- Disco was coined by a small group of seven to nine volunteers that I was a member of at a two-week summer camp in July of 2019. It was formed by metaphor from the phrase “deader than disco,” which references the obsolescence of disco music. It is generally synonymous with the word dead in its various senses. First, it can mean literally dead – as in deprived of life – as in the exchange (Something approximating this was actually said at summer camp): “What if we went and got hit by a bus?” “We’d be disco.” It is just as polysemous as dead in that it can also take on most of dead’s metaphorically extended meanings, such as no longer functioning or no longer present. However, the most frequently used form of disco is in its second sense, where it describes someone who is incapacitated by emotion, usually hilarity. In contemporary colloquial speech, an interlocutor might say “I’m dead” in response to something incredibly funny, shocking, or random. Disco is used in this same way.
disco
adjective metaphorical extension
1. no longer living, responsive, effective, present, or in use: dead. 2. rendered unresponsive by laughter or emotion due to something funny, shocking or random.
Etymology : formed by metaphorical extension of disco. Disco from a clipping of discotheque, from French disque, from Latin discus meaning disk + -o- linker + French -eque noun ending, by analogy with French bibliotheque meaning library.
Source : (1) “Do we… do we think Mr. Eric is coming back?” “Eric? Oh no. He’s gone, he’s disco.” (my friend from Colorado, 7/17/19) (2) “Oh my god, that’s so cute and violently Victorian, I’m disco.” (my friend from New York, 9/23/19)
Last modified: 11 December 2019