English Expression: Epic
MagicToaster
JapanRegistered User regular
JapanRegistered User regular
This is a very silly question, but I am curious about what the answer is:
A friend of mine who is studying English has seen the word "epic" get thrown around the internet lately. I told him that the way people use it online sounds like a substitute for "very cool" or "awesome".
"When should I use it?" he asked. I honestly have no idea as I've never lived in an English speaking country, nor do I hang out with a ton of English speakers.
My question is, do people actually say "epic" in conversations? What kind of age group uses this word?
Bonus Question: What is the meaning of "your mother wears combat boots"?
A friend of mine who is studying English has seen the word "epic" get thrown around the internet lately. I told him that the way people use it online sounds like a substitute for "very cool" or "awesome".
"When should I use it?" he asked. I honestly have no idea as I've never lived in an English speaking country, nor do I hang out with a ton of English speakers.
My question is, do people actually say "epic" in conversations? What kind of age group uses this word?
Bonus Question: What is the meaning of "your mother wears combat boots"?
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Ideally, unless you're referring to the time you actually slayed the terrible gorgon I wouldn't use it in everyday conversation.
This offers a pretty good linguistic analysis.
One of the definitions is "heroic; majestic; impressively great," which is probably the one that the internet has latched onto lately. I don't think I hear it out loud much at all (unless I'm watching old episodes of Top Gear on Netflix), but then--I'm 31 years old, so maybe it's a happening word among teens or twenty somethings.
Oxford doesn't return a result for irregardless.
Unless you use it in the context of describing something like the Iliad, I... wouldn't really advice using it at all. Its original use would be to describe a really adventurous journey you made, or perhaps a grand and magnificent story you read or saw.
Dru's right, language changes and that's fine. But epic as a substitute for "cool" is generally used by teenagers or people who spend too much time on the internet, and combinations thereof. As such, there might be a bit of a stigma attached to it if you use it that casually among people who don't belong to those categories.
Like in the 90's when things were "awesome." But probably not always something that inspires and is worthy of awe.
I've never heard that expression, but after some googling, people seem to be saying its an old insult implying that your mother followed the army/troops around, IE. a prostitute.
the other implication is just that your mother is very masculine (i.e. wearing combat boots is something men do, cause men do masculine things like fight wars or work construction, so why is your mom wearing them?)
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Yea, the prostitution was the original afaik but then it started spreading around to people who didn't really know that aspect of soldiering so it's usually more of a "your mom was probably a pretty bad mother" sort of thing
Or "choice"!
To contribute to the request, I wouldn't really use "epic" unless perhaps in the sarcastic context of "epic fail"
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
It's an archaic insult. Probably a reference to having a masculine mom.
Also, Centepide, hearing an adult talking like that killed a small part of me.
It goes back a little further than that, when there was a widespread urban myth about women going arriving in the aftermath of a battle to rob corpses of clothing items (,,,and do, uh, 'other stuff'). It's a hyper-misogynistic phrase that's just lost it's edge over time.
Uh, there were already other posts about it
Most things you could say about the use of "epic" you could also say about those other two. It's just a word which follows the same pattern which might stay or go. I bet "cool" also sounded ridiculous when it came into fashion in the 1940s.
tangentially related I guess
the explanation I heard once (I dunno why this sticks in my mind) was that after the second world war many women left the workforce to return to home life, and the ones that stayed in their war-era jobs or similar (i.e. factories, textiles) did so because they were single, or in a low income family, or whatever other reason. And they'd wear boots, because they worked in a factory. So "your mom wears combat boots" became a way to imply that "your" mother was masculine/uncouth/low class/otherwise unfit to properly be a mother.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
You're heller right.
1) When someone does something contextually impressive.
"That was an epic hit!" After someone hits a home run in baseball.
This is the usage that spawned in popular culture and got considerably overused. I don't really hear it too often these days but it used to be fairly common in 2009-2010.
2) When referring to actual Epics such as Homer's works.
"The Illiad is the most famous literary Epic."
This is the actual definition usage. Rarely relevant, but always correct.
3) In relation to a purchase of something extremely high quality.
"I purchased a truly epic sound system last weekend."
This is the usage I still hear regularly, and I assume it comes from internet culture (specifically from games like WoW where Epic-Quality was considered top shelf). I hear this usage a couple times a month, usually from the same groups of coworkers and students.
Hey! I use "epic" all the time, but then I am also sad and pretty annoying
A few people have said that "epic" is tied to gaming / nerd culture (or at least that is how I read what they said) and I would counter that it is becoming less so and has come into mainstream use. It is still very much associated with blatant hyperbole though, take this advert for example;
Just because something is modern doesn't mean it can be correct.
This is not a case where someone took a word and changed its meaning. This is not a "decimate" situation.. Irregardless is not a "trend" or a "language shift".
It is just flat out wrong. It is attaching a negative suffix to the word regardless and then assuming that it still means "regardless".
People who say irregardless are speaking wrong and no amount of whiny "but thiiiiings chaaaaange" will make them correct.
As much as I agree with you from a language purist point of view, you are making incorrect assumptions here on how language works. Most of our current wordset are bastardizations and incorrect uses from previous generations. While technically all of these were incorrect in their conception language is memetic and doesn't care about what is proper or correct according to a textbook definition, only what is utilitarian and works for the population speaking it.
Or: proper education can retard the speed that language evolves through forcing linguistic rules but never stop it. This is why modern English has remained comparatively static since mass education started becoming the norm in the 1800s, whereas speakers of the previous centuries rarely spoke similar languages/wordsets to their great-grandfathers.
Cool doesn't mean a less hot object anymore, regardless of your wants and desires. Neither does sweet just mean an object that's got a certain type of taste. Sweet being a good word to show this multiplicity because it has 2 alternate meanings that came from uncommon origins.
Sweet as in the adverb for your type of persona, and sweet as in a very favorable thing.
To be angry because it's wrong means you don't understand language.
As for the OP, your friend should use whatever word he thinks best fits it. Epic is generally reserved for things that are more "awesome" in nature (yet another word that has shifted from it's grandiose origins).
Sure thing boss. Saying it makes it true, right? Let's revisit this in 20 years and see who's right. ;-)
I don't think i've ever heard epic in spoken conversation really, but it seems like it is easily added to text, e.g
"that last match was epic."
but as many people have said, its slang now for cool or awesome, but that is not necessarily what the word means.