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]