If you haven’t been under a rock someplace, you’ve probably heard a lot about the bombing in Boston. I was just thinking that when I was growing up, not only did you not hear about these things (because they rarely, if ever, happened) but if you heard the word “bomb” you pretty much thought it was an explosive device dropped out of an airplane.
I remember knowing the words bomb, bombed, bomber, bombproof, bombshell, bombsight, and maybe divebomb — but they all pretty much referred to something blowing up…. Today, when you hear the word bomb, it may or may not relate to explosives. If you’re into drugs, bomb may refer to crack or heroin; bomber means a marijuana cigarette; bomb squad is a name given to a crack-selling crew. And the use of the term keeps expanding, making it even more confusing — as I understand it, “bomb” can mean something really bad or something really good??? I think the term bombshell can still refer to a very attractive woman and I was just catching on that “the bomb” meant really cool.
So even though our language and newspapers now include mail bombs, super bombs, letter bombs, firebombs and the like, it’s good to know that the majority of people only use the word in a positive sense — as we say, they’re Da Bomb!!
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