today we are looking at the word just. we just must.

the English (and therefore correct?) definitions of the word include: right, fair, deserved, righteous, proper, correct, nearly, only, barely and immediately.

but the word just, is completely different than the phrase just. which is prefaced with a subject and then a verb.

ie:

i’m just going to take a minute to check my emails

he’s just headed over there for a second

we’ll just say hello and then we can leave

when faced with this sentence structure, the longwinded and close to scientifically proven definition is:

irritating phrase used as a futile ploy to disguise length of time. increased use and enhanced aggravation guaranteed when under a time constraint already.

people use the word just to justify that they are going to make you even later.

there is virtually nothing that takes "just" a second, unless you are on a honeymoon. oh, there is breaking a heart, falling in love, yes, okay, you’ve made your point all you anal retentive folks out there. thank you.

but the sane, dare i say COOL people out there, you get it, dont’ you? there is no way you can log in to your email account, read your emails, "just send a quick response, sorry it’s urgent" in under one second, let alone minute. 

why downplay it with the word "just".

how can you "just" say hello to a person? will you not wait for their response? 

we throw just in there to downplay the actual time our task will take. particularly if it is something that is only interesting to ourselves. (i’m just going to swing by the upholsterers on the way..) especially when we know that our companions are not thrilled about this task and would NOT stay if they knew how long it would really take us. "no, why don’t you go and meet us afterwards?" "oh, no, it will JUST take a second."

just, unjustly had become an word that negates, or at least postpones immediately. which is ironic, considering the original

maybe my issue is with time frames. i really am a word nerd.

and i was "just" going to write for a second before feeding a baby. whoops.