Limited Vocabulary

Sometimes I really think that I become more illiterate as the days go by. Influenced by the people around me, the media and just a general lack of quality reading material of late, I find strange and incomprehensble usage of words becoming part of my daily vocabulary. So here I thought I'd share some with you. Lets all get un-educated together!

Yes indeed, folks this is one grammar class you will definately not wanna miss... unless you are high school English teacher - in which case, consider yourself warned! Now some of these are fairly common and others I can say with some degree of certainty you will have never heard of before. Alright then class, lets begin!

Cost

This word is in fairly common use among the white-jock contingent of this country. Its usage easily defies all generally accepted meanings of the word. For example:

The Sharks lost the game, oke! What a cost! (note: lets not even go into the meanings of 'oke'!)

Other forms of usage could be "You are costing" or even, "He costed". This is generally a term used when something didn't go according to plan and it has caused dissatisfaction for a number of people. Now being neither white nor a jock you may wonder why I would be using the word. The simple answer is that when people all around you use certain terms to refer to something it sorta rubs off on you. Like an airborne disease... What a cost!

Off The Chain

One of my friends who is really into hip-hop says this a lot. I once wondered what it meant exactly because I have heard the term "Off the hook" but never "Off the chain". When I posed this question to him, he proceeded to explain it to me like so -
"You know the hook right? Anything thats off it is tight right?"
I nodded my assent and he continued.
"Ok but now see, the chain is on the hook!!!"
Aaaaah! I saw the light with that simple statement and now I use the phrase for things that are just too good for the hook. Yes, this blog is off the chain! Mwahahaha!


Late and Remain

These two are interconnected in their usage so I shall present them here togther. Basically this is how it works -

"Its late for you." This is usually followed by "You have remained."
"Lateness."

A person who has remained is said to be a remnant.
So now rather than you being late for something, a meeting say, the fact that you are late and have probably missed it means that it - the situation - is late for you. Do you see? It is quite a complex usage but once you get it, you have mastered The Remainder Theorem!