[Ads-l] Based--a new sense

[Nancy Friedman]

You're not alone in noticing this usage recently. See this May 4 tweet from
Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic:
https://twitter.com/DKThomp/status/1389639991853207553?s=20

But it's been circulating for a while. I wrote about it in 2017, noting its
roots in the 2014 Gamergate brouhaha.
https://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2017/08/word-of-the-week-based.html


Nancy Friedman
Chief Wordworker
www.wordworking.com
http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com
Medium <https://medium.com/@wordworking>

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On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 11:56 AM Geoffrey Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
wrote:

> In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen on Facebook the word 'based' used
> adjectivally
> as an expression of approbation.  It's in UrbanDictionary, which claims it
> is:
>
> "A word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize
> someone
> for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others
> think.
> Especially common in online political slang.
> The opposite of cringe, some times the opposite of biased.
> The latter usage is the original use as coined by rapper Lil B, and the
> word originally took off
> on the meta-ironic website 4Chan with the latter meaning. For that reason
> the word is largely
> used meta-ironically (without context you can't tell if it's being used
> ironically or sincerely as it's
> used in both ways) and was popularized in online political slang of
> conservatives
> and the political right before being adopted into mainstream online
> political slang... "
>
> The usage was unfamiliar enough to me that I had to look it up, and
> consequently thought it
> might be of interest to this august gathering, in part because I don't
> remember
> seeing it discussed elsewhere.
>
>
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
> Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
> https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/an6993
> geoffnathan at wayne.edu
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org