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Possible Duplicate:
Is Valley Girl speak like entering the language?

Please can you explain the origins of where the annoying over-use of the word "like" came from?

Does this have anything to do with Facebook?

Example:

Logan is so, like, stupid when he says, like, anything!
He's like, he's like an idiot or something. I don't think I like him anymore, like.

Community
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Greg
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    As much as I like blaming facebook for various things, I'm afraid we can't in this case. The usage you describe is decades old. You may want to see http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1531/is-valley-girl-speak-like-entering-the-language – Dusty Dec 01 '10 at 20:37
  • That kind of filler word is fairly common, and they often seem to attract opprobrium. That use of "like" has been hated about as long as it's been in use, and relatives like "you know" are similarly unpopular, but most people use some sound (often just the generic "um") to indicate that kind of filler. The underlying problem is that we can understand speech faster than we can produce it, and therefore we naturally talk faster than we can think. So when we need to catch up to what we've said, we use some kind of filler to hold our place in the conversation. – Henry Dec 01 '10 at 22:39

3 Answers3

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The usage of like as a random interjection/hedge/quotative particle is older than most of the girls who are using it nowadays. It certainly predates Facebook by several decades. It's one of the defining characteristics of "valley girl" speech, which originated in California (specifically, the vast tract of suburbia known collectively as the San Fernando Valley) in the 1970's.

Marthaª
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  • It should be mentioned that nobody would have cared much about "valley girl" speech if not for the Frank Zappa song of the same name. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Girl_%28song%29 ), which featured large amounts of valspeak from his 14yo daughter. When that song came out half my female classmates started trying to talk like that all the time ... in Oklahoma. – T.E.D. Aug 03 '11 at 17:57
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I disagree with Martha (for the first time). The first instances I'm aware of involving the use of "like" in such a way go back to the Beat culture of the 1950s.

Robusto
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    This doesn't actually contradict what I wrote. :) – Marthaª Dec 01 '10 at 21:05
  • @Martha You said it started twenty years later then Robusto did. – Ullallulloo Dec 01 '10 at 21:08
  • @Martha: Yes, you at least imply that the term originated in the '70s. I find it amusing that your answer polls better in spite of what I consider an obvious flaw, however. :) – Robusto Dec 01 '10 at 21:37
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    No, she says it's one of the defining characteristics of "valley girl" speech, and points out where that style originated. She doesn't claim that this particular feature originated there, though. – Henry Dec 01 '10 at 22:36
  • "Originated" in Martha's answer refers to Valley Girl speech, not use of the word "like". – Klay Dec 01 '10 at 23:48
  • @Klay: Nevertheless, although she doesn't quite come out and say it, her answer implies that Valley Girl speech is the source of the term. Read it again. The answer makes no explicit claim of origin. – Robusto Dec 02 '10 at 00:39
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    @Robusto, here, have an upvote. :D I do maintain that what I wrote is completely correct: valspeak started no earlier than the 70s, and one of its defining characteristics is filler "like". – Marthaª Dec 02 '10 at 01:12
  • @Martha: See, was that so hard? Now I agree with you. =D – Robusto Dec 02 '10 at 01:49
  • @Robusto: At worst, her comment suffers from an ambiguity as to the subject of "originated". I find it interesting that given the choice between a charitable interpretation and an uncharitable one, you've chosen the latter. The fact that it "polls" better indicates to me that most of us are more charitable than you seem to be, that's all. – Klay Dec 06 '10 at 21:17
  • @Klay: I went out of my way to use a smiley to indicate that i was making a joke in both comments. If you want to get into a high dudgeon about remarks that were not addressed to you, go right ahead. – Robusto Dec 06 '10 at 21:29
  • @Robusto: No indignation here, merely responding to your comment from Dec. 2nd admonishing me to "Read it again" and opening with "@Klay". Or was that a different Klay? – Klay Dec 07 '10 at 19:25
  • @Klay: You referenced my comment to Martha about polling, which made me think that's the exchange you were talking about. As for my remark to you, the "Read it again" may have come off as brusque, for which I apologize; it was not my intention to admonish you. I meant "read it again and you will see that her answer made no explicit claim of origin." Not "you failed to read it correctly the first time." I myself didn't read it right the first time. – Robusto Dec 07 '10 at 19:56
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The others have stated that it goes back a long way.

The use of the word in that context is reasonably automatic I would say. If something is 'like' something else, it implies similarity, but not identical. So as a speech component when people are demonstrating, or usually re-enacting, a former conversation, possibly with a degree of poetic license, then you get:

I was like "Whatever!" and she was like "shut up fool".

Enabling teenagers to speak about themselves in a quote since whenever they started doing so. ;-)

What you have quoted in your question is just that extended by some years to an overused interrogative.

Orbling
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