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Since when did 'best' start to mean 'favourite'?

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Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:15 / 07.06.05

Had a client in recently, and the afternoon involved producing a radio show for a bunch of local kids...Teachers all present and presumably involved in editing and helping the wee things with their scripts...

So anyway, this young lad has a moment where he is asked why he has chosen to write a poem about a particular footballer, and he responds 'Because he is my best footballer'.

None of the teacher's even bat an eyelid at this, and I notice this is fairly common usage of the term, as in :

'What music do you like, then?'

'R&B, 'cos Destiny's Child are my best band'

or

'Shall we eat?'

'Yeah. Let's go to Ruby's, Indian is my best food'.

Now, if you were teaching this little apples of our collective eye, would you not have pointed out the obvious here?

Petty as all hell, but it really makes my teeth grate together. Surely describing something as 'your best' would imply your hand in it's creation, rather than your enjoyment of it above all others which is, I gather, your 'favourite'. Grrrrr.

Sheesh, am I having a slow day or what? Work, you lazy fool!

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:17 / 07.06.05

Although changing 'my' to 'the' would make it better, if a somewhat sweeping generalisation of opinion into fact.

WORK!

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:27 / 07.06.05

Adamswish is even as we speak coming to kick your arse.

12:52 / 07.06.05

What about "bare" -seems to be a favourite amongst our yoot for anything of numerical significance. i.e. he's got bare tunes, I've got bare amounts of work to do.

Doesn't really set me teeth on edge, but I think it defines the difference between generations.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

13:02 / 07.06.05

Hexplain please Haus.

13:19 / 07.06.05

You should work, but that would not solve the deficiencies of contemporary education. I teach writing in a university setting and I could go on and on and on and on and on about malaprops (and on and on and on. . .), but I won't. Because I have work to do. What I will say briefly is that it is worth getting upset over. When I went to school (late 70s - early 80s) you can be sure someone would have corrected me. But now we have the "student centered" classroom, thank you very much Peter Elbow, where everything the student does is okay. Don't correct grammar! Don't you know that those are just personal idiosyncrasies that we should embrace and focus on real problems? Only there don't seem to be any real problems. Everything takes a back seat to making the child feel comfortable (which is also where we get "Academic Freedom" bills like those in Florida) in the belief that they'll just figure it out as long as teacher is supportive. You would think at least they would teach critical thought, but noooo! But that's another topic.

Besides, Destiny's Child sucks! If anyone says they are the best band in any situation they're either lying or delusional. Sorry to anyone who likes Destiny's Child.

13:59 / 07.06.05

"where everything the student does is okay".
Don't use a red pen to mark work; it implies criticisim. Don't use the word 'fail' it makes the students sad, etc. etc.

I work about half and half between university level and FE courses. The level of English really does more than define generation gap. Unless you mean that a lower standard of education is one of main things defining the coming generation... which would be a bit sad, if perhaps accurate.

E.g.: "It's bare long" = it's more than 200 words, therefore I cannot read it.
"It's deep" = it contains any emotional or intellectual content. Note: basic media studies or anything related to history fits this description. This does sometimes refer to simply a long text (approx over 500 words) as well, so can sometimes be confused with 'bare'.
"It's bare deep" = it's borders philosophy. Note: any discussion of ethics or law fits in here.

14:07 / 07.06.05

Surely describing something as 'your best' would imply your hand in it's creation

Like "my best friend", fashioned by my own fair hand from twigs, leaves and my own spittle and dung.

Tryphena Absent

14:16 / 07.06.05

Is 'best' a regional thing that's spread??

14:16 / 07.06.05

That's really more of a Temple thing, Cash. I think what is referred to here is more in the cloning department.

14:44 / 07.06.05

Hexplain please Haus.

Yes please! I am not understanding the Swish reference either.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

17:10 / 07.06.05

Well, CJ, that is because the friend actually is 'theirs'.

See, it makes sense - my friend. Correct-a-mundo!

Destiny's Child is not, however, 'their band', nor is Viggo Mortensen 'their footballer', nor is warrah warrah fishpaste.

Although education is clearly important, being a smartarse is not, eh?

rising and revolving

20:17 / 07.06.05

Sounds annoying (although the kids don't do it here) but I personally have become fond of "best girl" recently. There's something charming about "She's mah best gurl," - to me, at least.

20:41 / 07.06.05

best is bad but bestest deserves the death penalty.

And awesome does not mean good. It means so outstandingly good that one is filled with awe. Rrrrrrrrrrg!

Decimated means specifically to kill one in ten. There are plenty of other perfectly good words that mean all the other things people use decimated to mean these days.

I'll shut up before I go all Victor Meldrew all over the thread.

20:44 / 07.06.05

I haven't heard that use of "bare" before. It's brilliant, if a little counter-intuitive.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:57 / 07.06.05

Bestest deserves the death penalty unless used at least twice in a sentence ending with the word "ever". I know this is an arbitrary rule, but that notional sentence is one I've been known to use, so I'm arguing in its favour.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:59 / 07.06.05

(sorry, hit "post" too early)

For me, it implies that whatever's being discussed is so amazingly fantabulous that the laws of grammar cannot contain it.

Usually, it also implies that whatever it is is something I'll be bored with within a week, but, y'know...

23:19 / 07.06.05

I am in the generation that has fallen to the new fad of letting the students be dumb, and I am pissed about it.

Teach us and we will learn. Be hard on us, dont care if we like you or not. but for hells sake, fill our heads with knowledge!

06:23 / 08.06.05

Oh, just go fill your own head with knowledge. We can't be bothered.

ONLY NICE THINGS

06:36 / 08.06.05

Hexplain please Haus.

Yes please! I am not understanding the Swish reference either.

Oh, it was an its/it's thing. No big.

06:51 / 08.06.05

Is 'best' a regional thing that's spread??

I think so. It seems pretty familliar to me from my schooldays in Newcastle, and I've probably said it myself at some point (possibly ironically, possibly not). But it does sound right/better/'best' in Geordie. (Try it in your head...)

07:59 / 08.06.05

Teach us and we will learn. Be hard on us, dont care if we like you or not. but for hells sake, fill our heads with knowledge!

Sorry, it's not required by the system here (in fact, it's actively discouraged in some areas). Arbitary grading criteria and a focus on training over education had put paid to that.

You also have the problem with the various awarding bodies. They compete like pharmaceutical companies for favour with the schools and colleges. By often using stats for numbers passing as bait; they're effectively in a race to promote easier and easier exams and portfolios.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:30 / 08.06.05

Oh, it was an its/it's thing. No big.

"...it's creation"

My bad. But I am typing furiously, and at work, so can be forgiven such slips. I have demonstrated my grasp of Henglish quite hadequately, thangyew very much, so, just as I no longer drive with my hands at 10 to 2, or even quarter to three sometimes, so I can be forgiven the odd typing malfunction. T_Y_P_I_N_G.

Remember Kidz : You don't have to be a nucular scientist to pronounce foilage.

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:55 / 08.06.05

so can be forgiven such slips

Hey, not my concern. I don't really have an opinion. Although it does kind of bear out the idea that the level of accuracy in English usage that we find acceptable is generally the level of accuracy we ourselves employ, which sounds tautological but need not be. Thus, anything less is stupidity, anything more pedantry. However, as mentioned above, maybe these Childer (c. Ganesh) have run through every available adjective and concluded that their chances of social success are best served by the use of an incorrect but socially reinforcing "best".

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:28 / 08.06.05

In other words: leave the kids alone you deeply mediocre man.

12:06 / 08.06.05

But it does sound right/better/'best' in Geordie.

As do all things.

15:18 / 08.06.05

Stoatie you are the bestest EVER!!!!. And you're awesome. Even the punctuation is upsetting there.

You are quite good though. See how much better that short burst of sincerity sounded? Hyperbole will make you deaf, you know. That's why Americans shout all the time.

15:19 / 08.06.05

Sorry, amend that to read - that's why some Amercians shout all the time.

16:10 / 08.06.05

This is the bestest thread EVAR.

It's got bare good posts, man.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

18:33 / 08.06.05

In other words: leave the kids alone you deeply mediocre man.

I'm so glad

a) You are here to interpret Haus' posts for all of us.

b) I have 'progressed' from 'clueless' to 'mediocre' in your erstwhile estimations. ("'...'")

I'm still surprised, though, that teachers do not have any interest in these things, whether my teeth grate or merely salivate in their plaquey mediocrity, or whatever.

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:40 / 08.06.05

That wasn't what I said... I think it was a wry comment on how people understand difference, rather than a scathing personal attack. I hope so, anyway.

The problem is, the possible alternate scenarios are just so tempting.. like, the kids have an incredibly varied and rich coonceptual vocabulary, but feel that they can relax and take a break around the boy Money $hot.. it's like quiet time.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

19:47 / 08.06.05

Hell, and I thought it was a comment about the teachers, the kids being all of, you know, 10 years old and wotnot.

Goddamm this interweb and its ad hominem facility.

(See? Its. Ha!)

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:05 / 08.06.05

Well, the teachers get them all the time. They know their remarkable, even somewhat frightening, verbal facility. Why would they kick up a fuss?

20:13 / 08.06.05

Might I just point out to everyone younger than me that LATER is a comparative adjective and not a noun. This means that it cannot have a plural.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:15 / 08.06.05

Unless, obviously, you are ACTUALLY Derek. Or Clive. In which case you are allowed to say:
"five years laters"
"five years laters?"
"yes, five years laters."

Otherwise, especially if neither Squatter nor The Ant are involved, you aren't.

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