I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and the use of "plenty" for what I suppose is "very" has bothered me quite a bit. For example, "it is plenty hot" is "pretty" common. I have even heard "plenty good." Can someone help to clarify this? Is trying not to cringe on such usage/abusage a losing battle?
To me both pretty and plenty are slang for very. Plenty is a bit slangier than pretty.
I think it is a losing battle. Words for very come and go, and lots of different cultures and subcultures develop their own. It is a hazard of words that emphasize: they become overly used, lose their punch, and invite people to invent new words to emphasize. It is hella annoying.
Pretty soon we'll all be super-saturated with emphatics. But Glen is plenty right; we'll still invent more. Can't have too much of a raging good thing.
Speaking of "emphatics," how many times a day on radio, TV, our own conversations, do we hear "absolutely?"