Phrases that should die: Bestie

Phrases that should die: Bestie

We’re starting a new feature here at The Armchair Commentary: Phrases that should die.

I need to be really honest. As much as I love slang and as much fun that I have learning/saying new phrases, there are some words and phrases that get on my nerves. Saying that they ‘get on my nerves’ is actually an understatement. Some words/phrases make me feel like Bruce Banner changing into The Hulk.

If you’re guilty of using any of these phrases don’t be offended. Just repent of your sins. 🙂 Just kidding. All in good fun.

This week’s phrase: Bestie

Bestie: One’s [that one usually being female] best friend.

Bestie is one of those words that I’ve always disliked.  I’ve never used it in a normal conversation.

It seems like people started ‘saying’ it on Facebook around 2008 or 2009. I don’t know where the phrase originated. I don’t think that I want to know. What I do know is that people over the age of 17 should stop saying bestie. Really, the whole -ie thing needs to come to an end. Bestie. Selfie. Usie. I’m sure that I’m missing several more.

Why must we abbreviate EVERYTHING? Our language is becoming seriously truncated; it’s like NewSpeak in the book 1984.

I blame the internet and texting.

It seems like most of our communication with other people is through some sort of keyboard. I suppose that it gets hard to type out ‘long’ words. Twitter, which limits correspondence to 140 characters including spaces, has helped contribute to the language truncation phenomenon.

Language truncation has resulted in people saying/writing things like:

Look @ mi bestie. Totes adorbs. Ur so presh grl! Gr8 selfie.

In case you didn’t understand what was said, here is the translation:

Look at my best friend. She is totally adorable. You are so precious, girl! That’s a nice picture that you took of yourself looking at your phone in the bathroom mirror.

As a lover of slang and a defender of internet/texting jargon, I’m not totally against language truncation. It serves a very practical and legitimate function.

However, there’s a part of me that is a bit of a grammarian (and I profusely apologize for the grammatical errors that I know abound on this blog. Some are intentional, however). I’m afraid that if we keep truncating (shortening) our vernacular we will end up with a bunch of words and phrases that carry no meaning and their respective etymologies will be lost. In other words, we could shorten our words so much that the art of communication is lost. Our shortened language could begin to lose its meaning because people won’t know that certain words (like bestie) are derivative of a much longer word or phrase that carries a specific meaning and connotation.

In theory, the nuance of what a best friend is could be lost if the word bestie completely replaces ‘best friend’ or even the word ‘friend.’

When you use the word bestie, you’re actually working to destroy the English language. Think about that the next time you use it or any other truncated word.