Like, Where did this ‘Like’ Come from?
Hoot Gibson sent me a single sentence today: “Can you tell me anything about the use of the phrase ‘like I say’”? Well, as you must know by now, I always have a few words about almost anything we say.
As for the interjective phrase, “like I say”, it was originally an emphatic marker placed before the word or phrase the speaker wished to emphasize:
| Like I say, MY mother would never do that. (Who knows about yours?) |
| My, like I say, MOTHER would never do that. (Now, father might.) |
| My mother would, like I say, NEVER do that. (Not even once on a bet.) |
| My mother would never do, like I say, THAT. (Nor anything similar.) |
Today this phrase has been reduced to simply “like” in the speech of current youth and some of their elders.
| Like, MY mother would never do that. |
| My, like, MOTHER would never do that. |
| My mother would, like, NEVER do that. |
| My mother would never do, like, THAT. |
I think most adults today have replaced this phrase with “as I say”. It is an emphatic marker that is also placed before anything you would like to emphasize:
| As I say, MY mother would never do that. |
| My, as I say, MOTHER would never do that. |
| My mother would, as I say, NEVER do that. |
| My mother would never do, as I say, THAT. |
I wonder if Hoot is related to the legendary cowboy movie star that my father thought the world of?
