I don't want to be a language Nazi, but something that I thought would be a passing fancy is hanging around for much longer than I ever dreamed. I know language changes, evolves, and grows but this one is becoming increasingly more annoying to me.
Among the generation that includes those persons 30 and younger, the word "like" has become the kudzu of the English language. It gets inserted into every sentence, and often multiple times, in inappropriate places, and adds nothing to communication. In fact, if interpreted literally, it completely changes the meaning of a sentence in an unintended manner. The word like, as it is intended below means, "of the same form, appearance, kind, character, amount, etc.: "
Here are some examples:
"And I was
like really annoyed, and he was
like laughing at what I said, and that was
like so wrong of him to do that." And so I
like turned my back to him and
like walked away without another word. And he said
like, "wait, come back, because I was
like just kidding."
If you remove the word like from this paragraph, it actually expresses the thoughts and feelings that the person is trying to convey. The first person was only like annoyed, meaning they really weren't annoyed but were just something like that. He was furious perhaps, or maybe just slightly perturbed?
The second person was like laughing, meaning they weren't really laughing but were doing something like laughing. Coughing maybe, or clearing their throat, or just making funny noises?
It was like wrong, meaning evil, or nefarious?
He then like turned his back, meaning he twisted his neck, or only really turned his side?
Then he like said some words, meaning he mumbled, or maybe what he said was only like that comment, meaning he really said "stop where you are, because I meant to laugh at your extraordinarily poor use of the English language and wasn't kidding at all"?
Anyway, I'm officially an old curmudgeon. Wait, I'm really only like curmudgeonly!
Thank you for allowing me to like waste your time, meaning it was only a partial waste of your time!
