THIS. OMG, SO THIS! Language and the Urban Dictionary

Despite the fact that English is not my first language, I have been immersed in it full time for the last 15 years. I teach in English, I write my research in English, I grade papers in English. I consume news in English. In some ways, I am almost forgetting my Spanish. And Spanish is my mother tongue. I was chatting with Minna yesterday and she was mentioning that I’ve overused THIS.

Maybe because I find it so endearing. Or maybe because I’m more of a slang user now. I find myself using the Urban Dictionary so much more lately! So what does Urban Dictionary tell us about THIS?

One-word response placed after a quote on a message board as an affirmation of the author’s agreement with the quoted person’s view or opinion. Commonly used on Fark.com.
Some guy: “Nice to see that the human race has advanced to the point of using robots to poke things with a stick.”

Another guy (after quoting above): This.

I’m really sorry if you follow me on Twitter and you’ve seen me retweet stuff and comment “THIS. OMG. SO MUCH THIS”. I promise I’ll wean off of this.

Total pun intended.

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