Monday, September 6, 2010

It is what it is


I recall noticing this phrase for the very first time back in the early part of this decade. And after that initial offense, the "it is what it is" references poured in from every direction. Everybody from the President of the United States down to the guy who sweeps up the coffee shop on 10th and State is knocking the doors off of "it is what it is." But what does it mean? Some claim that it's akin to "que sera, sera" or "whatever will be, will be." This makes sense, but it sure seems as though people are, and have been, misusing and overusing this phrase for several years running. I'm not sure what to make of it, but find some satisfaction in saying, "it is what it is."

A glance at the hard data shows us that from 1990-1999, we averaged almost 5 mentions of today's target phrase per year. It would appear as though the tipping point (yes, more on this later!) came somewhere between 1999 and 2003 when things began to tick upwards. From 2000-2009, the yearly average for "it is what it is" climbed to slightly more than 33. And thus far into 2010, we have seen 29 uses in the widely circulated publication which serves as our baseline; this projects to a near record of 43.5 uses moving forward.



year....... frequency
1990....... 1
1991....... 1
1992....... 2
1993....... 5
1994....... 2
1995....... 4
1996....... 9
1997....... 7
1998....... 5
1999....... 11
2000....... 13
2001....... 14
2002....... 18
2003....... 32
2004....... 43
2005....... 40
2006....... 49
2007....... 42
2008....... 46
2009....... 35
2010....... 29