"my bad"

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Fri Apr 30 17:17:21 UTC 2010


on the nouning of the adjective "bad" in "my bad", on Language Log:

ML, 2/26/05: Overgreen my bad:
  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001927.html

GP, 12/7/05: Pick-up basketballism reaches Ivy League faculty
vocabulary:
  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002693.html

ML, 6/17/06: My adjective:
  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003257.html

lots of people date the usage from the occasion where they first
recall having heard it -- in "Clueless" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer",
for instance.  that's understandable, and it's a start for
investigation, but the scholarship remains to be done.  some of these
citations are too recent, and other recollections (a number of guys
report that they recall it from pick-up basketball in the '70s) might
have pushed memories back in time.  the early '80s appear to have the
first attestations.  and it's spread far from pick-up basketball.

arnold

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