# Movies that changed our language **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323 "2011-08-27T22:16:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/1 "2011-08-27T22:16:17Z")
A thread on Jurassic Park got me thinking: before 1993, if you said the word “Raptor”, a person who knew the word (and it wasn’t that well known a word) would picture a bird because that was the definition of the word. It was a bird of prey. However, JP was such a big hit and the Raptors made such a huge impression on the culture that if you say “Raptor” now, 9 out of 10 will picture a lizard. The word’s meaning effectively changed. Setting aside catchphrases that enter our culture (every knows what “May the Force Be With You” means even if they never saw Star Wars), any other examples of something like this? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/2 "2011-08-27T22:29:56Z")
I must be the 1 in 10 who didn’t change the normal meaning of that word, because if I see “raptor” out of context, I think bird of prey. But I bet it’s higher than 1 in 10. Not sure if this qualifies, but “rabbit boiler” is now a term for a woman seriously whacked out over a man who is no longer interested in her. ---
**Author:** ![SecondJudith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@SecondJudith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecondJudith)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/3 "2011-08-27T22:44:54Z")
Clueless, with its “As if!” and "Whatever"s, among others, made a fairly significant contribution to the lexicon. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/4 "2011-08-27T22:50:21Z")
> [@SecondJudith](#): > > Clueless, with its “As if!” and "Whatever"s, among others, made a fairly significant contribution to the lexicon. How old are you? I was 15 when that movie came out (1995) and I was pretty familiar with that ‘valley girl’ talk well before I saw the movie, even in the midwest. I’m pretty sure it was around even as far back as Heathers in 1988 and and Saved By The Bell in 1989. Though I’ll give you that Clueless’ popularity may have made it more well known. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/5 "2011-08-27T23:12:44Z")
I was born in 1990 and don’t remember “raptor” not being the dinosaur. So I guess the OP is right. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/6 "2011-08-27T23:36:02Z")
“Droid” from **Star Wars**. Prior to the movie, there were robots and androids, and the two were quite different. The movie made “droid” a synonym for “robot.” [Google NGram viewer](http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=droid&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3). The earlier listings ard from things like “an-droid,” where they’re just a fragment of the word. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/7 "2011-08-27T23:41:18Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > How old are you? I was 15 when that movie came out (1995) and I was pretty familiar with that ‘valley girl’ talk well before I saw the movie, even in the midwest. I’m pretty sure it was around even as far back as Heathers in 1988 and and Saved By The Bell in 1989. Though I’ll give you that Clueless’ popularity may have made it more well known. I don’t have a cite, but I remember reading that while valley girl speak was around back then, a lot of the slang popularized for that movie was basically made up by the writer. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/8 "2011-08-27T23:43:55Z")
Speaking of Spielberg, I don’t think anybody used the phrase “close encounter” in its present usage before _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/9 "2011-08-27T23:54:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I must be the 1 in 10 who didn’t change the normal meaning of that word, because if I see “raptor” out of context, I think bird of prey. But I bet it’s higher than 1 in 10. Yeah, I think a bird of prey, too. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/10 "2011-08-28T00:09:10Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Speaking of Spielberg, I don’t think anybody used the phrase “close encounter” in its present usage before _Close Encounters of the Third Kind_. Speilberg took the entire phrase Alan Hynek’s from a book on UFO encounters; it was well know among UFOlogists. The movie did popularize the phrase, though. Still “close encounter” had been used as a phrase for decades, though not in connection with aliens. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/11 "2011-08-28T00:16:09Z")
> [@Morelin](#): > > Yeah, I think a bird of prey, too. When I hear “Bird of Prey” I think of Klingons. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/12 "2011-08-28T01:08:30Z")
How about **MILF**? According to wiki, it was first used in internet newsgroups but I don’t think it came into its own until **American Pie**. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/13 "2011-08-28T01:28:24Z")
“As if” and “whatever” are not exactly complicated expressions. Kids were saying that before any of the movies mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/14 "2011-08-28T02:15:47Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I don’t have a cite, but I remember reading that while valley girl speak was around back then, a lot of the slang popularized for that movie was basically made up by the writer. > [@Peremensoe](#): > > “As if” and “whatever” are not exactly complicated expressions. Kids were saying that before any of the movies mentioned. Things like ‘as if’ and ‘whatever’ were around as well as quite a few other ‘valley girl’ type words. Otherwise we wouldn’t have known the phrase ‘valley girl’ before the movie came out. But yes, I suppose they had to make up a lot of words for the movie. In fact, several years ago I asked a tangentially related [question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=422664) about Clueless (and a few others). The thing is, they’re going to have to come up with something on their own, if the entire movie is just full of ‘what ifs’ it’s going to get boring, fast. That kept it interesting. But now that I think about it, were any words actually made up for it? As I recall, all the main characters actually spoke quite well, I don’t remember ever wondering what something meant which was probably part of why it was so popular. There wasn’t any slang that left out a big demographic, most of the things they said could be understood within a second or two of them saying it. IOW, I don’t think they made anything up, just rearranged words and added more adjectives to give them their own combination of ditsy and smart at the same time. Also, I’ve never watched a single episode of Buffy, but someone in the thread a linked to said that show added quite a few words to our lexicon. So there’s another one. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/15 "2011-08-28T02:45:22Z")
Ever since the movie, heads of crime organizations have been called “godfathers”. And was “perfect storm” around in popular usage before the book/movie? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/16 "2011-08-28T04:04:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Speilberg took the entire phrase Alan Hynek’s from a book on UFO encounters; it was well know among UFOlogists. The movie did popularize the phrase, though. Still “close encounter” had been used as a phrase for decades, though not in connection with aliens. I don’t remember ever hearing the phrase used before that movie. Now it pops up all the time: “We were out hiking and we had a close encounter with a bear.” That sort of thing. I think that usage is post-Spielberg. (I get that the phrase was known to UFOlogists, but that was a small clan. I am talking about popular use in the mainstream.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/17 "2011-08-28T04:05:35Z")
> [@minlokwat](#): > > How about **MILF**? > > According to wiki, it was first used in internet newsgroups but I don’t think it came into its own until **American Pie**. Good example. > [@Son of a Rich](#): > > And was “perfect storm” around in popular usage before the book/movie? Yes it was. It was a common phrase before the movie ever came out. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/18 "2011-08-28T04:40:11Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Yes it was. It was a common phrase before the movie ever came out. I never heard the phrase “perfect storm” prior to the book and movie. According to Wiki, and many, many other sources, Sebastian Junger invented the phrase for the book. It might have been used occasionally beforehand but there is no doubt whatsoever it was not a common phrase prior to then; it’s become a very uverused cliche since. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/19 "2011-08-28T04:47:10Z")
Well, maybe I am misremembering. It happens. ETA: Or maybe I am not misremembering: “I have heard a brother of the story-telling trade at Naples preaching to a pack of good-for-nothing honest, lazy fellows by the sea-shore, work himself up into such a rage and passion with some of the villains whose wicked deeds he was describing and inventing, that the audience could not resist it; and they and the poet together would burst out into a roar of oaths and execrations against the fictitious monster of the tale, so that the hat went round, and the bajocchi tumbled into it, in the midst of a **perfect storm of sympathy**.” William Thackeray, _Vanity Fair_ (1869) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/20 "2011-08-28T04:59:11Z")
Also, [Merriam Webster says the first known use of “perfect storm” is 1936](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfect%20storm). (Someone should tell them about Thackeray.) One begins to suspect Junger is using Wikipedia for self-promotion. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323.md?page=2)