Random Factor (like a tractor)

Posted by Tom on 30th September, 2008

I’ve previously documented my dislike of the current trend for misusing the word ‘random’. I was pleased, therefore, to hear Matt Forde vent on this topic on the Jon Richardson Podcast.

I thought I was alone in cringing at sentences such as the following.

OMG you are like so RANDOM today, look at your random hat!!!

No, no, no! You are allowed to call my hat choice random only if I arranged to have 1000 hats dropped on my position and I emerged wearing said hat. Otherwise it’s a deliberate, non-random hat choice. And while we’re discoursing on the topic of clothing choice, can I suggest that you take off those massive furry boots? They look silly. And when will you learn that leggings and a long cardigan aren’t enough to hide the fact that you haven’t got any trousers on? And take your stupid rat-dog out of your handbag before I punt it into the river.

I feel better after that rant. I’m fine now.

Tangentially, can anyone identify what the title of this post refers to? There are shiny GrammarBlog points up for grabs.

Permalink

15 Comments »

Has to be Shooting Stars, n’est-ce pas?

Comment by Cennydd Bowles — 30th September, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Correct Cennydd, you now have 8.72 GrammarBlog points to add to your already impressive tally.

Comment by Gez — 30th September, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
I missed your old post about the seemingly random use of the word “random” . . . I’ll have to go check it out.I’ve been bothered by this usage for a while. People seem to think “random” just means “weird” or “coincidental” or “whatever I feel like because I’m too stupid to come up with an appropriate adjective!”A coworker recently said something like this to me: “The way Excel handles this formatting is so random; every time I try to do this it does the same stupid thing.” So, basically, he was saying it’s broken (or more likely it’s user error), but broken in a totally effing consistent way! There’s nothing random about it if it’s entirely predictable!Grr. Sorry, I had to rant a bit.

Comment by JoseMonkey — 1st October, 2008 @ 10:11 pm
You don’t have kids?1) What did you do at the mall?”Oh just hung out and avoided some weird randoms.”2) How was school?”got a detention; how random is that?”3) What is your brother doing?”just talking to some random on X-Box”Need Igo on?

Comment by elliotross — 2nd October, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Although I like a good grammar/usage rant as much as anybody, I think this is just a case of the word slowly changing meaning. It’s had meanings in hackish for a long time that have little to do with the strict definition of “random” (and hackish speech can be very precise about things!); see http://catb.org/jargon/html/R/random.html I think this is just an example of some of these meanings (such as “gratuitously wrong” or “poorly chosen”) spilling over into other dialects.

Comment by Anonymous — 11th November, 2008 @ 4:10 am
Thanks for the?interesting post.? I’m going to share with my friends and look forward to visiting this site again!

Comment by Ambit Energy — 7th May, 2011 @ 7:52 pm
Too Funny!! This is such a great post! I was just talking to a friend of mine about the word ‘Random’… how great (Random? ) to come across this post!

Comment by Sarah — 16th May, 2011 @ 9:03 pm
Very funny! It is kind of annoying when people say that something you did was random, when in reality it was deliberate.

Comment by Mark — 3rd July, 2011 @ 6:55 pm
Such a great post, thank you for sharing! I have found your blogs very entertaining. Keep it up!

Comment by Julia — 3rd July, 2011 @ 7:50 pm
Funny! It’s very true that people overuse and/or wrongly use “random”. Nothing is actually random in life.

Comment by Dan — 6th July, 2011 @ 8:56 pm
How entertaining! You are definitely NOT alone in thinking that a sentence containing the randomness of even the most mundane thing is stupid and annoying.

Comment by Sam — 7th July, 2011 @ 3:52 am
@ Jose Monkey – I know exactly what you mean. What Excel is programmed to do is not random. The makers of all versions of Excel made the product a certain way.

Comment by Amanda — 8th July, 2011 @ 5:18 am
OMG! Those huge furry boots have always been ugly. Most of the designer stuff that comes out is atrocious and the normal person wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) wear it.

Comment by Meredith — 8th July, 2011 @ 8:40 pm
Wow, this is great. I didn’t know that the word ‘random’ could generate so much discussion, but it’s great to see it! I definitely chuckled when seeing those furry boots

Comment by MLM Training — 27th July, 2011 @ 8:16 pm
I use the word random randomly too! It’s just such a catchy word and it fits into most situations. Great for easing awkward scenarios too.
-Jane from BMW for Sale

Comment by Jane Cooper — 19th September, 2011 @ 2:01 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Talk to us

If you want to tell us your pet peeves, send us examples of grammar abuse you have witnessed or even ask our advice on grammar matters, we'd love to hear from you. Email us on grammarblog@googlemail.com

Ads by Google

Twitter

Flickr

From More Worser Grammar

GrammarBlog