So I was just over at my absolute favorite gossip blog, The Superficial, ya know, catching up on the dirt, as I am wont to do of a noontime, and I noticed that they ended a recent post with the avowal “Word.”
Now, I’ve been noticing this usage quite a bit as of late … in addition to The Superficial appearance, as the answer for the crossword clue “Affirmation (’00s slang)” and even once uttered by a friend who is hipper than I. Now, granted, crosswords may not be the arbiter of what is au courant in the slang world and it’s not terribly hard to be hipper than me. Still, this trifecta of instances within one week’s time must be more than mere coincidence.
The thing is, when I think “word” I think old school slang, à la “Word Up!” by Cameo (1986) and “Ice, Ice, Baby” by Vanilla Ice (1989). I most definitely do not think ’00s slang.
Don’t get me wrong … when I hear someone utter, “Word.”—especially in an understated, period-afterwards kinda way—I’m diggin it, but it seems all kindza imbued with irony to me.
Personally, since my “word” usage is almost exclusively via the written … uh … word, I favor the spelling “werd” to really reinforce the r sound and duly connote the irony with which it is said. This practice is sort of akin to spelling the word cool “kewl” or “kyewl.” There’s no good reason for it, really, and could plausibly be called the (slightly) more mature version of dotting i s with hearts and shit like that. No matter. It’s fun. Fuck the dotting police and their ilk.
