Spendy has caught on as a catchy new synonym for expensive. Its appeal and correspondingly speedy journey into mainstream usage may have been galvanised by its form, i.e. like pricey and costly, spendy's meaning is instantly recognizable as a money concept (compare: price, cost, spend).I don't like the word. I try not to be a prescriptivist when it comes to new additions to language, but in this case it just seems that the word is totally unnecessary when "expensive" would do just as well.
Though spendy is regularly used across the board as an informal and trendy alternative to expensive, its typical contexts of use are in relation to the purchase of desirable, luxury items, things which might have cost you an arm and a leg, but will give you lots of pleasure once you've got them. Typical examples of goods that might be described as spendy are designer clothes and jewellery, or electronic products such as large plasma screen TVs or digital SLR cameras...
The exact origins of spendy are unclear, with some arguing that it evolved from a blend of the words expensive and trendy, and others believing it to be an adjectival play on spend (taking inspiration from e.g. pricey, a derivative of price which was first attested in 1932).
14 January 2012
How did "spendy" become a popular adjective ?
I've heard the term used with increasing frequency in recent months, but discovered that it was discussed three years ago in an entry in the Macmillan dictionary:
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Spendy is not at all redundant. 'Expensive' is a rather flat reporting of relative price, whereas, as your quoted text suggests, 'spendy' connotes an unnecessary expenditure. Houses are expensive, but tend not to be spendy. A $12.99 spur-of-the-moment DVD purchase, on the other hand, could easily be considered spendy because one could always rent or likely buy it cheaper in a few months.
ReplyDelete-Chuck
Now that I have read this, I really want to use the word spendy!! It wasn't on my radar before, thankyou... I think you may have just done something self-defeating...
ReplyDeleteI identify with your feelings though. No matter what I do to tell myself to accept it, I really dislike the word 'banter'. For all kinds of irrational but violent reasons. :)
Speaking of new words can someone please tell me why this sudden explosion in the use of the words basically, actually, and literally? These words have nearly displaced like and you know.
ReplyDeleteBasically, 'like' and 'you know' fell out of use because they were actually meaningless interjections, because, actually, you literally might NOT know, and actually something might not literally be 'like' something else, basically.
ReplyDeleteI first heard it when we moved to Seattle 11 years ago, so it's not that new.
ReplyDeleteI was going to say what Anonymous #1 said: expensive denotes a high price but is neutral about implied value. An example might be two objects that cost the same but one offers more value: two high-end cars like a Mercedes vs a Ferrari or similar. Neither is an investment (unless they are warehoused and never driven and maybe not even then) so they really only have value in use.
Ah, the joys of a descriptivist language
How is this being called "new"? I've heard people say spendy my whole life.
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about ginormous?
ReplyDeleteIt's my favorite new word.
I agree w. Stan: most neologisms strike me as simply irksome examples of someone trying to be cute or funny (Festivus, anyone?) that inexplicably make their way into everyday parlance. It's like chewing with your mouth open or loudly yakking on a cell phone in a public space: just because a lot of boors do it, that doesn't make it right!
ReplyDeleteI first heard it in Portland in 1985. I was visiting from California, and Portland had not been "invaded" yet. So there seemed to be plenty of low income people living quite happily in nice houses, something already out of reach for many in Los Angeles. Californians were already being looked at with skepticism I suppose. I had that word spendy used on me about everything from my cloths to my haircut. It was strange. (BTW, I was a student, got free haircuts for being a model (translate guinea pig) and bought all my clothing at charity shops. But I think this word may have originated in the Pac Northwest.
ReplyDeleteSo Meghan, where are you from?
ReplyDeleteThis word is best used by certain personality types. Specifically the eternal optimist type, the type Owen Wilson played so well in Zoolander and other movies.
ReplyDelete"Dude, it's multi-awesome, but spendy."
Superficial, very flighty, but cool. Probably on to different adjectives long ago, that we will learn in another decade.
Its use is not suited to serious people. I'm from near
Seattle, and heard it used many years ago.
Spendy has been in common use in the Pacific Northwest for well over a decade. I'm from Portland, and remember being greeted with confusion when using the term with relatives in Colorado in 95 or 96, but I think I'd been using it for a long time by then. I think it's just now reached a national tipping point though, for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteI don't think trendy really has anything to do with it, though. It's more about luxuries, unnecessary or potentially-excessive expenditures. But not astronomically excessive - I don't think anyone would call a private jet 'spendy', for example.
My thoughts when reading about this were, "Spendy is something my mom says, something I've said for ages!" And then I arrived at White Bear's suggestion that it started in Portland and it all makes sense: I've lived in Portland for all but a few years of my life.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard "spendy", but "spenny" is quite common here in Australia. I prefer "spenny" as it sounds nicer.
ReplyDelete"Spendy" has apparently been used in Alaska for decades, which is probably where the PNW cities of Seattle and Portland got it, since many Alaskans wind up down there for school or work. It's the most common way to say something's expensive up here, and doesn't necessarily entail something "luxurious." It's certainly not a new word, just one that's becoming a little more widespread, perhaps due to all the ridiculous Alaskan "reality" shows.
ReplyDelete