For many decades now we’ve been living in a world changing dramatically fast, of which languages are of course an integral part. Thus in theory it shouldn’t surprise to notice that the meaning of some words have drifted significantly away from what they used to be just yesterday.
But let’s face it: in reality you don’t realize that your baby daughter is growing up until she starts wearing a bra.
A particular case that struck my attention lately is the word “excited” – no, not the whole verb, just its past participle: for centuries its main meaning has been “enthusiastic”, “thrilled”, “elated”, “charged”, but today (at least according to the internet) it has apparently drifted to something like “expecting the listener to swallow with good grace the rest of the sentence”.
A few examples?
“Here at Microft we all are excited with the new WIDOWS 15, the operating system that will give the user full control over the entire power switch unless the OS thinks differently…”
“We are excited to announce that our company has been swallowed whole by Gongle and starting tomorrow we will work under their whip…”
“We are so excited to announce the release of the new Spyke version, the Video Call app that will route all your conversations through the NSA in order to offer you a better protection against potentially dangerous ideas…”
The list might go on for quite a while.
In a nutshell, if you nowadays read that someone is ‘excited’ with something, it’s time to fasten your seatbelt, bring your seat back to an upright position, fold the table in front of you, put your head firmly between your knees and prepare yourself for the worst.
I begin to miss the good ol’ times when excited referred mostly to giggling girls and electrons that had swallowed a photon… 