Absolutely.....or not?

[Birchy]

When - officially - did the word "absolutely" replace "perhaps", "hmm", "I don't know" and several other non-commital utterings? People today use the word to mean "anything but the absolute". At seems to have reached epidemic proportions over the last 5-10 years.

[boatman]

Well, Birchy, I'm not sure that it's fair to say that absolutely in a colloquial sense means 'anything but the absolute' as you state; however, I have to agree that it is more prevalent in the way you describe than perhaps it once was - though I'd hardly use the word epidemic. It is, as you say, used as something of a 'filler', though, and it has many shades of meaning. It's quite useful, you have to admit, and makes a change from OK and 'Ooh, I know' and other time-worn phrases. Maybe you can blame the successful-ish eponymous Scottish comedy show of the early 90s. They seemed to use the term as a bit of a mick-take of middle-class urban Scots, particularly those from the Kelvinside region of Glasgow, who would say 'ebso-loootely' in a very affected manner. So, perhaps that's the beginning of its current ubiqity. Does that ease your mind?

[Ed Ancona]

Absolutely!