Okay Geek Farm
ny times Discovers the word Fail - Hilarity & science Ensues
Ricardo Trejo
What do you get when you mix up popular internet phrases and The New York Times? You get this. The New York Times, whom I don't read much from, not because I disagree with them or anything, but mostly because CNN and USA today cover the big headlines just fine for me. Although, I do love their homepage's layout - looks just like a newspaper, remember those? But back on topic; so why would I turn to the New York Times for anything, if I don't pay attention to it most of the time? For laughs and science, that's why.
Enter Ben Zimmer, a man who is a master of all things language. If there's ever anything you need to know about linguistics, he's your guy. He writes for the New York Times occasionally and his most recent foreray into language brought his research to internet meme's, most importantly here, the word "fail" and its meaning and use in popular internet culture.
"Popular usage will, of course, be the ultimate arbiter of the durability of fail. One sign of fail’s staying power is that it has already made the move from noun to adjective in some circles. Karl Hagen, who teaches test-preparation classes for Elite Educational Institute in Los Angeles, recently overheard a student who had done poorly on a quiz say to his friends, “I’m so fail.” As an interjection, noun or adjective, fail is proving to be an epic unfail."
-Benjamin Zimmer
It's an interesting read, and he makes me think: if internet memes begin showing up in places that can be accessed offline, like a twitter for example (I know you need an internet connection for twitter, but you can access tweets from app's and phones without necessarily going into a browser online), then does that mean that memes become mainstream once they cross that boundary?
[Via NY Times]
