Sketchy

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Katie calling you from Portland, Oregon.

Well, hello, Katie in Portland, Oregon. What’s cooking in Portland?

Hello. Well, I have a question about a word.

I actually went to college here in Portland at a little liberal arts college.

And I have a question about a word that I had heard before I came to college here, but that had never been so ubiquitous as it was at this place.

And so I wanted to ask you about it.

The word is sketchy.

And this word is used to describe, it’s generally either a person or a location that seems kind of off or kind of like maybe you don’t want to get involved or like they have, you know, bad intentions or something.

So an example would be, you know, you took the bus through the sketchy part of town and you got a bad vibe.

Or that guy, he looks kind of sketchy, like maybe he’s got a leer in his eye that you’re not really interested in.

And the other thing about this word is that in sort of traditional collegiate style, it’s very malleable.

So you can sort of turn it into lots of other words or adjectives.

Like, let’s see, if a skate place was particularly sketchy, you might refer to it as like sketchy town or sketchyville.

It would be that area of town.

Or the best one would be if someone was seriously sketchy, you would call them sketchy McSketcherson.

Right, right.

I like that.

So I guess I’m interested in where this word might have come from and how it came to mean what it means.

And also just, I don’t know, I just found it so interesting that it had so many forms that it could take on.

Yeah, that’s fabulous.

Katie, may we ask how long ago it was that you were in school?

Just a couple of years ago.

And I can guarantee that the word is still in heavy usage there.

-huh.

Yeah.

I’ve seen it as early as the 1980s with that kind of sense that Katie’s talking about.

Yeah, that’s about right.

That’s about right.

Definitely the 1980s.

It reminds me of, well, you mentioned how it can be transformed.

There’s also the verb, you know, you could sketch someone out.

Or the sketchy part of town sketches you out, right?

Exactly.

Which is kind of a parallel to skeeve out.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, all right.

Yeah.

And I don’t, I’m not sure that we know the origin of it beyond just the idea that it’s kind of questionable.

Yeah, I mean, I guess that was my impression is that if something’s sketchy, it means that its outlines aren’t clearly defined, you know, or its boundaries aren’t clearly defined.

So it would be something that, you know, you can’t quite get the whole picture of and that that maybe freaks you out a little.

Mm-That makes sense to me.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that many of the uses of it over the years that I’ve seen really do demonstrate that that’s what people had in mind, whether or not it was the original use of sketchy or the later use, they really did think of it meaning things are unclear here.

It’s just the rough outline.

I don’t know what’s going to happen.

I don’t know what’s going on there.

And Katie, I would think that it might be reinforced too by the fact that there are other words that sort of sound like that, like skeevy and skanky.

It’s interesting that all three of those start with that SK sound.

That’s true. That’s true.

Yeah, and I just found it so interesting because it really was, you know, I remember clearly in my freshman year just sort of noticing this particular word and finding that I began to use it constantly, not only on its own, but in these, you know, elaborate forms that it would take on.

Because it just was suddenly so descriptive of things that I guess you don’t really encounter as much sketchiness before you’re out on your own as a college student.

Right.

In a wild world, unprotected by your parents.

All right.

Is it all groovy, Katie?

Did we get to where you wanted to go?

There’s nothing sketchy.

My boundaries are feeling much clearer today.

Thank you, guys.

I love this show.

All right.

Take care of yourself, Katie.

Thanks, Katie.

All right.

I will.

Thanks very much.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Good word, though.

Let me tell you.

I like it.

I love it.

You know, some new language you’re like, eh, but that one’s strong.

I think that’s here to stay for a long time.

Do you, Grant?

I do.

You think it’s here to think on tomorrow?

When I say that about the slang of young people, I also am aware that some of this stuff, some language was recorded in the early 1900s.

And if I go back and read those lists of language that the college kids were using, like three quarters of it just doesn’t exist now.

Nobody would know what you were saying if you used it.

So who knows?

I could be wrong.

In 50 years, sketchy might just disappear.

Well, as you know, I’d love to take your slang questions.

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