Maybe it’s my age. Okay, it’s probably my age.
I can watch or listen to a baseball game and be enjoying myself when there it is: “His velo is down this game.” And then I sigh.
Just say velocity. Why is that so difficult? It’s two more syllables. Are we in that much of a hurry that we have to spare a half second? I know the pitch clock gives announcers less time to talk between pitches, but come on.
So I sent myself down a rabbit hole, looking up other terms that are shortened, grumbling as I did so. But then I discovered just how much I do this regularly.
I don’t often, or ever, ask someone if they saw that cool advertisement on TV. Neither do you. You are watching an ad, the same as those annoying ones that pop up on your phone or tablet when you’re trying to play a game.
Speaking of those devices, how many applications do you have downloaded? If you’re squinting in confusion, I’m referring to the apps, which seems like the much more likely way you talk about them. You probably got them from a site that was recommended. Okay, sometimes we still say website.
However, when thinking about downloading things, I’m reminded of a word that was abbreviated for a time, but seems to have rebounded to the full word. We use the internet every day. For a time, it was referred to as the net, but that seems to have reverted in recent years.
Some I don’t feel like using are ones I hear often from my students. I do not have a convo with Mr. Ferber and Mr. Larson between classes. Nope, we have conversations, and are they ever stimulating! We still solve the world’s problems four minutes at a time!
Too often, I hear people referred to as bro or brah. First, this seems in opposition to the gender equity sought by so many as far as how we refer to ourselves and others. Second, there are only three people who can call me bro on this planet, and even my sisters don’t do that.
If the food I eat is very good, I will say it’s delicious. No delish for this guy. I also don’t look at something really great and say it’s fab. I probably don’t use fabulous much either, but that would be my preferred choice.
I do take my meds. They seem pretty legit. The info I got said it was best to take them. However, I don’t even need an ID to procure the drugs. Hmm, there are plenty of words I shorten when I speak or write such as medications, legitimate, information, and identification.
I work at a school. Quite often, I refer to the principals and superintendent as our admin. That’s generally used just when I’m talking about plural people in charge. I try not to miss much time at my job, but when I do, there is a list of subs to take my place. They have to be legit to work in my classroom, but I have to prep for their arrival. My administration approves the substitutes who are legitimate so I can best prepare to be gone.
I miss umping games, but my foot just won’t allow me to squat so much. However, I can still ref football and basketball, which gives me much joy. It still happens, but it’s not as often that you’ll hear someone talk about the umpire or referee. It’s much easier to shorten things when you’re upset with the job they’re doing!
If I did ump again, I’d probably have to do some rehab after to keep my plantar fasciitis from flaring up too much. There would be a lot of reps of stretches and other exercises to do that. The repetitions of the rehabilitation might take longer than saying the whole words.
Reps is a funny one. It can actually be short for three very different words: repetitions, represent, and representative. I was recently elected to the governing board of Education Minnesota, so I will be a rep repping my fellow teachers.
Back to sports. A couple of terms irked me a bit at the end of the college basketball season. We followed the MSU men’s and women’s teams since Anton was playing with the pep band, and we knew local connections on each team with the Willingham boys from Waseca and Joey Batt from New Ulm with her grandparents hailing from the Bath area. I heard players talking about their uni, which I thought could be short for uniform, but was actually referencing their university.
When both teams won the national title, they called it the natty. I also heard that at the Division I level. They each got the dub in the final game. Sometimes, they say W, which is actually three syllables and not really about shortening when talking about a win.
Maybe I shouldn’t get my undies in a bunch and just accept this vocab as part of life. Maybe I’ll eventually synch with the current trends. Maybe.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is gruntled, which means happy or content (and is both shortened and the opposite of disgruntled!), as in, “The student was gruntled when their teacher started to speak more like them.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!