Vocaboly.com

[kj]

Sometime in the 90's expressions of the "how <adjective> is that?"
(e.g. "how cool is that?", "how stupid is that?", etc.) came in
vogue in the US. What's the history of this development? Somehow,
I want to link it to the TV show Seinfeld, but maybe it was already
quite established by the time that Seinfeld used it.

More generally, what are good resources for questions like this
one (i.e. about the histories of language fashions)?

Thanks!

kj
--
NOTE: In my address everything before the first period is backwards;
and the last period, and everything after it, should be discarded.

[R H Draney]

kj filted:

[Fred]

"kj" <socyl@987jk.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:dkls18$h4u$1@reader2.panix.com...

[Salvatore Volatile]

kj wrote:

[R J Valentine]

On Mon, 7 Nov 2005 14:55:51 +0000 (UTC) Salvatore Volatile <me@privacy.net> wrote:

} kj wrote:
}> Sometime in the 90's expressions of the "how <adjective> is that?"
}> (e.g. "how cool is that?", "how stupid is that?", etc.) came in
}> vogue in the US. What's the history of this development? Somehow,
}> I want to link it to the TV show Seinfeld, but maybe it was already
}> quite established by the time that Seinfeld used it.
}
} Can you provide any evidence that this usage appeared on any _Seinfeld_
} episode? It's certainly possible, but I don't particularly associate it
} with _Seinfeld_ (as opposed to some other 1990s TV shows).
}
} The assertion that a television show is primarily or significantly
} responsible for a particular slang or other popular usage is a
} controversial one. To my knowledge there are only a few proven cases of
} such a thing having occurred, to wit:
}
} (1) _Happy Days_ and the revival of dormant slang "cool"
} (2) _Happy Days_ (with some subsequent help from _Saturday Night Live_)
} and the revival, if it can even be called that, of slang "nerd"


Cf. "green-car syndrome" (you never notice a green car until you own one;
then you see them all over). (I used to have a green 1964 [Mercury] Comet
convertible. I bought it from a little old lady schoolteacher who hadn't
driven it much.)

--
R. J. Valentine <mailto:rj@theWorld.com>

[R H Draney]

Salvatore Volatile filted:

[Ben Zimmer]

Salvatore Volatile wrote: