"next" = 'unusual, extraordinary'

[Laurence Horn]

>What about the odd use of "contingent"?
>
>-Wilson

Well, if the shit in question isn't wildly necessary or wildly
impossible, I guess it's gotta be wildly contingent.  Do we know that
it's really 'unusual, extraordinary'?  It does seem to be scalar,
which is odd enough.  If not downright contingent.

LH

>
>On 5/4/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>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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>>
>
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