Did Manute Bol coin the phrase "my bad?" (1 Viewer)

[The Mongoose]

I remember hearing widespread usage of "my bad" in 1987 or 1988. It wasn't around before, then suddenly it was everywhere. It spread so fast that I first refused to say it. But it became so ubiquitous that it lost the power to aggravate me. It became milquetoast and unnoticeable, really. So I said it then and still say it now, I suppose, though I don't notice when or if I do.

At first, though, it was noticeable. It was a new expression that wildfired itself into the lexicon of young people and old people. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of another expression that spread so rapidly and remained permanent.

Crazy to think that Manute Bol may have started it.

Manute Bol's legacy: did he invent the phrase 'my bad'? / Boing Boing

[a friend] emailed me to say that he heard the phrase was first used by the Sudanese immigrant basketball player Manute Bol, believed to have been a native speaker of Dinka (a very interesting and thoroughly un-Indo-Europeanlike language of the Nilo-Saharan superfamily). Says Arneson, "I first heard the phrase here in the Bay Area when Bol joined the Golden State Warriors in 1988, when several Warriors players started using the phrase." And Ben Zimmer's rummaging in the newspaper files down in the basement of Language Log Plaza produced a couple of early 1989 quotes that confirm this convincingly:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 10, 1989: When he [Manute Bol] throws a bad pass, he'll say, "My bad" instead of "My fault," and now all the other players say the same thing.

USA Today, Jan. 27, 1989: After making a bad pass, instead of saying "my fault," Manute Bol says, "my bad." Now all the other Warriors say it too.

So all of this is compatible with a date of origin for the phrase in the early 1980s (Manute Bol first joined the NBA in 1985 but came to the USA before that, around 1980). Professor Ron McClamrock of the Philosophy Department at SUNY Albany tells me he recalls very definitely hearing the phrase on the basketball court when he was in graduate school at MIT in the early 1980s, so the news stories above could be picking the story up rather late; but it is still just possible that Manute Bol was the originator, because he played for Cleveland State and Bridgeport University in the early 1980s, and his neologism just could have spread from there to other schools in the northeast, such as MIT.

 

[Zack Lee]

Im more interested in who started "like talkin about"

 

[kansast]

ya know

 

[staphory]

I heard it back in the late '70s so, no

ETA: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/my-bad.html

 

[The Mongoose]

I heard it back in the late '70s so, no

ETA: 'My bad' - the meaning and origin of this phrase

that seems really early, and that link didn't provide much factual backup. You personally remember hearing it in the late 70s?

 

[Complex Kid]

I'm pulling for the Manute Bol story. We could all stand a little more Manute in our lives.

 

[staphory]

that seems really early, and that link didn't provide much factual backup. You personally remember hearing it in the late 70s?

Yes, I did. Especially at little league baseball games. Kid miss a catch or over throw the ball..my bad. I remember it distinctly.

 

[Twenty]

I'm more interested in the origins of "milquetoast".

 

[Optimus Prime]

I've always heard it attributed to him

Anyone remember that game where he made like six 3 pointers?

 

[The Mongoose]

Yes, I did. Especially at little league baseball games. Kid miss a catch or over throw the ball..my bad. I remember it distinctly.

I'm incredulous. I was alert in the 70s and recall no such thing.

If it sounds like I'm doubting you, it's because I sort of am, but I'm also shocked at the possibility that I was in the dark about "my bad" for 8 to 10 years. So please don't take my doubting as jerky as much as it is truth-seeking.

 

[Complex Kid]

I've always heard it attributed to him

Anyone remember that game where he made like six 3 pointers?

YES! And it was 6 in one half!! Steph Curry output there!!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/45czWPhWQOI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[antipop]

I'm incredulous. I was alert in the 70s and recall no such thing.

are you 60??

 

[staphory]

I'm incredulous. I was alert in the 70s and recall no such thing.

If it sounds like I'm doubting you, it's because I sort of am, but I'm also shocked at the possibility that I was in the dark about "my bad" for 8 to 10 years. So please don't take my doubting as jerky as much as it is truth-seeking.

It's cool. Maybe it was a term used in this general area that never really caught on until a celebrity said it. I'd bet lots of things like that exist locally but if you said it somewhere else people would look at you like you are crazy.

 

[gr8Saints]

I'm pulling for the Manute Bol story. We could all stand a little more Manute in our lives.

Barkley is 6'6" and Bol was 7'7"(looks much Taller than that though)

 

[The Mongoose]

are you 60??

No. Why. Am I too old for the raves?