Not!
Encyclopedia
Not! is a grammatical construction
in the English language
that became a sarcastic catchphrase in North America in the 1990s. A declarative statement
is made, followed by a pause and then an emphatic "not!" is postfixed. The result is a negation of the original declarative statement. Popularized in North America in the 1990s by a Saturday Night Live
skit and subsequent movie Wayne's World
, it can be found earliest in print in an 1893 Princeton Tiger (March 30) 103: "An Historical Parallel-- Not." Most often used jocularly, but also used to express annoyance, it was such a popular catch phrase
that it was selected as the 1992 Word of the Year
by the American Dialect Society
.
The "Not!" catchphrase was the basis of a scene in the 2006 movie Borat
where a lecturer in humour attempted to explain the grammatical construction to Borat with limited success.
Similar forms of postfix negation are found in other comedic contexts without using the word "Not". Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
invokes the phrase "... for me to poop on!" to negate a compliment that precedes it. (An example would be, "But seriously, you've been a great audience ... for me to poop on!")
The comedic utility of the word became apparent, again, in February 2011 in Canada, when a minister of the Crown, Bev Oda
, was implicated in a scandal that saw her deny knowledge of the insertion of the word "not" on a legal document denying funding to a respected non-profit organization and offer no explanation as to how her signature appeared on the document. Normal procedure would, of course, have been not to sign the approval document. She later told a Committee of Canada's House of Commons (parliament) that she had no idea where the insertion of the word "not" came from. Weeks later, she claimed that she had ordered its insertion. The minister has been undergoing considerable fire since, with opposition parties demanding her resignation.
A similar postfix, "LOL JK", became popular starting 2010 mostly through the use of social networking sites Facebook
and 4chan
, although the joke has existed several years prior. The joke, ("jk" standing for "just kidding"), is used at the end of a false statement, luring a reader into a false sense of security, then presumably making them laugh afterward.
Grammatical construction
In linguistics, a grammatical construction is any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrasal structures to certain complex lexemes, such as phrasal verbs....
in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
that became a sarcastic catchphrase in North America in the 1990s. A declarative statement
Sentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
is made, followed by a pause and then an emphatic "not!" is postfixed. The result is a negation of the original declarative statement. Popularized in North America in the 1990s by a Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
skit and subsequent movie Wayne's World
Wayne's World
Wayne's World was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" on the CBC Television series It's Only Rock & Roll, as the main character first appeared in that show...
, it can be found earliest in print in an 1893 Princeton Tiger (March 30) 103: "An Historical Parallel-- Not." Most often used jocularly, but also used to express annoyance, it was such a popular catch phrase
Catch phrase
A catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
that it was selected as the 1992 Word of the Year
Word of the year
The word of the year, sometimes capitalized as Word of the Year and abbreviated WOTY or WotY, refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word or expression in the public sphere during a specific year....
by the American Dialect Society
American Dialect Society
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society publishes the academic journal, American Speech...
.
The "Not!" catchphrase was the basis of a scene in the 2006 movie Borat
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, often referred to simply as Borat, is a 2006 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles and distributed by 20th Century Fox...
where a lecturer in humour attempted to explain the grammatical construction to Borat with limited success.
Similar forms of postfix negation are found in other comedic contexts without using the word "Not". Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog is a character puppet best known for mocking celebrities. Triumph was identified in the early appearances as a Yugoslavian Mountain Hound, hence his distinct Eastern European accent . As his name indicates, Triumph's comedic style is almost exclusively insult comedy...
invokes the phrase "... for me to poop on!" to negate a compliment that precedes it. (An example would be, "But seriously, you've been a great audience ... for me to poop on!")
The comedic utility of the word became apparent, again, in February 2011 in Canada, when a minister of the Crown, Bev Oda
Bev Oda
The Hon. Beverley Joan "Bev" Oda, PC, MP is a Canadian politician. She is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first Japanese-Canadian MP and cabinet minister in Canadian history. She represents the riding of Durham for the Conservative Party of Canada. She was...
, was implicated in a scandal that saw her deny knowledge of the insertion of the word "not" on a legal document denying funding to a respected non-profit organization and offer no explanation as to how her signature appeared on the document. Normal procedure would, of course, have been not to sign the approval document. She later told a Committee of Canada's House of Commons (parliament) that she had no idea where the insertion of the word "not" came from. Weeks later, she claimed that she had ordered its insertion. The minister has been undergoing considerable fire since, with opposition parties demanding her resignation.
A similar postfix, "LOL JK", became popular starting 2010 mostly through the use of social networking sites Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and 4chan
4chan
4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
, although the joke has existed several years prior. The joke, ("jk" standing for "just kidding"), is used at the end of a false statement, luring a reader into a false sense of security, then presumably making them laugh afterward.
External links
- Postfix Not! in English
- American Dialect Society 1992 Words of the Year
- Princeton Tiger reference to 1893 issue containing earliest print appearance of the delayed postfix "not"
- A Recent Coinage (Not!), Jesse T Sheidlower, Jonathan E. Lighter, American Speech, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 213-218, doi:10.2307/455678
- "ON LANGUAGE; Not!" March 8, 1992, Sunday, by William Safire (New York Times); Magazine Desk Late Edition - Final, Section 6, page 20, Column 1, 1163 words