ish

Have you noticed that "ish" has become all the rage?

We used to be home around seven-ish, or maybe her eyes were bluish-grey.  But the new vernacular seems to allow the attachment of "ish" onto any word or phrase, in order to mean "sort of, but not quite all the way."

"Did it work?"   "Yes...ish."
"How was the film?"   "It was good, ish."
"The exam went well, ish."

I can either roll my eyes or roll with this, and I've decided to just roll.  I'm not saying I like it, since my nature leans me toward grammar stickler.  But I can flex, and I no longer cringe every time someone adds "ish" onto the end of her sentence.

But yesterday I had to draw the line.  The answer to "What is the slope of this line?" on an algebra paper was written as "3.5 - ish."

Because my student is a visual learner, I used a Venn diagram to make my point.  You remember Venn diagrams, don't you?  Circles or ovals that represent sets, with the items that belong to both sets written where the ovals overlap?  I first illustrated with "people genetically related to your dad" and "people genetically related to your mom," each represented by a separate oval.  And then there you are, right in the middle where the two ovals overlap.

Then I made a Venn diagram for algebra and ish.

There is no ish

in algebra.