# "My bad" (English)



## elianecanspeak

I have been trying to ascertain whether "my bad" was originally a corruption of "Am I bad!"

Wiki has a short article [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_bad] that does not address this question.


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## CapnPrep

elianecanspeak said:


> I have been trying to ascertain whether "my bad" was originally a corruption of "Am I bad!"


I seriously doubt it.


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## 0m1

I can't possibly imagine any reason for that to be so. "My bad", with "bad" being a replacement for "mistake" makes perfect sense. Who in their right mind would say "am I bad" when they make a mistake? Well unless it's a dialect thing I've not come across, but either way, I think we have a case of Occam's Razor here.


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## Kevin Beach

I have always assumed (with no evidence whatsoever!) that "My bad" was a literal translation of something in another language, which was used by a non-native British speaker and which caught on as frequent usage.


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## elianecanspeak

People used to say "Am I bad!" in a self-mocking way fairly commonly. The stress was on "I" and "bad", with both syllables drawn out.  

Children hear, interpret, and give words new and different meanings. (Example :"budge", meaning "don't move from where you are standing", interpreted and used by children to mean specifically "don't cut in line in front of the other kids" with that particular restricted meaning, and with the rejection of the broader definition.)  "My bad" is a fairly recent term, and could have evolved in a similar way.


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## Outsider

It looks like child speech, or an imitation of child speech, to me too.


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## sanne78

elianecanspeak said:


> "My bad" is a fairly recent term.


 
I don't know what you call recent, but according to some people it was used as early as the 1960s.

_"..I can assure you that kids in rural Kentucky where I grew up in the mid-1960s used 'my bad' routinely to describe an overthrow or other miscue. I probably heard it first around 1964, possibly earlier, and after that heard it constantly on baseball fields and basketball courts. I'm amazed that it was considered a new, or very obscure, construction 25 years after that."_

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2010/06/manute_bol_and_my_bad.html

However I haven't been able to find a credible explanation of the origin of "my bad".


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## cade foster

I think it's derived from the "hip-hop" culture as a replacement for "my mistake". You can see examples of this expression in movies and print and it's always said after someone has made a mistake.


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## elianecanspeak

cade foster said:


> I think it's derived from the "hip-hop" culture as a replacement for "my mistake". You can see examples of this expression in movies and print and it's always said after someone has made a mistake.



Yes, but it would not seem strange to say  "Am I bad!" after making a mistake, would it?


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## cade foster

elianecanspeak said:


> Yes, but it would not seem strange to say  "Am I bad!" after making a mistake, would it?



No, it wouldn't be strange to utter "Am I bad" after you've made a mistake, but it wouldn't be the same thing to say, "My mistake" or "My bad". In the case of "Am I bad", you're seeking an opinion on your past action, which is not the same as admitting your mistake.


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## elianecanspeak

cade foster said:


> No, it wouldn't be strange to utter "Am I bad" after you've made a mistake, but it wouldn't be the same thing to say, "My mistake" or "My bad". In the case of "Am I bad", you're seeking an opinion on your past action, which is not the same as admitting your mistake.



I agree with you as to the meaning of "my bad". But I am looking for the origin and development of the expression, not just the current usage.


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## cade foster

elianecanspeak said:


> I agree with you as to the meaning of "my bad". But I am looking for the origin and development of the expression, not just the current usage.



From what I've been able to gather, the phrase "my bad" is thought to have been coined by a Sudanese basketball player named "Manute Bol" who played for the "Golden State Warriors" in the Bay area during the 80's. His native language was Dinka and he was heard using this phrase when making a bad pass. His teammates soon adopted it as well. Then it spread around. However, there's no concrete proof he was the originator of "my bad". 

This is the popular story going around. No one can definitively say otherwise. It's just one of those things that's hasn't been properly documented.


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## elianecanspeak

cade foster said:


> From what I've been able to gather, the phrase "my bad" is thought to have been coined by a Sudanese basketball player named "Manute Bol" who played for the "Golden State Warriors" in the Bay area during the 80's.



According to post #4 it has been in use since the 1960s.


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## cade foster

Here's an article you may find interesting: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/my-bad.html


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## elianecanspeak

Thanks for finding the citation.  But be sure to note that in the Shakespearian sonnet quotation _*"my bad"*_ is not used in the sense of _*"my mistake" *_as the author implies:

"Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green *my bad*, *my good* allow?"

It means "both my bad and good" ie, "both my negative and positive characteristics".


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