You Said What?

I’ve never been one to sit down and ponder about the evolution of vocabulary, but the article Mr. Mullins suggested about the etymology of the B- Word was rather intriguing to me. I didn’t think I could write enough about that single word so I did some further research and was blown away by what I found. Some of the phrases used in common dialogue are incredibly incorrect. I’m guilty of using some of them incorrectly myself, but I’ve never thought twice when I said them. It’s amazing to me that something as complex as language has the ability to change so easily. I encountered a website that examined the use of some very common sayings, one such saying being “spit and image.” When I first read that statement, I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. As I read through the paragraph, the author proceeded to explain that the phrase, “spitting image of…” is actually really incorrect. The phrase “spit and image” was introduced into English vocabulary in the 1820s and has managed to morph into a completely different set of terminology in a rather short amount of time. I won’t bother boring you with other phrase explanations but I think you get the idea. I wonder what the English language will be in later years. If phrases like YOLO and BFFL are all that’s ever said..I won’t want to live on this planet anymore.