Things Suck, But They’re Sucking Less

I’ve been thinking how the word “suck” has entered mainstream vocabulary, particularly in news publications. The word has probably been used for a long time in conversation, but its usage in written form seems to have exploded in recent years. I started writing a short essay about its place in modern culture, but I soon discovered that Seth Stevenson already wrote a fine analysis in Slate. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Still, I was curious about the momentum of the word. So I turned to Google News to obtain a historical view. According to Google, roughly 296,000 news articles mentioned the words “suck” or “sucks” between 1900 and 2008.

Of those articles, roughly 204,000, or 69%, published in the years 2000 to 2008.

The apparent explosion in usage is probably influenced by two things:

1. More electronic versions of publications emerged in recent years, which Google can easily index
2. Personal online diaries (or blogs) emerged in the last decade, and many are now part of the Google News index

But even if the explosion in usage of the word suck among news organizations was misrepresented by inconsistent methodologies or technologies, usage seems to have peaked in 2007, for which Google News reported 32,600 instances. In 2008, there were 30,300 instances.

The future? I think suck is an ugly word, and too much usage could get annoying. But it’s the optimal word in many situations. Therefore, my forecast is that usage will hold steady.

And that’s where we stand on the word suck.