Literally, this is a dope blog post.

When you think about it, it's amazing how people can manage to evolve things used in their daily lives, such as technology, music, etc. Even with concrete languages which should have set-in-stone definitions that are recognizable by most of the people that speak that language, slang creates a barrier. Usually pitched in between adolescents and adults, there are certain words that one generation would assume to mean one thing, while the other generation interprets it as something completely different.

You may have heard of Urban Dictionary. If you haven't, there's the link there (fair warning: there's a lot of inappropriate definitions). I thought it would be interesting to take the definitions of words that are common in teen slang and compare them to the definitions given in Merriam Webster.

Let's look at some examples:
Dope.

Merriam Webster definition:
1 a : a thick liquid or pasty preparation
b : a preparation for giving a desired quality to a substance or surface
2 : absorbent or adsorbent material used in various manufacturing processes (as the making of dynamite)
3 a (1) : an illicit, habit-forming, or narcotic drug; especially :marijuana (2) : a preparation given to a racehorse to help or hinder its performance
b chiefly Southern : a cola drinkc : a stupid person
4 : information especially from a reliable source <the inside dope>

Urban dictionary, on the other hand:
People who do not do drugs call Marajuanna Dope.
People who do Marajuanna call Heroin Dope.
Word has also been used to describe how good somthing is.
Don't you be somkin' dope! ( AKA Marajuanna )
OMG, I smoke the green but I don't do dope ( AKA Heroin )
Man that car is dope!

Isn't that interesting? The "actual" meaning of the word dope is something, for the most part, very different from what teenagers would think it to be. Most adults would assume it to mean related to drugs when they first hear it, whereas teenagers would think it synonymous to "cool."

Other words:
Tight vs. Tight.
(It's cool because the primary slang meaning of this word is eighth on the "real" dictionary, whereas it's first on the other "slang" one. Also...the slang one has kind of a raunchy definition as one of them, so here's my warning to be careful.)
Sick vs. Sick.
(Very, very different.)
Fly vs. Fly.
(No similarities whatsoever.)
Hardcore vs. Hardcore.
(Hmm.)

And when they cross over? Well...

That's not the only way that language has evolved. One thing about language skewing that really pisses me of is when you use the word in what you think its in the right context but it. is. not!
Literally. Do you know what this means? Are you positive? Literally means what actually happened with NO exaggeration. So when someone says "Oh my God, you literally scared me to death!" Wow, are you sure? I'm pretty sure you're still alive, unless you're a ghost. Relating to this, this makes me laugh so hard.
Legitly. This is so not a word. At all (see? It's underlined). The word you are looking for is legitimately.


Another thing that has changed? Teenagers also really like to shorten their words. Time saving, obviously, we're so busy, right?:
Probs. Adorbs. Btdubs. Totes. Whatevs. Ohemgee. Presh.
Some of these make me really irritated...like btdubs. I cannot stand that phrase, for some reason.



Anyways...whatevs. I totes literally love it when people make up new words...legit.