What’s up with what’s up?

What’s up, wassup, wazzup, sup – don’t tell me you have not heard these words before or are in denial of having uttered them. Be it a slip of tongue or a habit, we have come across these words and use it as part of our everyday lingo. From youngsters to people we refer to as belonging to the older generation, this word has conveniently carved its way into everyone’s vocabulary. Each morning, as I make my way to the classroom, I come across people who ask one annoying question to which I have no reply, “What’s up?”  The manner in which people say ‘what’s up’ is disturbing. It varies in scale from casual to creepy. If you observe carefully, the way your guy friend says ‘what’s up’ differs from how your girl friend says it: guys usually look at you with one brow raised; whereas, girls smile as they shoot this question at you, making you look like a lost puppy in an island. “What’s up”, sounds like a cheesy pick up line, doesn’t it?

Not one day passes without one having to hear this horrendous word. The word gives out some cool vibe or so people think. The question is, what is the answer to ‘What’s up’ and what does what’s up mean? Why do people use this word often? Before pondering on these questions, it is equally important to know what one is talking about, and, therefore, having done my small part of research, I shamelessly admit that I had to Google the word in order to find out what it actually means! The answers that came my way induced a tummy tickling laughter. Quoting some of the meanings for “what’s up”- An extremely annoying question that has (unfortunately) replaced "Hello" or "Hi" as the most popular form of casual greeting (Urban Dictionary) ; something that you say in order to ask someone what is wrong (The Free Dictionary) and the like.

Having confessed previously, when someone greets me with “Hey! What’s up?” the usual reply is “nothing much” or an awkward silence prevails between the two, before guilt hits this person hard and he/ she chooses to change the topic of discussion. If one is in an equally joyful and frenzied mood, one can choose to irritate the person by giving back a similar annoying answer- “The sky”, “the roof’, “the ceiling”. Though you will have to face the consequences of your response which is made visible by the other when he/ she pulls a long face and shouts “seriously!” before walking away. The taste of victory is sweet and you know that that person won’t bother you for an entire day.

Now, having understood and known the meaning, why do people say what’s up, and, not ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ directly. Is it a Herculean task to say ‘hello’? The irony is that, even ‘what’s up’ is being replaced by its infuriating and aggravating sibling- the short forms like- ‘sup, wazzup etc. The day is not far when ‘what’s up’ will go out of fashion and will be replaced by another unimaginable word. So, reader, the next time you greet someone with ‘What’s up’, just wait for a reply and if you don’t get one, just stick to the formal ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ and make an effort to say three words ‘How are you?’ I’m sure; it does not take a long while to ask someone how they are doing instead of leaving them in an uninhabited territory by asking them ‘What’s up?’

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