09-03-2011, 12:43 AM
N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
It is the simplest, most concise worldview that can be stated.
Word to your mother.
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A newish phrase that simply MUST GO!
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 Word to your mother.
09-03-2011, 12:49 AM
Trouble wrote:What it really means is "I might have screwed up, but I'm not going to take any responsibility." Strange take on that. When I hear it used it's by someone admitting they screwed up and taking responsibility. :agree: I've heard it used both ways. It's all in the delivery.
09-03-2011, 01:25 AM
Two that I have yet to understand (I live overseas and find it hard to keep up on important cultural trivia) are "word" and "oh snap!" I think that I understand their meanings by context, but still can't figure out how they came into common use. I suppose that I could do a search....
09-03-2011, 01:41 AM
09-03-2011, 02:06 AM
"Word" is NY hip-hop slang from the mid-to-late eighties. Its origins predate hip-hop, though, and are likely descended from the general businessman/mobster phrase "My word is my bond," which was shortened to "word is bond," then simply "word." Least that's how I remember things from my formative years on the east coast. The much-maligned Vanilla Ice bastard version "word to your mother" came from his mangling of the related phrase "Word to mother [land]," which in eighties NY hip-hop circles was a "shout out" to the speaker's African origins (the Motherland). | Since Vanilla Ice was not of African origin, he thought it unwise to use that phrase on his big hit, so he altered it slightly. Though he really should have left it off entirely.
09-03-2011, 03:44 AM
Zoidberg wrote: Agreed. It can also be used as an admonition to another person that THEY should let go of something that they cannot control. This is the usage that is most familiar to me. The speaker resorts to a tautological platitude out of frustration because he/she knows that no amount of explanation will suffice for some people: Parent says, "Why can't you be smart like your brother? Why can't you be a doctor or a lawyer? Why do you have to be an artist?" Adult son replies, "It is what it is."
09-03-2011, 06:59 AM
M A V I C wrote:What it really means is "I might have screwed up, but I'm not going to take any responsibility." Strange take on that. When I hear it used it's by someone admitting they screwed up and taking responsibility. On this, we concur. |
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