absolutely more "absolutely"

April 18, 2024 2:45 PM

Is it just me or are more and more people using the word "absolutely" as a standard affirmative response (in the place of "sure" or "no problem")? This feels especially noticeable in podcasts, but I also hear the word frequently in bricks and mortar retail and coffee shops etc. Is this a podcast thing? A 2020s thing?

Aubrey Gordon' of Maintenance Phase does an emphatic "Totally!" that I find very charming. But I might be hitting my absolute limit for absolutely.

posted by spamandkimchi to Writing & Language (20 answers total)

Depending on when you were comparing to, it has certainly surged in popularity in writing.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:57 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

Weirdly timely: this CNN article from 2009 quotes an etymologist who tracks the increase to its use by OJ Simpson at trial. (And I found that linked from a 2014 post on another website asking the same question.)
posted by bluedaisy at 3:00 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]

Stallone said "absolutely" in Rocky. It became a thing then and I feel like it never really went away.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:31 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

This is how these things go. I notice this about all sorts of phrases. They're contagious. "Of course" for "you're welcome" is another that I never used to hear but is now everywhere, and which I particularly dislike!
posted by swheatie at 3:32 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

Depending on when you were comparing to, it has certainly surged in popularity in writing.

Wow, the jump in British English usage from 2000 to 2010 is absolutely wild. It seems like there must have been some kind of pop cultural catalyst.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 3:58 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]

I think it's an emphatic and satisfyingly verbose way to answer in the affirmative. I personally started noticing this usage creeping up in the early/mid-2000s, but it seems like it's been very gradual. The over-the-top certainty of it was often played for laughs, but it doesn't have quite that effect now, after a couple decades of overuse.

It came up in the US version of The Office around 2005-ish -- "absolutely I do" became a sort of minor catch phrase. I'd chalk the current usage up more to that (and TV writing in general) than to OJ.
posted by sportbucket at 5:39 PM on April 18 [1 favorite]

I’ve absolutely 😉 also noticed this. A newer one: saying “a hundred percent” for emphatic agreement. For some reason I think this is a Kardashian-ism that has caught on but I have no data to back it up.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 5:56 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

I've been seeing it more in the negative: "absolutely not." That phrase seems to me to have become more common on social media in the past year. One example:

do beavers even know what they’re doing or do they just see water flowing down a river and think “absolutely not”
– @socomplikatied, Twitter
posted by bryon at 7:20 PM on April 18

I recall sports talk radio in the 2010s to today has “absolutely” answered with, alternated with, or having tacked on “noquestion” smooshed into one word.
posted by drowsy at 7:39 PM on April 18

100%.

And "100%" is what I've noticed is the new version around here for me.
posted by miles1972 at 8:32 PM on April 18 [2 favorites]

"Of course" for "you're welcome" is another that I never used to hear but is now everywhere, and which I particularly dislike!

"You're welcome" has been around forever as a/the standard response to "thank you." Sounds innocuous to my genx ears, whereas lately I hear a lot of "no, you're good" instead.

"Thank you!" "No, you're good." It adds a weird judgment, like person1 was apologetic about their request and person2 is absolving them or something.
posted by headnsouth at 5:51 AM on April 19

I've noticed that word a lot in response to any question, even (or especially) questions that are not requests and not yes or no questions. I just watched an author on MSNBC who was really interesting and well spoken otherwise. But every time she was called upon to speak, she started with a vigorous, "Absolutely!"

I take that as yet another thing people do to avoid answering a question with something negative or unenthusiastic. It seems to mean, "I'm really happy to answer your question!" As a teacher I was told never to answer in the negative right out of the gate and to try not to look as if a question seems weird to me. So you develop a repertoire of things to say, like, "Great question!" or "Oh, right, so you're asking..." Anything that sounds open and positive. "Absolutely" can be a little jarring if it doesn't go with what the other person just said. But I've really noticed it a lot.
posted by BibiRose at 6:41 AM on April 19 [1 favorite]

I haven't noticed any increase in "absolutely", but I keep hearing people say "perfect" as a standard affirmative response. For some reason, it drives me crazy. I also hear people saying, "That's exactly right" more often than seems necessary. Oh, and I really hate when people keep using "sort of" as a sort of pointless filler. Even people who are normally articulate and erudite do this.
posted by alex1965 at 8:06 AM on April 19

This might be a guess in the dark, but I know that "absolutely" has risen significantly as a response on RuPaul's Drag Race and among those who follow it after it was Gia Gunn's catchphrase, sort of, when she appeared in Season 6 in 2014. There are quite a few things that seem to have entered the popular vernacular from that corner of culture (often coming originally from Black queer people) that aren't often recognized as being mainstreamed through drag race.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:28 AM on April 19 [1 favorite]

My first thought went to TV as well, with Absolutely Productions being incredibly influential over late 2000s and 2010s alt-comedy.

I can't see the word without hearing that inflection.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:15 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

I've noticed people saying "I appreciate you" a lot lately, instead of "thank you" or "I appreciate it" when you do something for them. It doesn't bother me, really, but it is odd. I feel like I hadn't heard it much before a year or two ago.
posted by maryellenreads at 1:18 PM on April 19

Folks here might not know that new language, and new uses of language, in American English often come out of Black and/or Black queer communities. I think, "I appreciate you" and "100 %" are examples of this. But, yeah, if you've heard it from the Kardashians, my guess is that they heard it through Black culture first.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:52 PM on April 19

"I appreciate you" is absolutely 100% from Ted Lasso. It may not have originated there, but that was how it spread quickly.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:56 PM on April 19

I thought it was the final line of dialog in the first episode, first season of Sex and The City (1998) but what Mr Big actually said was “abso-fucking-lutely”.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:06 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

“I appreciate you” is just southern, although it’s usually tightened up to something like “pre-she-aye cha”. My elderly Alabaman relatives have been using it my entire life, and presumably long before.
posted by not just everyday big moggies at 3:42 PM on April 19 [2 favorites]