Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 13:05:46 -0500

From: "DICK HEABERLIN, ENGLISH DEPARTMENT,

SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY" DH12[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SWT.EDU

Subject: Re: "my bad"



I have been playing pickup basketball for fifty years, and I

first heard "my bad" used in about 1970. I live in Texas, but

I thought at the time that it came from the black area of an inner city

where pickup basketball is so popular. It simply means, "my fault"

or "my mistake." I thought it sounded rather strange at first, and I

could not imagine using it, but after hearing it for several years, I

one day heard myself saying, "my bad." Now it seems nothing out of the common

to say it.



Dick Heaberlin

English Department

Southwest Texas State University