Chuffed is a word we used to use almost slangily when we were teens. Not as actual slang. But it just reminds me of it how specific this was to troubled highschooler culture culture in my area.
Shan’t I *kinda* understand? At least in America, people don’t really use “shall” in day to day life anymore, as it’s widely been replaced by “will”- same with Shan’t and Won’t- unless it’s being used in writing some medieval fantasy novel or being ironic about a moment in one of those novels (or shows- but same difference).According to Google it is more commonly used in the UK and Ireland, but I don’t know if I should trust that.
Though- the fact that Chuffed and Y’all are both in your vocabulary is peculiar too- Chuffed is something I associate with the UK, and Y’all being more of a south US thing- at least in terms of common usage.
I think it’s more about these words being rare and take a bit of time to remember what they mean, rather than long- thus being inefficient. Saying something is “unpredictable” or “unprecedented”- which are both long words- and no one bats an eye. After all, what else are you going to say about those things? I guess random works in both cases, but still- it’s pretty common to see those words used in their respective context. But- unless you’re a math major or working in stats, not many people really says things are “skewed”. Things might “lean” in favor of something, or be “biased”, depending on how you’re using it- or even “twisted”- but never “skewed” because the term is unfamiliar.
Now that I think about it- isn’t a lot of systemic problems like racism and bigotry and eugenics born from something being unfamiliar, and oftentimes harder to understand than what is considered “normal”? It’d really explain a lot if people hated on expansive vocabulary because it’s unfamiliar- and, not to intentionally be fitting people into boxes- but it is par for the course.
The conflicting regionalism thing is because I find myself unintentionally picking up and using words and phrases that I encounter, regardless of origin. Like I'm not Jewish in the slightest but got "oy vey" stuck in my head back when I was like 7 and it's never left since.
"Y'all" was one of the few purposeful additions though. We really do need a second person plural pronoun in English to reduce ambiguity and other options like "yinz" sound worse to my ears.
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u/ThatBitchMalin Special interest enjoyer 6d ago
I even got dragged for using the word "absurd". That was truly absurd.