Fri 28 Mar 2008
(A question by proxy, for Keith.)
When I was growing up (Im 21 now, so when I was 13-14) whenever my sister or I said we hate something my parents/grandparents always told us not to say hate its a strong word. Then I was watching Scrubs and one of the characters mentioned that hate has lost all meaning now a days. The one thing that I can relate it to is to hate crimes. So my question has hate lost its meaning? Or did it used to mean more? Was it related to hate crimes?
Posted by Josh Millard3 answers so far!
Okay, let's hear it.
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Are you just talking about people’s associations with the word “hate”? I doubt its meaning has slipped much for the population at large, though it may have for some individual peoples and groups.
I was a child in the 60s and 70s. My parents never told me to stop saying hate, though I’m sure they would have chided me if I’d said something like, “I hate black people.” I can’t imagine them (or anyone I grew up with) getting upset by someone saying, “I hate broccoli.”
Feelings haven’t changed at all. They never do. People have the same feelings nowadays that their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Which is why we can enjoy “Don Quixote” and Shakespeare’s plays. Feelings towards certain things and issues can change (e.g. fewer people hate homosexuality than in the past), but raw feelings themselves are stable. People still feel loathing, get pissed off, fume, get outraged, foam at the mouth… they may or may not call this feeling “hate.”
I do believe that the meaning of the word “hate” has weakened somewhat. The same way that words like “hilarious” or “awesome” have also weakened. It’s ok though, other words come in to fill their original seats. It’s an endless cycle of change. Fun to observe.
This is a tough one. When I was an angry teenager, my mother often told me I was being “hateful,” sometimes angrily, and sometimes in tears. I was pretty angry, and smart and wild and she was probably right. But I got nicer, and I grew up to find hatefulness distateful, myself. I can’t bring myself to say I hate any person, that’s just off limits, and even works, like movies, buildings or books? Kind of reticent to say I hate those, since it feels so dismissive to people who created them. But, the little mundane stuff? Like fenugreek? I hate fenugreek.
If people overexpand the use of such a word, I tend to judge them for it a bit, just making a mental note that they may not respect the concept behind it as much as I do.