Random kids

[CRilliterate]

Do you remember other times when 'Random' was a word IN circulation or it is new?

Right now I hear from my daughter's school friends:

To each other:This dude is so random (giggling)
To Me: You are so random (facial expression 'out of your mind')
To each other: It was random...(confused facial expression)

This word has so much to it - sometimes I think they can talk using facial expression and one word 'Randommmmmm'

I am using it now 'WOW! This is random...' (when my Crystal bringing unexpected data). LOL

 

[Stella740pl]

I am using it now...

So am I. I the form of RAND() function that generates random numbers.

 

[SamBones]

#/bin/ksh

while true
do
    print ${RANDOM}
done

 

[SantaMufasa]

Remember, CR, youth, in virtually every culture and in all ages of time, have always concocted their own words or their own meanings for existing words. I can see where kids have derived/evolved their meaning for the term, "random" (and it is, frankly, a rather intelligent derivation IMHO):

RAMDOM 1 a : lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern...determined by accident rather than design...stressing lack of definite aim, fixed goal, or regular procedure...synonyms HAPHAZARD applies to what is done without regard for regularity or fitness or ultimate consequence...CASUAL suggests working or acting without deliberation, intention, or purpose.

...your kid(s) seem pretty apt at "linquistic adaptation" if you ask me !

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
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[columb]

Much as it may distress old fogies like myself it is the young who drive (non technical) language change. For example my generation gave, amoungst many others, the use of 'cool' for good. Whilst many of the fad words have a limited life span Dawinian selection (or is it Intellegent Design?!) allows the changes in meaning that are 'fit' to survive and become part of our ever changing language. Much as I deplore some of the language abuses I hear to try and deny that they are part of a natural process is like trying to persuade King Canute that he can hold back the tides.

An interesting, and understudied, phenomenom is the way in which new words spread through the school culture. It would be easy to blame international media but mostly the shows that children watch tend to follow the culture rather than leading it.

Columb Healy

 

[TheRambler]

Here is something you may find interesting, from Online Etymology Dictionary.

random
"having no definite aim or purpose," 1655, from at random (1565), "at great speed" (thus, "carelessly, haphazardly"), alteration of M.E. randon "impetuosity, speed" (c.1305), from O.Fr. randon "rush, disorder, force, impetuosity," from randir "to run fast," from Frankish *rant "a running," from P.Gmc. *randa (cf. O.H.G. rennen "to run," O.E. rinnan "to flow, to run"). In 1980s college student slang, it began to acquire a sense of "inferior, undesirable." Random access in ref. to computer memory is recorded from 1953.

The Word Spy

random adjective/noun.
Adjective: Describes a person who is undirected, unproductive, and frivolous.
Noun: A person who isn't a hacker.

 

[Dollie]

Like, oh my ga

http://www-awd!

Gag me with a spoon!

Like, totally!

And, like, totally agreeing with, like SantaMufasa and columb, like, every generation, gag me, like totally have their own expressions that like, really uh-fect the rest of the totally huge world!

Totally tubular!

(Gag me. Please.)


(please note the plug at top of head to keep air from escaping)

 

[CajunCenturion]

Dollie - I had no idea you were a "valley girl".

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[Dollie]

Oh no no no no no..... unfortunately I was under the grip of peer pressure when I was in school (am I giving my age away?), and after hearing the song by the lovely Moon Unit Zappa, fell under the spell of the repetitive comments.

And can't forget them now, no matter how hard I try....

//banging head
///and still saying "cool

 

[CajunCenturion]

kewl!

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[chiph]

Slang is like, so totally awesome!


I find the choice of "random" as the new put-down to be a bit unfortunate. Think of all it implies:

1) Their parents used the rhythm method... badly
2) The person is not regimented -- they aren't doing what they're supposed to -- all the time (no time for just having fun)
3) They aren't on pyschotropic drugs like Ritalin, therefore they have no focus.
4) They aren't being normal

Kids are not little robots -- they are supposed to do random things.


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[CRilliterate]

Question was if this word is 'return' from past slang or totally new?

 

[Trevoke]

As a member of the 'young' generation, I would like to state with as much seriousness as I can muster:
wtfbbq ?

--
Well, that's out of the way. I do use 'random' from time to time : "That's completely random" ... As far as I can tell, it is used to indicate a 'non sequitur' for which one was absolutely not ready. My circle of *sigh* friends in college, D&D geeks (and I didn't even play! I was/am a White Wolf boy) enjoyed that. They came up with such treasures as "PIE!" and "past the hour of cheese".

My head hurts. Thanks.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[CajunCenturion]

Someone else might, but I'm not personally aware of random having a history as a slang term.

--------------
Good Luck
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[Dollie]

They came up with such treasures as "PIE!"

I fondly remember many evenings at Two Pesos getting like totally pied on margaritas...

As an aside, are there many slang terms that *have* been repeated? I haven't seen "groovy" pop up at all.

 

[jsaxe]

Consider this excerpt from the venerable Jargon File:

random: adj.
1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird. “The system's been behaving pretty randomly.”

2. Assorted; undistinguished. “Who was at the conference?” “Just a bunch of random business types.”

3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. “He's just a random loser.”

4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organized. “The program has a random set of misfeatures.” “That's a random name for that function.” “Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly.”

5. In no particular order, though deterministic. “The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly.”

6. Arbitrary. “It generates a random name for the scratch file.”

7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could easily have been coded using only three registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. What randomness!

8. n. A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.

9. n. Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not known to the hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2. “I went to the talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions”.

10. n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also J. Random, some random X.

11. [UK] Conversationally, a non sequitur or something similarly out-of-the-blue. As in: “Stop being so random!”

...

jsaxe


"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson (R.I.P. Doc)

 

[CRilliterate]

Trevoke,
in your 'wtfbbq' - are you reffering to BBQ? I am still trying to figure it out and I do have more important issues you know...lol

 

[SamBones]

In one sense, isn't the opposite of "random" to be "predictable"? If so I think I'd like to be "random".

I haven't seen "groovy" pop up at all.

I've got a couple friends who are Jazz musicians. They use the word "Groovy" all the time. It doesn't stand out as an anachronism, it's just part of their working vocabulary. If I was to say it, it would stand out like I was trying to be funny or something. When they say it, it's just another word and makes their point very well.

 

[Turkbear]

Man, I think it is way Cool to say Groovy..
All the Hep Cats use it..


Far Out, Man...





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Trevoke]

SamBones : "If I were to say it [...]"

CRIlliterate : somewhere started online among the youth groups this cool-as-liquid-nitrogen idea to add "bbq" to the end of other acronyms. Pearls like wtfbbq, roflcopterbbq, lollerskatesbbq, etc etc.
For roflcopter and lollerskates :

http://members.cox.net/pimpbot9000/roflcopter.htm

Needless to say, anyone writing "..bbq" is bound to get the following answer : "ogm so funnay!!1!!oneoneoen!!!!1!"

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"