Millennials have catchphrases; everyone know this. We say "like" a lot, we use hashtags and abbreviations in casual conversation; we could basically have our own dictionary of incomprehensible slang terms. One word we use a lot: creepy. Clowns are creepy. Spiders are creepy. Strangers staring at you are creepy. Basically anything that makes you uncomfortable is creepy. We say a lot of things, particularly people’s behavior, are creepy. But do we use that word to the point of overuse, when it begins to lose its meaning?
Where does the word “creepy” come from? According to Dictionary.com, the “creeps” was originally understood to mean a bone disease in sheep. Obviously that’s a far cry from what it means now. The definitions for “creepy” range from “to move or advance slowly” to “to sneak up behind someone without someone’s knowledge” to “to grow along the ground or a wall.” When we use that word these days though, it’s usually about someone’s behavior. Creepy has connotations of sneakiness and ill intentions, and in its modern-day context it’s almost always associated with ill sexual intentions. The meanings of certain words often change over time, especially when it comes to slang, so what’s the problem? Take a day sometime and listen for the word. Count the number of times you hear someone say “That’s so creepy!” or “It gave me the creeps,” and the number of times you have the urge to say it yourself. Do this and you will start to realize just how much we use that word, and that we use it as a catch-all for any situation that makes us uncomfortable. The problem with this practice is, like any overused word, it starts to lose its meaning, and when a word has serious connotations that can be a real issue.
Take “like” for example. We use that word incorrectly so much that it doesn’t mean much of anything anymore except when it’s in the very specific context of providing examples, comparing things, or expression affection. The rest of the time it’s just a sound. For most people, except for those of us who are grammar snobs like me, the overuse and misuse of that word may not have a lot of serious consequences. It’s fine for the work like to mean next to nothing because it doesn’t usually mean something very serious to begin with. But when “creep” which today is associated with sexual predators or stalker behavior, becomes meaningless, that can have some pretty bad ramifications. First of all, we start labeling behavior that is actually pretty innocuous with a name that makes it sound serious. If someone is following you home from your classes or place of work, okay, that’s creepy. But if you make eye contact with someone once from across the dining hall? That’s a coincidence, and the person isn’t a creep. When we say we’re “creeped out” by such instances, we simultaneously make innocent behavior out to be predatory, and devalue actually threatening behavior by comparing it to random incidences.
Words have to mean things for a reason. If we’re going to change what a word means, we should also change the way we use it. If we don’t, we can really start to get the wrong idea about things.
