gnarly = cool (1979)

Erik Hoover grinchy at GRINCHY.COM
Fri Sep 30 15:16:02 UTC 2005


Slang dudes,

What's going on?

Gnarly has never, in my experience since growing up in SoCal in the
Seventies, entirely lost a sense with the 'dangerous,
difficult'/unfortunate connotation.  The 'cool' connotation of gnarly,
comparable to the sense of 'wicked' (but not 'wicked bad'), used to
imply some risk-taking or extremeness.  The sense of the extraordinary
was diluted as the term became generalized.  The original sense
persists in everyday usage and has retained its narrower meaning in
specific circumstances.

People still ride gnarly waves, have gnarly accidents and gnarly acne.
In context, these things would not be mistaken for cool.  It is worth
noting that this sense hews closely to the literal descriptive sense of
gnarly=gnarled.
A gnarly wipeout has drama and the implication of risk of injury and
may result from gnarly-looking waves.

The transition, or rather expansion, of meaning, leads to some risk of
ambiguity that would (disclosure: I am no theorist) over time displace
the earlier meaning[s] or would cause the term itself to lose favor
because of reduced functional excellence.
It also might become lame because everyone uses it without knowing what
they are talking about.

For example referring to a car that is not visible to the listener as
gnarly would fail to convey a specific sense.  [Imagined phone
conversation:  "Dude, I just passed Trev driving a gnarly Honda, what's
up with that?"]  In practice, the user conveys specificity of meaning
through tone and other verbal cues and relies on unspoken assumptions
about taste in such matters.  This is also the case with a variety of
terms rising to notoriety from this subculture, most famously 'dude'.


Hey, thanks, that's all I've got.  Gotta roll.

Later days,

Erik




On Sep 30, 2005, at 5:04 AM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      gnarly = cool (1979)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> The last post had...
>
>> -----
>> Los Angeles Times, Sep 21, 1978, p. IV16/1
>> Gnarly: Crazy, like Rad; used for outstanding daring feats or
>> outstanding
>> wipe-outs.
>> -----
>
> That seems to be transitional, from "gnarly" = 'dangerous, difficult'
> (HDAS 1977) to "gnarly" = 'cool' (HDAS 1982). The new sense was in
> place
> by 1979:
>
> -----
> Washington Post, May 29, 1979, p. B3/6
> And one recent visitor from Southern California reported that
> 14-year-olds
> out there, which is to say the Thought Police of American popular
> culture,
> are approving things not as boss, hot, neat, bad, or tough but -- are
> you
> ready? -- "gnarly."
> -----
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
>
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