Influence

In today’s society, people tend to use catchy phrases that have multiple meanings. The phrase “it’s the ___ for me” is a catchy phrase that caught on fast. A lot of people — mostly teens — started using this phrase a lot. I think this shows how people are giving a word or a phrase multiple meanings now. We tend to take a word and give it a different meaning or intention based on how we use it. The word “lit” is also an example of this. Lit was known to be used when something is on fire, but people use it when someone’s looking good or when something’s hype. The same is for the phrase “it’s the ___ for me”. We use this phrase and give it a different meaning depending on how we use it; this shows how people today can take a word or a phrase and change it’s meaning depending on our intention of the usage.

Fun Facts

The history of the word “the” goes a very long way back. Its origin can be traced all the way back to the 900’s and before. I found out that it was created before 900 — around the time of the Middle English period — meaning it’s super old. This means that the usage and meaning of “the” has evolved a lot.

“Me” is also another interesting word. Its origin traces back to the 16th century (also was associated with the Middle English time period). “Me”  started to replace the word “I”. People replaced “I” with “me”, so they can refer to themselves in a conversation.

Bard Early College, a community partner of ViaNolaVie

This piece is part of the “Language Lab” series where Bard Early College (BECNO) students investigate the etymology of modern phrases to identify their roots.This series is part of the composition course taught by Kelley Crawford.