Commenting on my post The End, Catherine had the following to say: “blasted English language and phrases…so many “endings” to all the commentators ideals about “the end”.
Just to take this a little further, yesterday, I forwarded a WhatsApp message giving some information to some friends in a group. One of them advised me that the message was fake and that I should not forward it to others. I responded “My bad. I shall not forward it if I receive it again.” Another friend in the same group promptly responded that he was surprised at my using “my bad” and that he found it difficult to use it in normal exchanges. Another friend chipped in that he too found it odd when someone else had used it but, since it came from me, he let it pass. I posted the dictionary meaning of the phrase and moved on.
A little later, I was in discussion on the phone with another friend on the subject of the current lockdown and Covid 9 when he mentioned the W effect which was a totally new concept for me. It simply means that like the word W, Covid will wax and vane for the next few years and we will be in a cycle of relaxation and reintroduction of lockdowns. The prospect is not very encouraging to say the least.
And after we had disconnected I remembered a long forgotten word – agathokakological. I sent it to both the first group and the second friend to amuse them and the former asked for a dictionary link to understand the word and the latter simply added a couple of smileys and “more kako than agatho unfortunately! I not only sent the link to the first group but, also added “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
Language simply fascinates me.