"To be honest, people are saying "honestly" all the time. According to the Corpus of Historical American English, a database that measures word usage over time, the use of "honestly" has skyrocketed over the last 25 years. Not just in casual conversation: It's a signifier of online authenticity. "Honestly" is the name of the podcast by CBS News' new editor Bari Weiss, the title of a 2022 studio album by Drake, the name of a new AI journaling app and appended to a number of popular TikTok and Instagram accounts."
"The word "honest" comes from the Latin honestus, meaning honorable. In the mid-twentieth century, use of "frankly" outranked "honestly," but the words were not synonymous at the time, Miller says. "Frankly" meant something harsher, more factual than emotional. (Maybe that's why it landed so hard when Rhett Butler used it in his parting words to Scarlett O'Hara. Imagine: "Honestly, my dear, I don't give a damn.") But over time, "honestly" became more ubiquitous."
Use of the adverb "honestly" has increased dramatically over the last 25 years, showing a sharp rise in frequency. The term functions as a signifier of online authenticity and appears across podcasts, albums, apps, and social media account names. Rise in internet culture since 2000 correlates with greater emphasis on expressing credibility amid more information and disinformation online. Figurative phrases such as 'not going to lie', 'to be honest', 'if I'm being honest' and 'let's be honest' have entered everyday speech. The adjective 'honest' derives from Latin honestus, meaning honorable. 'Frankly' once outpaced 'honestly' but carried a harsher, more factual tone; 'honestly' grew more ubiquitous over time.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]