The 80s Club

I thought it funny that while doing a search on the phrase “get over yourself,” I should stumble onto this current pop group who have a single called, what else, but “Get Over Yourself.”
This phrase became really popular during the 80s, and for me, I first heard it while working at the Zoo Crew at Disney World. Most of the male Zoo Crew members (Zoo Crew referred to anyone working as a Disney entertainer) were gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but “Get over yourself,” tended to be their mantra, and soon I started hearing it everywhere.
Basically, this …read more

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 The word “excellent,” usually pronounced, “ex-cell-ent,” pretty much means the same thing in the English language as it does in 80s lingo: In much better than average condition with virtually no significant flaw. It is just used differently, and it’s used a lot:

She is so excellent, dude.
Excellent, rock on!
That is a most excellent meal, dude. 

photo from dogstar.  

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Okay, like, how many times do you notice, like, when you talk, you, like, use the word “like” a lot?
If you are me, then, like, you probably use it, like, way too much! Where the heck did this work come from?
Hey, like, I don’t know, but, like, I notice, like, it’s used mostly when we valley girls and dudes pause.
However, in some ways, “like” is also used for emphasis:

We was, like, all gnarly, you know?
I, like, told him no way, Dude!

This web site almost has it right too, like, you know dude, though I think it’s cop-out to push this …read more

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In the 70s, “Man” was the term used to address people. For example, “Pass me a beer, Man” or “Cool, Man.”
This term of address changed in the 80s to “Dude.”

Dude, cool, Dude.
Pass me a Mountain Dew, Dude.
That was awesome, Dude.

Again, we can thank the Surfer Dudes for this new form of address in our English language. “Thanks, Dudes!”

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The first time I heard the word “awesome” used it was by a surfer from California. Now, I have lived in Florida all my life, and we tend to be on the slow end of trends down here. So, I really hadn’t heard anyone use this word until he kept saying it, and I finally had to ask him what the deal was.
According to WordNet Search, “awesome” is an adjective: inspiring awe or admiration or wonder [...] “New York is an amazing city”; “the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight”; “the awesome complexity of the universe”; “this sea, whose gently awful …read more

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Yet another category has been added. This one is called “Library Lingo.”
The English language is rich and evolving, and boy, did it evolve a lot in the 1980s. I even managed to do a linguist research paper on it for school once. From the Valley Girls to the Surfer Dudes, they added all kinds of crazy verbage to the language. This category is going to take a look at some of the new word, slang, and phrases that we used back then and some we still use to day.

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