'randomers'

I know some of you are interested in language developments in London. Around a year ago, I noticed kids around 11 years old using the word random more often than I would have expected, and then noticed lots of kids were doing the same. They weren't using it in a new way, just more often than you would expect. Typical utterances might be 'It was just a random thing to do' or 'There were just a few random people there'.

So I was pleased to hear an actual innovation from Charlotte Church on Jonathan Ross last week. She'd been talking about her adventures in 'Chip Alley' and other bits of Cardiff and told him about one time when she was having a meal in a restaurant. She said, 'I was sitting there with a few randomers-' and Jonathan said, 'Hold on a minute. What did you say? 'Randomers'?' She replied, 'Yeh, you know, just a few random people.'

One interesting thing about it is there isn't any obvius motivation for using this word more frequently. It just seems to have been picked on at random. B-)

[Also posted (slightly adapted) on Billy Blogs]

Comments

[hiftVota]

Everybody knows you're the rage whore. We went on like this for a loved looser minutes.

[randomer]

ever heard of the word "stranger"?

[Jax]

hi I know its a bit late but just I wanted to add a comment to your discussion- I play rts comp games & when we make a game we can either play in set team or go 'random'

[Marta]

Now that you made me think about it it is true, I use 'random' very often, in context like 'that girl is so random' meaning 'that girl is a weirdo'. Many of my friends do too. Is that possible to use 'random' with that meaning? Did you hear it anywhere else?

[Mai]

Interesting example. Although the new word "randomer" does not relate to "random" in the sense of a "doer" of any action, this also reminds me of another innovation coined by Jerry Seinfeld in one of his episodes. He was talking about people's behaviour in cinemas and the traditional act of "shoshing", and so he classified people as "the shoshers" and "the shoshees".

On a more general note, the tendency of 11-year olds to use "random" often may reflect the culture of "random shuffling iPods" and the corresponding slogan "life is random"?

Mai