Godly Powers, Divine Possession.

Youngsters are all inherently brilliant at inventing and shaping new words – they contract, change the parts of speech, flip or extend meanings of the words and phrases of the old school. Adults may frown at these new school outcomes, but tough, the new language gradually creeps up to you, spreads and becomes acceptable. Language is organic and evolves that way.

Recently I saw a moment when a word from the new school gained a major acceptance.

A baseball team won the series after 25 years from its last glory. One of the team players hit a game-ending home runner 2 games in a row, which brought the team the victory in 25 years. The manager said in his victory interview,


「いや、本当にね。神がかっているよ。今どきの言葉で言うなら、神ってるよな。」

The translation would be like this;

"Honestly, God was on our side. The youngsters would say 'the game was Godding.'"

神ってる (kamitte-ru) is a fairly new phrase now popular among Japanese teenagers meaning "something or someone is unbelievably lucky that it or one must be possessed and loved by God". I believe this phrase came from clipping and transforming the noun phrase 神がかり (kami-gakari, meaning divine possession, something under Godly powers) into a verb.

Clipping and transforming the original word into a verb, and using it like a present participle, making the phrase lighter and more pop

The teenagers are ingenious linguists, in Japan, and I think also in any other countries.

This phrase was not so much used by adults, but the victory interview of the baseball team had pushed it into the spotlight. The phrase 神ってる (the game was Godding) was in headlines of the sports tabloids the following day.

Also the phrase is tweeted and retweeted, repeated on the Internet, TV shows and radio programmes when telling the news about the victory.

The diffusion is UNSTOPPABLE now.