# When/how did these words get new meanings?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 8, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037 "2009-10-08T10:59:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037/21 "2009-10-09T01:43:58Z")
> [@groman](#):
>
> Are you referring to the usage as in “Well that was random!” when, say, referring to some event that just occurred? If so, I wouldn’t consider that a new meaning of the ‘random’. That’s the same old meaning of ‘random’, specifically, _“lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern”_. By observationally declaring something as random you’re underlining that even though it appears to have a pattern it was purely coincidental, and is, as such, surprising and unexpected.
I can see how the new usage got started, but I think that the meaning has changed enough that it _is_ a new meaning that’s separate from the original meaning.
It seems likely to me that the people saying “Well that was random!” don’t know what the word random really means (or used to mean) and are using it as if it meant “surprising”. They don’t mean “random coincidences can be surprising”, they mean “_that_ was surprising”, whether it was coincidental (random) or not.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037/22 "2009-10-09T02:11:47Z")
The kids here use “random” to mean a comment that is “non sequitur” or inappropriate
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037/23 "2009-10-09T03:16:09Z")
I always thought a “sketchy” person was somebody who looks as if their portrait would be accompanied by the caption “Police sketch artist’s rendition” 😛
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037/24 "2009-10-09T04:01:17Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#):
>
> There seems to be an assumption here that they are American terms and ways of using the language. I’d like to see some sort of cite that would determine if that’s true. As far as I’m aware this has been the accepted usage of these words in Britain for a long time.
The OED says that the “inexplicable, unexpected” sense of _random_ is “(Orig. _U.S. Computing_)” (and it has cites going back to 1971). It doesn’t have the “seedy” meaning of _sketchy_ at all.
I myself have never heard the “seedy” sense of _sketchy_ in Ireland or Australia, the two countries I have lived in, and I think that in both countries the “aimless, haphazard” sense of _random_ is very much dominant over the “surprising” sense, which is still seen as colloquial.
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### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-how-did-these-words-get-new-meanings/513037/25 "2009-10-09T13:26:44Z")
> [@UDS](#):
>
> I myself have never heard the “seedy” sense of _sketchy_ in Ireland or Australia, the two countries I have lived in, and I think that in both countries the “aimless, haphazard” sense of _random_ is very much dominant over the “surprising” sense, which is still seen as colloquial.
I think I have heard the “seedy” sense for sketchy here though. There’s also “Sketch!” and to keep sketch but they seem unrelated.
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