"next" = 'unusual, extraordinary'

[Wilson Gray]

What about the odd use of "contingent"?

-Wilson

On 5/4/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      "next" = 'unusual, extraordinary'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Anyone familiar with this sense of "next"?
>
> -----
> http://freedarko.blogspot.com/2006/05/strength-begat-mind.html
> Not only is LeBron most likely going to make any shot he takes-- he'll
> find a way of taking exactly the shot he wants. And he's so next at
> this point that it might end up being some shit that, for anyone else,
> would be a wildly contingent move of a lifetime.
> -----
>
> First entry for "next" in Urban Dictionary is:
>
> -----
> 1) Weird, out of place, odd, different
> 2) Confusing, nonsensical
> Always said with emphasis, perhaps derived from something along the
> lines of "This is stupid...next!"
>
> 1) "What you goin' out with her for, man? She's NEXT, yo"
> 2) "Yo, guy, this math problem is NEXT"
> by Nadia Jul 9, 2004
> -----
>
> A couple of other Urban Dictionary entries suggest a more positive
> reading for "next" -- not simply 'unusual' but 'unusually good'.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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