So, by their own definition, when they are working, they creating the waste and by-products? This actually explains very well the nature of the Internet.
The question I have is this: when does the work we do stops being “epic shit” and becomes, well… just shit? Am I the only one constantly bothered by this neverending stream of waste flowing through our computers?
The blogosphere is the primary source of abuse of this particular little gem. However, not the only one. Engineers tend to use it. Ironically, sometimes the decent ones too, whose work can’t really be called “shit” in a regular sense of the word.
I did a bit of research and from what I can tell this “epic shit” disease is only circulating on the English-speaking Web. I have yet to see (or hear) the Russian word “дерьмо” or Spanish “mierda” when referring to something awesome.
Funny, weird, ugly, disturbing? Yes, I am alright with that. I am not against swearing. But epic, awesome, awe-inspiring? No, thank you.
It´s not the only example, of course. For instance, there is another silly term that is used widely in Russia among software professionals and “professionals” (the latter ones, mostly): функционал (functional). As its English counterpart, “functional” is a word used to describe mapping of a vector onto a scalar value. Expression comes strictly from mathematics.
However, in everyday Russian speech (between programmers and likes) the word “functional” is used express the meaning of the word “functionality” (a set of features of a particular software product).
The word isn’t problematic by itself, but it is so horribly overused! There is no features, no bugs, no issues anymore. There’s just “functional”. It creates incredibly sloppy and ugly language. And, the saddest thing of all, it shows that many specialists have very rudimentary knowledge of mathematics at best.
Where does it leave us? Is there a place in the language for such inversed definitions of the words, together with metaphors, sarcasm, oxymora and other complicated language constructs? Do they enrich the language with small peculiarities or simply poison it, making it harder to understand and learn? Are there any examples in the other languages?
Cheers,
Roman D.
PS: apologies if I overused the “S” word in this article but, as the saying goes in Russia, you can’t throw the words out of the song.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post and I think you have hit the mark. I am a bit more concerned with the narcism behind the semantics than the words themselves though. It seems the primary goal of the blogging world is to serve “me” above and in spite of all else that might matter in the world.
Thanks for the comment, Aaron!
When it comes to the world of blogging, the particular words might not even matter that much, you are right. There is a lot of exaggeration and mystification going on, to the point when the words stop meaning what they mean or end up expressing the ideas or emotions completely opposite of their original sense.
The most curious thing, in my opinion, is that the truly remarkable people, who really do make great work, avoid that sort of “puffed” language. Of course, it’s not completely black & white, but this was the general idea I have gotten from observing the blogosphere for some time.
Now, I am just mildly annoyed at these little language parasites :)
“Scared shitless”? If, when you are scared, all the shit leaves your body, then you are shitless. A loss of shit. Completely without shit. Doesn’t seem counter-intuitive to me.
Right you are, Travis!
Thanks for the catch, and my humblest apologies to you and other readers for creating this unnecessary confusion. I wonder if got it mixed up with some other expression. Weird.
With permission, I went ahead and edited out this paragraph, as to not confuse my readers. Still, I leave this comment to admit that it was a bit of hypocrisy coming from me (when compared to the rest of the article).
I’ve never been a fan of this usage. (That was the shit!) It usually means something is way over-hyped, more than it deserves.
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