so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'

[Victor Steinbok]

For me, the paradigmatic difference is between "Ma'an! You're SO
busted!" vs. "We were so busted that ...". The former is very 1980s,
matching AZ's "GenX" label. The latter is fairly routine throughout the
20th century.

As for JL's original observation, there appears to be an equivalent
"such" that seems rather ordinary today. (But, "You're SUCH busted!"
doesn't work, even though, "You're such a douche!" is just fine.)

     VS-)

On 12/9/2011 11:24 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> And one of its paradigmatic characteristics is its frequent use also
> before "not."
>
> Cf. colloq./SE "This is so crazy" with slang/colloq. "This is so not crazy."
>
> I'm not sure that 'definitely' is a "better" gloss, but it is a helpful one.
>
> (N.b., *not* "soooo a helpful one," in part because that is almost as
> likely to sound ironic. Or - as they say - is it just me?)
>
> JL

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