Comments on: New phrase much

By: Ways To Get Your Ex Back

Ways To Get Your Ex Back — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:35:25 +0000

http://robertshirey.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-get-your-ex-back.html Thanks for that awesome posting. It saved MUCH time :-)

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:58:28 +0000

Wow, cool info guys. I'll have to take some time to process it, then follow up.

I did hear from a coworker that he thought the origins (or popularization) was in Buffy, but he wasn't sure, as he's not a watcher of the show.

I'm a little surprised that it might have "valley girl" origins, but I can't say why. It seems a little too...something...to be from that dialect/register.

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:31:47 +0000

Heh, I was going to comment on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer usage, but I was beaten to it. By no means did I think it was the earliest use of 'much' in that fashion, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

Fangirl much?

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:31:40 +0000

It seems to originate with the line “Jealous much?” in Heathers (1989). See here and the surrounding thread:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0505b&L=ads-l&D=1&F=P&P=3045

(Apparently this sense of “much” is already in the OED??)

By: Lance

Lance — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:58:36 +0000

This is, of course, really hard to Google for. The Ridger's nailed the meaning. "X much?" with an adjective is a way of saying "You're clearly extremely X"; with a noun or a verb, it means--well, either "You do X a lot" or "You don't ever do X", which is about the kind of reversal you'd expect from sarcasm. In any case, there's no real question: "Come here much?" isn't a shortened version of the literal question "So, do you come here much?" but of the sarcastic "Jeez, do you come here much?", i.e. either "You clearly don't know this place at all" or "You know this place far, far too well."

Michael Adams wrote about it in Slayer Slang; relevant excerpt here. That dates it back to 2003, though of course in reference to a show that had been on the air and using it for a few years before that. Thus, from "I Only Have Eyes For You" (ep 2.19, aired March 1999), you have Cordelia see Buffy get mad and leave the room, to which she says, "Okay...overidentify much?"

Erik's "valley" suspicion may be right, given the Buffy setting, and it may well predate Buffy. In any case, nothing new.

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:40:34 +0000

It's usually a sarcastic comment on whatever it modifies. As far as I can tell, you can attach to any one-word (or -phrase) summary of your assessment.

Uh… non sequitur much? = Do you often say totally irrelevant things?

Your true colors are revealed ... Ummm, vegan much? Thank you, and have a nice day. = So you're not really neutral at all, are you? Get lost.

Uh, okay. Prejudiced much? = That comment just proved that you are a bigot even if you think it didn't.

Beetle: uh, hmmm…literate much? = Do you even know how to read?

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:39:22 +0000

It's usually a sarcastic comment on whatever it modifies.

Uh… non sequitur much? = Do you often say totally irrelevant things?

Your true colors are revealed ... Ummm, vegan much? Thank you, and have a nice day. = So you're not really neutral at all, are you? Get lost.

Uh, okay. Prejudiced much? = That comment just proved that you are a bigot even if you think it didn't.

Beetle: uh, hmmm…literate much? = Do you even know how to read?

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:25:21 +0000

It seems like it’s generally used as a condescending comment verging on a complaint rather than a genuine request for information. I think it has valley girl origins, but I have no source for that.