[Ads-l] Like, Where in the OED Does This Fit In ?

[Jonathan Lighter]

6b looks right to me.  Certain geezers will associate this with beatniks
like Maynard G. Krebs rather than Valley girls. OED's 1950 antedates both
phenomena.

JL

On Sat, Nov 1, 2025 at 7:17 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> As I mention at the beginning of my article "Confessions of the
> Antedater," I am not a linguist nor a grammarian.  I have a question that I
> hope one of the real linguists on this list can answer.
>
> I have come across the following passage in the Detroit Free Press, June
> 10, 1956:
>
> "we try, like, to explain, like, what's meant, like"
>
> Sometimes OED entries are so lengthy and so hairsplitting that I have
> trouble finding a particular sense of the headword.  In the 1956 passage
> above, "like" seems to be used as a repetitive filler.  I think this is a
> precursor of "Valley Girl speak."  The closest sense I see in OED is "like,
> adv., 6.b."  Is that the answer to my question, or am I missing some other
> relevant sense ?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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