Whatever (slang)

Whatever is a slang term meaning "whatever you say" and "I don't care what you say". The term is used to dismiss a previous statement and express indifference and is usually considered offensive and impolite. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, the word became a sentence in its own right; in effect an interjection, it is used as a passive-aggressive conversational blocking tool, leaving the responder without a convincing retort. Anything they do or say can simply be blocked by the retort of "whatever".

History

Early examples of current usage include a 1965 episode of Bewitched in which the character Endora exclaims "Alright, whatever" to her daughter, lead character Samantha Stevens, and also the much maligned 1965 sitcom My Mother the Car, in which "whatever" was the standard retort used by Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber) whenever he would mispronounce "Crabtree" (Jerry Van Dyke), the car's owner (son). ^[1]

Abbreviations

A shorter version, "Evs", made it into American pop consciousness when used by Australian rocker Toby Rand on the American reality television series Rock Star: Supernova.^[2]

Cultural impact

In Marist College polls of 2009 and 2010, whatever was voted as the phrase that is "most annoying in conversation."^[3][4] The English translation of Michel Houellebecq's 1994 novel Extension du domaine de la lutte, which describes the chronically disaffected life^[5] of a computer programmer, was titled "Whatever" for its publication in the United States.

References