Les Jones

Word of the Day > Word of the Day: BLANK is the new BLANK

I used to hear "so-and-so color is the new black." Through repetition and context I sort of vaguely understood it to mean "it's the new cool thing." *

The phrase has morphed over time into more adventurous versions:

• P2P is the new bong
• Small is the new big
• Vegetarian is the new Prius
• Wikipedia is the new Google

You can find lots more at This is the New That blog, which is where I found some of those.

Jason Kottke notes the origin of the phrase (copped from the new Google):

The phrase is commonly attributed to Gloria Vanderbilt, who upon visiting India in the 1960s noted the prevalence of pink in the native garb. She declared that "Pink is the new black", meaning that the color pink seemed to be the foundation of the attire there, much like black was the base color of most ensembles in New York.

* Do you remember the first few times you heard swear words as a kid and tried to figure out what they meant? I now realize that's the same way I tried to understand lots of other words and phrases when I was younger. Unless there's someone to explain it to me my brain has to sort of triangulate the meaning.