I still use “groovy” and “cool” sometimes (and, to my shame, “cool beans”).
I’ve heard british jokes about americans not knowing how to speak english so I have no idea what they think of australians. Its an american colloquialism. It adds color to an otherwise mundane language.
I heard “my bad” on Saturday Night Live two weeks ago, FWIW.
Like, me myself, I think it’s bitchin’. Totally rad. If you can dig it, far out. If it’s not your bag, don’t flip out and bug me, man. I don’t need the hassle from some squaresville daddy-o.
By the way, I was surprised when “cool” came back. I heard it a lot in the late 60’s, and it died out by 1973. Suddenly, all these kids were saying cool again in the 1990’s, and spelling it kewl. It came back, like an old friend.
I thought it might be bogus at first, but it is so excellent.
I find “my bad” annoying also, but I have to step back and consider it objectively. An expression like that doesn’t catch on unless it serves a useful purpose in the language. For whatever reason, people needed a highly condensed version of, “My fault, I admit and accept responsibility, and I apologize, but it’s not a big deal, so let’s keep moving.” Makes perfect sense for basketball, right? Anyway, the phrase was coined and came into usage, and spread because of its high degree of utility; it communicates a specific and somewhat complicated idea to members of one’s own group with extreme economy. Given all of that, it’s no wonder the phrase became popular, despite how I or anyone else might find it grating, grammatically speaking.
I don’t use it, but I find “my bad” to be meaningful. It’s often used to apologize for very trivial infractions, in very informal settings. For instance, you’re at a party and you accidently brush against someone on your way to the chips. You can say excuse me. You can even say I’m sorry. But my bad just seems better, IMHO. It connotes, “You know I didn’t mean to do that and I hope you find this situation as light and trivial as I do.”
I would NOT use it if an error results in substantial pain or damage. I also wouldn’t say it to strangers or people who are much older than me. A more formal apology would be more appropriate.
As far as grammatically incorrect, pshaw! If you don’t like slang, keep to the King’s English. But don’t put down colorful, nonoffensive language just because it goes against arbitrary rules set by funky old snobs!
I heard it the first time about two years ago. It grated on me, but I had the idea that it originated in ESPN sportscaster speak, where a bunch of middle-aged guys say stupid things. Now that I know it has a pedigree from the streets (after reading this thread), I think it will be much less annoying.
Veterano of 70-80s Los Angeles playground basketball here.
Other examples:
[ul]
[li]“I’ve been fouled, please return the ball to the top of the key” = “top”[/li][li]“the ball went out of bounds off the defense and play will resume on this side of the court” = “stay”[/li][li]“I partially blocked the ball” = “piece”[/li][li]“I just took your ass to school” = “ass”[/li][li]“I just hit the winning shot” = “ballgame”[/li][/ul]
And too many others to mention. Even the word “traveling” was too long and was shortened to “walk.” But “my bad” always carried with it a certain noble sportsmanship often absent from the playground. Well, as noble as you can be when pointing to your chest and shouting across the court.
notcynical , for us, “foul” was good enough. The key was you had to shout it loud enough for everybody to hear a millisecond after contact was made. Waiting a second would prompt the call of “late” and you’d lose the ball.
Fewer words.
Oh, like Saturday Night Live is so hip and happenin’ this decade.
By the way, I also still unfortunately use “cool beans”, and can’t seem to get “dude” out of my vocabulary, dude. (It’s so versatile! You can express every emotion with it, it’s an exclamation, an endearment, an expression of contempt… it’s also amazingly annoying and sounds stunningly uneducated. I can’t seem to lose it.)
lol! I just hope people won’t start popularizing “leet speak”. Just think of talking to you English teacher one day as: "L3t 1 @n$w3r (Let I answer.(might as well spell me like that due to the fact that most people over here say that)
Sorry. I don’t think I explained what I meant. “me”*
And I meant your* for you. Sorry again.
I always wanted my Macintosh to say “my bad” after it crashed instead of saying “your computer was ‘incorrectly’ restarted.” Can I get a witness?
oops…that was to read “incorrectly shutdown.” Makes a bit more sense…darn Macs. Now can I get a witness?
Well, I picked up “my bad” from basketball 20+ years and 70+ pounds ago. Regarding the question about how we called a foul, we usually just said “foul” or “I got it.” Most of the time we were trying to save our breath for the game, so you didn’t hear too much more than “Ball in” or “Coming down!” and such.
RR