I’ve heard it explained that “hey” used to be more of an urgent way to get someone’s attention, rather than a casual “hello” like it is now, so it sounded rude to some older folks.
I’ve heard it explained that “hey” used to be more of an urgent way to get someone’s attention, rather than a casual “hello” like it is now, so it sounded rude to some older folks.
They literally don’t (with the possible exception of onomatopoeic words), one of the defining factors of language is that it is arbitrary.
It’s obviously arbitrary, given how we’re changing the meanings of words to fit the current narrative, but that doesn’t change anything.
It kills me, that zoomers and young millennials think that it’s the older generation that’s the problem, rather than the generation complaining about how another generation reacts to certain words in certain atmospheres. If you can’t understand why they react that way, maybe you should be looking in the mirror instead of criticizing them.
This is an old pattern, language changes. You can react to it however you like, but things have already changed in your lifetime. Wicked or hot, for example,