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You're talking about the word's usage as a verb (the past tense of "wake", ie "I woke this morning"), the article mentions its usage as an adjective ("to be wok

You're talking about the word's usage as a verb (the past tense of "wake", ie "I woke this morning"), the article mentions its usage as an adjective ("to be woke").

OJFord 5y ago
The quoted example is from the article, and it gives the meaning as 'to stay awake', i.e. verb. I realise the section heading is talking about the very modern adjectival slang usage - I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang).
- StavrosK 5y ago
  > The quoted example is from the article, and it gives the meaning as 'to stay awake', i.e. verb. Yes, but it uses it in "stay woke" not "I woke this morning". > I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang). I agree, it's not the modern usage as it doesn't have the same meaning, but I think the article means that its usage as an adjective is old, not that the usage with its current meaning is old. Which I guess makes it very debatable if "the word" has been around for that long.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Well, my argument was that it wasn't an adjective, but the same dialectal form as 'stay sat', which I hadn't thought of as being an adjectival usage of 'sat'. It seems you're right though, it's a 'predicative' adjective, as in 'he is sat over there' or 'he is awake'. Anyway, Wiktionary's first entry for it is literal adjectival usage, in the 'African-American vernacular, or slang', which assuming correct would make for a more compelling (to me anyway) 'older than you might think' argument, if it presumably just crossed over from that into the figurative usage, and only that took off more broadly.

You're talking about the word's usage as a verb (the past tense of "wake", ie "I woke this morning"), the article mentions its usage as an adjective ("to be woke").

OJFord 5y ago

The quoted example is from the article, and it gives the meaning as 'to stay awake', i.e. verb. I realise the section heading is talking about the very modern adjectival slang usage - I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang).

StavrosK 5y ago
> The quoted example is from the article, and it gives the meaning as 'to stay awake', i.e. verb. Yes, but it uses it in "stay woke" not "I woke this morning". > I just disagree that the 'older than you might think' argument that follows is correct, or that if so it has any value (since even the article seems to acknowledge its a different usage to the modern slang). I agree, it's not the modern usage as it doesn't have the same meaning, but I think the article means that its usage as an adjective is old, not that the usage with its current meaning is old. Which I guess makes it very debatable if "the word" has been around for that long.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Well, my argument was that it wasn't an adjective, but the same dialectal form as 'stay sat', which I hadn't thought of as being an adjectival usage of 'sat'. It seems you're right though, it's a 'predicative' adjective, as in 'he is sat over there' or 'he is awake'. Anyway, Wiktionary's first entry for it is literal adjectival usage, in the 'African-American vernacular, or slang', which assuming correct would make for a more compelling (to me anyway) 'older than you might think' argument, if it presumably just crossed over from that into the figurative usage, and only that took off more broadly.