so

so

1. The weather is so uncertain. Fowler's (1926) reservations about what he termed the ‘appealing so' (i.e. the use of so to appeal for agreement) had more to do with group psychology than good use of language. The use is thoroughly idiomatic in conversational English, although in more didactic contexts, such as that aesthetically so brilliant world of Greater Greece, it sounds decidedly affected or has ‘a certain air of silliness’ (as Fowler expressed it). In modern slang, originally in AmE and rapidly spreading into British youth language, use of so as an intensifier has been extended into roles that stretch standard grammar, e.g. modifying active verbs, non-gradable adjectives, and negatives:

• We guess communism just got buried in the rubble there somewhere. And those Ceauşescus? So not missed —Salman Rushdie, 1999

• i so dont [sic] want to be here —weblog, AmE 2003 [OEC]

• African models are so last year —Independent, 2004.

This usage is youthful and appealing, but it is non-standard.

2. So that is well established as an alternative to in order that, but it is often used to denote result as much as intention:

• Police…confiscated hundreds of pairs of laces from ‘bovver boots’ so that the youngsters wearing them could not kick anyone —Daily Telegraph, 1980.

• She knew her father was waiting for her to leave so that he could talk to Michael alone —fiction website, AmE 2005.

In more recent usage, so is often used alone with the same meaning, leaving the causal connection even more tenuous:

• My father had been a minor diplomat, so as a child I had lived in France, Turkey and Paraguay —Graham Greene, 1980

(here so definitely denotes result rather than purpose).

3. For do so, see do 3e.