[Ads-l] broken = overpowered

[Laurence Horn]

Related to "X broke the internet", where X is a meme, an Instagram post, or
the like?

LH

On Sun, Sep 18, 2022 at 10:23 AM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> On 9/18/22 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
> > Date:    Sat, 17 Sep 2022 07:36:50 -0700
> > From:    Barretts Mail<mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: broken = overpowered
> >
> > Great citation and explanation!
> >
> > “Bust” and “busted” have a lot of colloquial and slang meanings.
> >
> > I don’t see the meaning of “overpowered" for “busted" in Wiktionary or
> the Urban Dictionary, but both give the meaning of “broken” and the UD does
> have “incredibly good” on page 15 (
> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=busted&page=15  <
> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=busted&page=15>) by
> heeyaaa March 8, 2021.
> >
> > The UD also has “ugly,” “busty” [word play here?], “boring/lame,” and
> “of poor quality”. I stopped looking at page 20 out of more than 200. The
> UD has a number of references to the band Busted (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busted_(band)  <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busted_(band)>  ), generally saying they
> were a terrible band, which might have influenced the negative meaning.
> >
> > Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
> > Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> Just talked to my gamer informant (son):
>
> "broken" means something is "really good" and the use is because it
> "breaks the game's systems" because it's "overpowered."
>
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org