OK, so I know I learned in one of my recent Great Courses that language evolves. It changes. But can it change this rapidly?
For my entire life, I have known the idiom "all of a sudden." It means "suddenly" but with a definite contextually meaning of "unexpectedly." You know this, I know this, everyone who speaks English probably knows this.
And yet, in the past two weeks, I have heard person after person say "all the sudden." Not "all of the sudden" which I have always considered a rare, slightly "incorrect" variant. But "all the sudden."
I don't get it. I mean, sure, if you break it down into its component pieces "all of a sudden" doesn't really parse in current English. But it's an idiom. Idioms often don't parse.
What I find particularly strange is that I feel as if I had never heard "all the sudden" before two weeks ago, and now, I am hearing person after person say it.
All of a sudden, it's "all the sudden."
It's ironic, is what it is.
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