How ‘Sexting’ Gets You In Trouble When You’re Not Even Doing It, Plus Joel McHale

I was asked to do a lecture this week on the English language for the Foreign Language students at my university. Part of my lecture focused on the ways in which new words are added to English. Two ways are*:

1. New meanings for existing words
2. Making up new words

For #1, I used the example of the word ‘text,’ which used to mean only written works and/or speeches, but now also means SMS messages. And from this new usage of the noun, we also made the verb ‘to text’ and added the words texting, texted, etc.

For #2, I gave the example of the words ‘sexting’ and ‘sext,’ which from what I read online are pretty popular words these days in American culture. I didn’t say much about the meaning of the words themselves, only that they were made up, derived from ‘texting,’ and meant that the text had a sexual topic. I explained that we went from ‘text’ to ‘texting’ to ‘sexting’ back to ‘sext’ in new word formation; that’s awesome from a linguistic etymological process point of view, and a good illustration of how flexible English is.

So now I’ve given my lecture to the 350+ English students in the lecture hall, and I’m doing the Q&A. There are a couple of great questions about accents, usage, etc. and then *this* kid stands up:

Random Male Student: “May I ask you a personal question?”

Me: “Yes.” (Thinking it would be how old I am, how much money I make, something common for China.)

Random Male Student: “Have you ever sent a sext?”

Me: !!!! *Um, are you kidding me with this? For real, you just asked me this in an auditorium full of people?* *Rapidly formulating an answer that doesn’t focus on me so I don’t give in to his crossing of the ‘personal’ line.*

Me: “I think many people in a close relationship have done such a thing.”

Random Male Student: “Oh.” *pause* “Can I have your cell phone number?”

Well, what could I do at that point but laugh? I mean, everyone else was. So that’s what I did, I laughed. And said yes, anyone can have my cell phone number. And sure enough, he came and got it after the Q&A was over**.

Lesson learned: sometimes students are more interested in the subject matter than the etymological process.

*These are not the only two ways, just two ways I talked about relevant to this post.

** Trust me when I say I will never hear from him, he just wanted a foreigner's # a la the taxi driver.
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On a related note, anyone see Community this week? Funniest tv episode I've maybe ever seen in my life. And what I said in my head when Joel McHale stripped down to the sleeveless tank: "DAMN, SKIPPY!" Yes, I speak in all caps in my head. JM has perfect muscles. I want to lick his biceps. I’m just saying is all.

UPDATE:

Picture. You're welcome.