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It's Time to Stop Saying “Incredibly”

1 points by ncmncm ↗ HN
Just sayin'.

For me, the threshold was crossed when I heard somebody say, in all earnestness, "incredibly honest".

9 comments

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zepto
To be fair, it seems like most people lie - so incredibly honest means more honest than you would believe a person could be.

I don’t see the issue.

ncmncm
The person saying it did not, in fact, mean that. And, in almost every use, as in that one, the word is what linguists call a "generic intensifier". People say "exponentially" in the same way, referring to processes that have no exponential component at all. People cycle through adverbs, using them until they lose their intensifying quality--once everything is incredible, nothing is--and move on to the next. But "incredibly" has hung on longer than normal, for reasons that are not clear.
zepto
Interesting - I don’t have that experience. Yes, people use generic intensifiers, yes, ‘incredibly’ is one of them, but I haven’t noticed it be used any more judiciously than any other such word.
ncmncm
I have to guess you are using a meaning for "judiciously" that is unfamiliar to me. It is a fact that "incredibly" has had a longer run as a generic intensifier than is usual.
zepto
> I have to guess you are using a meaning for "judiciously" that is unfamiliar to me.

My mistake. I meant any less judiciously.

> It is a fact that "incredibly" has had a longer run as a generic intensifier than is usual.

No it isn’t. If it was, you’d have some evidence to show.

ncmncm
If it wasn't, you would have evidence to show that.
zepto
Silly. That’s not how facts work.

We don’t need evidence to prove something isn’t a fact.

It’s only when you claim something is a fact that you need to provide evidence. It’s ok to admit it’s just your perception.

allears
You're absolutely right. That's incredibly true.
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