[Ads-l] delulu!

[Laurence Horn]

Like “delusional”, but not quite. Here’s an explanation from Matt Barros, a former Yale colleague (and esteemed participant in the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project):

============
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/style/delulu-tiktok-gen-z-millenials.html <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/style/delulu-tiktok-gen-z-millenials.html>

Words change in meaning as people collectively repurpose them in different contexts, said Matthew Barros, a professor of linguistics at Washington University in St. Louis who was first introduced to delulu by one of his students.
Like “crazy crazy” or “haunted haunted,” the repetitious element of delulu is “funny and it has a sort of cutesy feel to it,” Professor Barros said. That cutesy feel is what separates delusional (which can prompt concern) from delulu (which Ms. Bernardo, the content creator, likens to being in a “silly, goofy mood.”)

=============

--a viable WOTY candidate, or am I just delulu?

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