# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![gatorslap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gatorslap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gatorslap)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/21 "2011-08-28T05:01:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > 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. What about the movie Valley Girl? I think it’s weird that multiple posters have mentioned the phrase ‘valley girl’ in connection with Clueless, without mentioning that movie. Although I don’t recall anyone saying “as if” in Valley Girl. “Whatever” was around long before Clueless. Margaret Cho uses the word (while imitating someone else) in [one of her first television appearances in 1992](http://comedians.jokes.com/margaret-cho/videos/margaret-cho---being-korean). (I just happened to remember seeing that clip on a network retrospective.) I’m sure the word is actually much much older than that even, but that’s at least an unambiguous example. ---
**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, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/22 "2011-08-28T05:06:33Z")
Valley speak predates the movie Valley Girl. Before the movie Valley Girl came out, [the song Valley Girl](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufYYOXiEtxM) by Moon Zappa unleashed the lingo on the public at large. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/23 "2011-08-28T07:38:15Z")
Wayne and Garth said “As if!” when Wayne’s World was still a sketch on SNL, and that was a few years before **Clueless**. * * * **Matrix** : Red pill vs. blue pill. It’s such a basic concept, I wonder if there was a previous catchphrase to describe making that choice. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/24 "2011-08-28T08:35:17Z")
Clueless. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/25 "2011-08-28T09:17:06Z")
If you say “raptor” I’m going to think of the dinosaur. And not even a real raptor, but the raptors portrayed in Jurassic Park. I guess it depends how old you are. I was only three when Jurassic Park came out so I can’t remember a time before it. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/26 "2011-08-28T10:06:51Z")
“Sleeping with the fishes” wasn’t a well-known phrase before the Godfather. Sonny in the movie wasn’t even familiar with it. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/27 "2011-08-28T11:20:48Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > “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) Not a good example. “Perfect” is just an adjective modifying a noun in that sentence; it has nothing to do with the modern term “perfect storm” being essentially a two-word noun that indicates a situation where several bad things happen at once. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/28 "2011-08-28T11:44:17Z")
You guys are missing one. Anyone…? Anyone…? Bueller? ---
**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, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/29 "2011-08-28T13:05:23Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Wayne and Garth said “As if!” when Wayne’s World was still a sketch on SNL, and that was a few years before **Clueless**. Wayne and Garth also gave us ultimate response to “No Way!”…Way. Though I’m not sure if that would be considered catch phrase territory. ---
**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, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/30 "2011-08-28T13:47:32Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > 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. I did read the Wiki article. I still believe Junger made up the term as described in various account to describe the Hallowe’en storm, and it’s grown from there. If prior to 1997 we’ve got a few cases of the two words being used on conjunction to describe difference things, it is quite clear that we do have a case here of the movie changing the language. “Perfect storm” was rarely heard prior to 2000; now it’s a terribly overused catchphrase. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/31 "2011-08-28T13:56:36Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > You guys are missing one. Anyone…? Anyone…? Bueller? Exactly. Before that movie, no one had ever heard of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/32 "2011-08-28T15:03:39Z")
I remember that Ben Stein called it the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which was the opposite of how I learned the name. And I heard Ben Stein saying that he was just told to lecture on something, so he chose that subject. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/33 "2011-08-28T15:06:24Z")
Not so much one movie, but the word \*\*Vamp \*\*was coined for Theda Bara. Her character in _A Fool There Was_ (1915) was called The Vampire, and by her next film, the cast and crew were affectionately referring to her as Vamp–the term stuck and started being used by the late teens to mean an evil, sexually voracious woman. Similarly, **It**. Elinor Glyn coined “It” in a short story and novel to mean sex appeal, personality, magnetism. Clara Bow starred in the film version of _It_, became the It Girl, and, well, Bob’s your uncle. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/34 "2011-08-28T15:42:05Z")
A generation of Italian immigrants supposedly learned English from the fake gangster-speak of James Cagney movies. I wonder if the Beats’ patois wasn’t impacted more by Maynard G. Krebs than by Kerouac or Ginsburg? Full Metal Jacket had lots of practically farted-out dialogue that seems to have taken hold in the language: “Me so horny!” “You talk the talk, but do you walk the walk?” “Ain’t war hell?” “Reach-around.” **Round the Horne** , a BBC radio comedy, popularized (but didn’t invent) Palare, a kind of gay slang long associated with actors and drag queens. By popularizing it with the general public, the show also contributed to its decline within the gay community. ---
**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, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/35 "2011-08-28T16:11:31Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > A generation of Italian[li] immigrants supposedly learned English from the fake gangster-speak of James Cagney movies.[/li] bracket item added The Federation wants its cut! \*Iotian ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/36 "2011-08-28T17:25:54Z")
FTR I didn’t know raptor meant bird until after Jurassic Park. I was completely flummoxed why “The Raptor” at Cedar Point had a bird, it had to be explained to me. For me Raptor=Dinosaur ---
**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, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/37 "2011-08-28T17:51:35Z")
> [@brocks](#): > > Not a good example. “Perfect” is just an adjective modifying a noun in that sentence; it has nothing to do with the modern term “perfect storm” being essentially a two-word noun that indicates a situation where several bad things happen at once. Go argue with [Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfect%20storm) who says the phrase “perfect storm” in its current usage has been around since at least 1936. (Which jibes with my memory. Well, I don’t remember 1936, but I do remember the phrase being around and in use before the book/movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/38 "2011-08-28T20:42:38Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > When I hear “Bird of Prey” I think of Klingons. :dubious: How about “Enterprise?” I imagine it’d be hard for anyone to use that word in reference to business or aircraft carriers without the word “starship” coming to mind. ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/39 "2011-08-28T21:03:34Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Go argue with [Merriam-Webster](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfect%20storm) who says the phrase “perfect storm” in its current usage has been around since at least 1936. (Which jibes with my memory. Well, I don’t remember 1936, but I do remember the phrase being around and in use before the book/movie.) Sorry, I thought it was pretty clear that I was referring to the Thackeray quote. ---
**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, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323/40 "2011-08-28T21:58:33Z")
> [@Khan](#): > > How about “Enterprise?” I imagine it’d be hard for anyone to use that word in reference to business or aircraft carriers without the word “starship” coming to mind. And no bloody A, B, C, or D! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-changed-our-language/594323.md?page=3)