Name:
Location: South Boston, VA, United States

I am a full-time teacher of Literature and Art History at a private school in Virginia, and hold the MA in medieval literature from Longwood University. My research interests include various topics in Classical Studies, Medieval/Renaissance studies, Neomedievalism, Romanticism, the Gothic, Art History, especially Art as Propoganda, Portraiture, and Impressionism, Women's Studies and Genocide Studies.

Friday, August 18, 2006

The English language...

 Attention, readers and potential readers of my blog: I am depressed. Mortally, unequivocally, perhaps irreparably depressed. One of my students has informed me that "chill" has, in fact, officially become an adjective.

"Chill" - as in "That's so chill." Or, alternately, "S/he is so chill," rather than, "The Jello needs to chill in the refrigerator overnight." Chill, used in a grammatical fashion that does, in fact, chill my soul. The verb "chill," masking itself as an adjective for all the world to see, right there in Webster's. Or so my student said.

I confess: I am used to tossing student comments like this right where they belong: in my mental trashcan. Clearly, the editors of Webster's know better than to mess with Mother Grammar and would not permit such an event to transpire. But this time, for some reason, I was more concerned than usual, so I looked up the word "chill" in the latest edition of Webster's English Dictionary. I regret to inform you (in case you, too, were laughing away at my student's inane comment) that he was right. Chill is in fact now listed twice - once as a verb, and once as an...(GULP!) adjective.

And that's not all - as if that horror weren't bad enough, you can also find "bling-bling" in the dictionary. Who makes these decisions? Nobody polled me. I would have remembered a poll that read: "Do you wish to make the term "bling-bling" an official term in the English language? Circle one: YES/NO." I would certainly have remembered that!

Nobody ever seems to ask the American people about the English language. Some busybody editor of Webster's has decided to alter the path of the language I speak and teach without my knowledge, much less my assent. Never mind me, I'm just the daily instructor of proper English usage at my school; obviously I don't need to know about these changes to said language! Couldn't they at least have had a little blurb on the Today show or something?

("Blurb" is also now an official entry in the dictionary. I always assumed it was specialized writer's jargon, not to be confused with "short piece of writing," which is how I would refer to one in a formal essay.)

But I digress. My point is that as of now my students can tell me (with utter certainty that they are, in fact, using the proper terminology) : "The novel Huckleberry Finn is so chill!"

I am so depressed.

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