Totes Presh!

'For seres. Pretty dece! Thats totes presh! Sup? Adorbs. Whatevs. ' is teenager speak for 'For serious. Pretty decent! That's totally precious! What's up? Adorable. Whatever.' It's plain to see that the youth have trouble finishing words and syllables. 'Clipped' or shortened words have become a fad. One might speculate that these word shortenings are silly inventions of today's youth culture, but clipped words have been around much, much longer than your teenage son or neighbor. "Many words we use every day are clippings: gas from gasoline; chimp instead of chimpanzee; deli, not delicatessen. In fact, it would be hard to get through a day without clipped words. You’d have to give up carbs and tech, seeing the fam (or at least your sibs); you couldn’t prep for a bio or chem (or, back in the day, a home ec) exam." No lie, this info is legit! One questions arrises; Why do we love to clip words, and why do newly clipped words nevertheless "face such scorn"? Word clipping is nothing new, but these newly clipped words come off as cutesy and annoying. We have curtailed words in the past, which most likely were as well received as the modern clipped words are today....Some embrace them, and others do not. Many of the common clipped words you've heard all your life, the words you never even gave a second thought, only sound normal because they have become familiar through common use in society. Familiarity breeds acceptance. "But totes and cazh and adorbs are not shortened words for things, with their edges worn down by familiarity; they’re old qualitative words that have gotten a makeover, like a punky miniskirt cut out of an old school uniform. These words make their speakers sound modern--until they become widespread enough to lose their edge." 

     The article "Totes Presh" by Erin McKean was a fun, slightly repetitive, but to the point view on abbreviated words. The author clearly thinks we should embrace these new "slangs", and if we choose not to, it will eventually happen in the future when the word becomes commonplace.  "And because speakers of English, en masse, never miss a chance to do something creative with words, shortening familiar words is a high-reward, low-risk way to sound fresh without sacrificing mutual understanding"  I'm not a fan of these so called "clipped" words, but this article gave a very interesting outlook on them. This article was def an interesting read.

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