Monday, January 24, 2011

The only “totes” I need to speak of are bags…

I am sad to report, I can’t stop saying “totes”, “abso” and “obvi” (translations: totally, absolutely and obvious). I was an English major but clearly (obvi), I am powerless against e-slang…omg, I just did it again…and again. I think it’s contagious/viral …yikes. Oh well, at least I will mortify my 16-year old brother around his friends. See, knowing these kinds of things is useful afterall!
I would love to see the OED 200 years from now for“totes” :

total (adj.) late 14c., from O.Fr. total, from M.L. totalis "entire, total" (as in summa totalis "sum total"), from L. totus "all, whole, entire," of unknown origin. The noun is 1550s, from the adj.; the verb is 1716, from the noun; meaning "to destroy one's car" first recorded 1954. Total war is attested from 1937, in ref. to a concept developed in Germany.
tote "to carry," 1670s, of unknown origin; originally attested in Virginia, but OED discounts the popular theory of its origin in a W.African language (cf. Kikongo tota "pick up," Kimbundu tuta "carry, load," related to Swahili tuta "pile up, carry"). Tote bag is first recorded 1900.
totes (pl.) plural of tote bag; “bag” being dropped first recorded in 1910; “totes” (short for totally) first recorded in 2003 on Urbandictionary.com by user “Jenn”.

The above (with the exception of what I obvi added) was taken directly from etymonline.com <---- go there.

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