Brock Skywalker

Random or unexpected? · 22 August 06

I have been harbouring deep feelings on this subject for a while now but have refrained from ranting about it… until now. I guess it took me reading Luke Doucet’s blog, and finding that he feels the same way, to tip me on to the need-to-say-something side.

From L-Do:

RANDOM. Ok. Pet peeve. I have to get something off my chest. Can anyone tell me where & when everyone started (miss) using the word random? oh, my god I was just at 711 & this totally random guy comes up to me & goes like, do I know you?

It must have come from some TV show or a hip hop track or something because it’s so ubiquitous now & 3 years ago it was not part of most kid’s vocabulary. Now, its being used like it’s a BIG word, by the same people who think comprehend is a big work (no, it’s just French for understand). I fear the Olsen twins are behind this. Barf. I apologize to all who are offended by my elitist rant.

Please, let’s all try together to stop this scourge on the English language. I know it is far from the only word being misused and abused but… we have to start somewhere, right?

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1. today someone handed me the wrong change and when i pointed it out to her, she said, “oh that’s random”, when presumably she wanted to say “oh that’s silly”, and not ‘unexpected’, which is what the kids would have me believe random is supposed to mean these days…so if this girl was misusing a misused word, does that make it better or worse than the other kind of blatant misuse of the word random? either way i wanted to smack her.
   — e    28 August, 08:23 pm   

2. Might we say that people are using the word randomly?
   — Jolene    28 August, 09:35 pm