How 'cray-cray' made the Oxford Dictionary
鈥淐谤补测-肠谤补测.鈥� An extreme level of crazy behavior.
Politics is getting more hyperbolic, more insult-driven, and more eager to gobble up terms聽from pop culture. 鈥淐ray-cray鈥� has been around for a while to describe derangement 鈥� its聽 in聽the Online Slang Dictionary came in 2001 鈥� but it appears to have聽become more prevalent in the news over the past year.
The Washington Times鈥檚 Charles Hurt 聽President Obama was 鈥渢ruly cray-cray鈥� last November when the president issued an executive order on immigration that聽was deeply loathed in conservative circles. Then, before he left The Daily Show, Jon聽Stewart in April criticized conservative Supreme Court justices鈥� 鈥渁nti-gay cray-cray鈥澛爋pposition to same-sex marriage. USA Today鈥檚 Eileen Rivers said in 聽of the聽August Republican presidential debate: 鈥淓ven Donald Trump supporters should have an聽easy enough time pointing out the GOP candidate鈥檚 potential for bringing the cray-cray to聽tonight's debate.鈥�
But it drew a whole new level of attention when Obama, appearing at a fundraiser,聽jokingly 聽as 鈥渃ray.鈥� And after last weekend鈥檚聽Democratic debate, Politico鈥檚 Glenn Thrush summarized Hillary Clinton鈥檚 oft-criticized聽statement about her Wall Street contributions and the 9/11 attacks by聽:聽鈥淗illary said something really cray-cray.鈥�
Such is the power of 鈥渃ray鈥� that the Oxford Dictionary 聽it 鈥� along with聽鈥渃lickbait,鈥� 鈥淵OLO鈥� and other popular terms 鈥� to its lexicon last year. At the same time,聽Lake Superior State University has included it in its 聽of words that should be聽banished.
It popped up this month during country music鈥檚 CMA Awards, when superstars Brad聽Paisley and Carrie Underwood slipped in 鈥渃ray-cray鈥� during a current-events parody.聽Rolling Stone 聽the term 鈥渄ated.鈥�
Chuck McCutcheon writes his "Speaking Politics" blog exclusively for Politics Voices.
