“Super” is not interchangeable with “very”

[GloiredeDijon]

Stop using “super” when you actually mean very or extremely.

Unless you are an American of course, in which case carry on because apart from anything else language is the least of your problems.

I don’t say it that much as I am quite old and not American but I’ve still said it on occasion, people say it a lot more now and it is interchangeable with very.

Sadly it’s not. Anything people don’t agree with must be American and therefore wrong and bad

That is a different usage.
It isn’t the word I object to, it’s the specific use.

S'pose it's global English influencing pop culture. It's very normal to use super in continental western Europe - the French, German, Spanish etc all use it in this way and have done for ages. Super gut!

Nearly 200 years since it first appeared in recorded usage is pushing the term "a few decades" to quite an extreme I feel.

That is a super cringe demand.

67 is also super cringe

If you know what it means, it’s already over

As I said earlier in this discussion, one must live within a very strong-walled glass house to be throwing stones @GloiredeDijon .

I find people have changed how they use very in recent years. People keep saying "very delicious" when I swear no-one used to say that, if you wanted to emphasise people used to say "really delicious" or "so/absolutely delicious." Don't know if I'm alone on that one! I do use the "super..." one at times. Possibly to do with Spanish as they use that construction in Spanish. Perhaps it has come from there, Spanish interference in English in the States, then it's come to the UK?

Unless you are an American of course, in which case carry on because apart from anything else language is the least of your problems.

Yes, because if you're from the UK you have nothing else to worry about.

I'm going to start a one woman campaign to bring "super duper" back! I'm super duper excited about it! 😉

Language changes and evolves. I’m super ok with that

Agreed my posh French mate says it a lot - it works in French and English.

Verycalifragilisticexpialidocious

Although there are very early examples of its use as an adjective, this is also true for its use as an intensifier or adverbial modifier (the use to mean "very") whose earliest recorded example (according to Meriam Webster) is 1946.

It's use as an adjective doesn't seem to have been a widespread thing until well into the twentieth century, and apparently it really took off in the 1960s, partly influenced by the fact that it was a popular word to use in adverts.

No. I shall continue using super to replace very whenever I fancy doing so. Language moves on, it’s not fixed in time.

While we're at it, done is not a similie for 'been to'

Likewise terrified does not mean the same as 'a bit worried'

Stunning and phenomenal are not interchangeable with 'quite nice'.

Thank you.

I’m not sure that the discussion in Pedants’ Corner would be more nuanced. More conservative and more likely to agree with OP, yes.

English already treats many prefixes like independent words, e.g. ex (especially here on MN!!!), anti, pro, pseudo... the language is very supple, so meaning is clear from syntax and context rather than words needing to be anchored to each other to make sense. We also absorb usage from everywhere, especially in the internet era of global gaming/research/marketing. People are always playfully adapting the way we express things. I think that's what makes English such a great language.

Super tough perspex.

Sorry op, language evolves. It's one of the things that makes it fun

I like that I absorb new usages as I go along

The general point is this:

Your own use of language, that you learned when you were young, is no more correct that the use of language learned by people younger than you.

Language evolved in the decades before you reached your settled or taught opinion of what is correct. It has continued to evolve since then.

The idea that the English language reached perfection at exactly the moment you learned it is arrogant in the extreme. Super arrogant, you might say...