I loved this article in The Atlantic Wire about crutch words: those words we use that mean nothing but get us through a sentence: literally, actually, basically, essentially, like, seriously, honestly. They are words that you could simply leave off your sentence and the meaning would not be altered in the slightest. They punctuate our every thought with degrading hyperbole.
I use most of the crutch words mentioned in the article and also all manner of meaningless exclamatory statements like:
Awesome!
Wicked awesome!
Supercool!
Sweet!
Rad!
But my main crutch word is “Seriously.” I lean heavily on this word because it is so versatile and forgiving. For instance, you can use it for:
Candor
Someone: Did you have fun at that party?
Me: You seriously don’t understand me.
Agreement
Someone: Bruce Springsteen doesn’t get the credit he deserves from hipsters.
Me: Seriously.
Incredulity
John Friend: I’m gonna start teaching yoga again and pretend none of this ever happened.
Me: Seriously!?
In my more lucid moments I’ve been working on stripping the crutch words out of my vocab. I periodically rewatch this Taylor Mali video when I need a little reminder. I’ve posted this one before. But it’s so good. I can’t get enough. Seriously.
