It’s the Bomb

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. My name is Samantha. I’m calling from Dana Point, California.

Hi, Samantha.

Well, hello. Welcome to the program.

Hi. I called because I wanted to share how a 12-year-old made me question language, at least my own language.

One day, I was with a friend of mine, and she brought along her 12-year-old niece.

I believe we were talking about food, and I was very excited about a type of food, and I described it as being the bomb.

Her 12-year-old niece looked at me bewildered and asked me, what does that mean and why would you say that?

And at that moment, I was reminded I was 26 years old.

You’re old.

Time to retire.

It’s all downhill from here, Samantha.

Granny, it doesn’t get any better.

Yeah, and this experience made me formulate two questions for the two of you.

My first question is, as we get older, does our language need to adapt as we enter different stages in our lives?

And my second question is, where does the phrase, the bomb, or that’s the bomb, come from?

-huh.

Two questions.

I think we can dispose of them both fairly quickly.

The first one, it’s interesting.

We always update our language as we get older.

We do, even if we don’t realize it.

We change, we adapt, we modify it.

But, you know, we grow old with a peer group.

And so all of the people who are your age, Samantha, they’re also still using that old slang.

And so it’s easy for that slang to stick around because you can use it with other people who are 29.

You said 29 or 26?

I’m 26, yeah.

26, okay.

So you can use it with other people who are 26 and be understood and not really feel like you’re out of your element or that you sound like an old fogey, right?

Yeah.

So we do keep it up, and you don’t really have to make a conscious effort.

You could, but a 12-year-old, if you pick up their language, is going to think you’re a weirdo and a creep, so don’t even bother.

Yeah.

So that’s no good either.

But the other thing as far as where the bomb comes from, there are surprisingly a lot of positive senses of the bomb.

To bomb in baseball has been to hit a home run or a long ball since the 1950s.

Football has a similar use in the forward pass.

Basketball has it, although it’s a little less common there.

It’s a long throw to the basket is a bomb.

To defeat somebody soundly in the 1960s was bombing them.

And, of course, the nuclear bomb was often seen and still is sometimes as something that’s stupendous or huge or powerful.

So that’s kind of a positive association there.

Well, it’s funny.

In Spanish, you say pasamos bomba.

We passed.

Literally, we passed the bomb, but it means we had a blast.

Oh, very past.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, of course, you ever heard a fast car called a bomb or a bomber or even an A-bomb?

So there are all these positive associations.

We’re not quite sure which one of these the bomb comes from.

I lean towards the nuclear explanation because of the article, the, which is attached to it.

We say the bomb.

We don’t say it.

If we say it is a bomb, we mean it’s a failure.

If we say it is the bomb, we mean it’s something great, right?

Yeah.

So I think it probably comes from the late 1960s, early 1970s by association with the atomic bomb.

Huh. That’s very interesting. Well, thank you.

And as far as keeping up with your slang, the best way to win a 12-year-old’s heart is to ask her or him to teach you some.

Even if you think you shouldn’t use it, they would love to share.

Oh, no, you think? I just picture them rolling their eyes.

Do you think that this kid would roll her eyes?

Yeah, I think she would.

She might, but she may also want you to be interested in her, and she may want to tell you about herself, and that might be the trick.

Well, I would think, too, they have a sense of curiosity.

They might be charmed by your use of the bomb.

This is something that they didn’t know before.

I mean, I’m charmed when I hear people of an earlier generation talk about the bee’s knees or something.

And groovy.

Groovy.

Well, Samantha, how do we do?

Did we help you out?

Yes, you did.

Thank you so much.

I’ve been wanting to call you guys and just ask you about it.

I’m like, how did this 12-year-old stop me in my tracks, at least, with what I was saying?

I thought it dated me, like, circa 1996, or that’s when I used it more.

I don’t know.

Well, thank you guys so much for having me on the show.

Sure.

Glad to have you.

Thank you for calling.

You’re the bomb.

You’re the bomb.

Thanks.

No, really.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Poor thing.

She’s feeling old at 26.

Bless her heart.

If you’ve heard a slang term that has your brow furrowed, call us 1-877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.