I don’t know how I’ve managed to go almost a year without noticing the existence of Fully (sic), but now that it’s come to my attention (via a message that they had started following the LH Twitter feed—I am bemused by the world I live in), I hasten to tell you about it. Their About page says:
Welcome to Crikey‘s very own language blog for discerning word nerds. Sit back and enjoy the spectacle of Australian linguists getting all hot and bothered about the way we communicate.
And their second post explains the Australianism “fully sick”: “For those out of the loop, ‘sick’ is an expression of enthusiasm or admiration. Eg, “Have a listen to this song, it’s sick”. The obligatory intensifier for ‘sick’ is ‘fully’.” Looks well worth following, and I’m adding it to the blogroll.
Well, “sick” is hardly an Australianism. But I suppose they can have the “fully” if they’re so enthusiastic about it.
Yes I agree “sick” has been international youth slang for at least one decade, at least amongst skaters and their kin. “Fully sick” on the other hand is stereotypically ethnic urban Australian slang. If you get the chance to see the excellent comedy TV series “Fat Pizza” you’re sure to meet the kinds of characters that fit that stereotype.
Awesome!
“Fully” (as in “He’s fully in love with her”), generally marked with stress, has been current among Southern California teenagers at least since the mid-Eighties.
From a friend in Australia:
I notice, particularly among elderly North Queensland ladies, a tendency to end sentences with “…an’ that.” when they mean “…and stuff.” But I may be wrong in attributing it to a region; it might be a bush usage, and seems to be from a bygone era.
Off topic, since the POIEM thread is closed. Old Danish joke:
Peter: “/goetɘ/ var en stor /poet/”
Teacher: “No, Peter, “oe” is pronounced /ø/”
Peter: “/gøːttɘ/ var en stor /pøt/”
Sorry about the POIEM thread, but for some reason it and a couple of others were attracting spam comments by the score, and after cleaning out a couple of hundred I had to close them up for my own sanity.
I don’t remember how and when I came across Fully (sic), but I do remember Language Log introducing it and the Economist’s Johnson at the same time. There was an amusing discussion of the two names. Both blogs have been on my blogroll since around then.
More recently, Fully (sic)’s post about “verse” as a verb reminded me of your earlier post on the same usage. I’d have left a comment about this but was put off by the need to register in order to do so, so I tweeted the links instead.
Incidentally, the instructions about commenting on Fully (sic) are curious: ‘Register now to join the conversation instantly, or log in to post a comment now.’