A classic for folks my age is "whatever." When we said it, we meant, okay, fine, whatever, I don't care, doesn't matter. No irony. Now, of course, it means exactly the opposite, and seems pretty peevish to us old folk.
I once realized it's hard to say "big deal" without irony. If you can say only those two words, that is, and not with a questioning inflection.
There was some phrase my mother could never say as if it weren't a question, and that was generational. Not "what's up." Can't remember now. Something like "no shit," perhaps? ("no duh" is a funny one, isn't it)
Let's see. I thought I had another for ya. Oh, yeah: "funky"---that one seems to be reverting to its non-smelly meaning, in some retro reclaiming. At least in my experience, which, granted, ain't urban no more.
Once when I was fairly newly at the community college in Baltimore a student came up and asked me if she could "hold" the "staple gun." Given the context, I figured it out on my own pretty quickly, but there was a little pause to adjust to the notion of "hold" meaning to borrow, use for a certain period, and return, and to "staple gun" referring simply to a stapler. I don't recall the latter usage being repeated, so that was probably that particular student's linguistic fluke, but that meaning for "hold" was common. I remember quite clearly, though, the brief picture in my mind of her holding, in the loving/semi-carressing way one might hold something one had asked to hold, a staple gun.
Great topic.
I once realized it's hard to say "big deal" without irony. If you can say only those two words, that is, and not with a questioning inflection.
There was some phrase my mother could never say as if it weren't a question, and that was generational. Not "what's up." Can't remember now. Something like "no shit," perhaps? ("no duh" is a funny one, isn't it)
Let's see. I thought I had another for ya. Oh, yeah: "funky"---that one seems to be reverting to its non-smelly meaning, in some retro reclaiming. At least in my experience, which, granted, ain't urban no more.
Once when I was fairly newly at the community college in Baltimore a student came up and asked me if she could "hold" the "staple gun." Given the context, I figured it out on my own pretty quickly, but there was a little pause to adjust to the notion of "hold" meaning to borrow, use for a certain period, and return, and to "staple gun" referring simply to a stapler. I don't recall the latter usage being repeated, so that was probably that particular student's linguistic fluke, but that meaning for "hold" was common. I remember quite clearly, though, the brief picture in my mind of her holding, in the loving/semi-carressing way one might hold something one had asked to hold, a staple gun.