I'm Sorry What's Happening with This Word

If you're Canadian, this lesson isn’t for you. Your “Soarrie” is charming, a linguistic gem that never fails to make me smile. Feel free to scroll down about 500 words and skip the lecture.

For the rest of you, stick around. There’s a lesson in wisdom ahead.

Picture this: You’re in a grocery store, navigating a narrow aisle. Someone nudges their cart past yours and, almost reflexively, they mutter, “Sorry!” as they awkwardly squeeze by.

Or maybe you're deep in conversation with a friend. The exchange is flowing smoothly until, suddenly, they throw up a hand—palm out, head tilted slightly. They missed something. Maybe it was a word or the thread of your argument. What follows is almost inevitable: “Sorry, I’m not following.” Or perhaps just a clipped, nonchalant “Sorry,” paired with a slight shrug.

We’re living in an age where sorry is everywhere. According to data from Google's N-gram tool, the use of "sorry" has skyrocketed by 245% between 2006 and 2022.

That’s a staggering jump!

From 1920 to 1996, the likelihood of encountering sorry in a sentence hovered at around 1 in 5,000. Stable. Predictable.

Then around 1996, everything changed. You can pinpoint the moment on the graph—a tipping point. Since then, the use of "sorry" has exploded by 763%.

What’s going on? Have we collectively become over-apologists?

I don’t think so. What we’ve done, rather, is carelessly swap in "sorry" where it doesn't belong.

Take our grocery store example. That shopper shouldn’t be apologizing. A simple “Excuse me” would suffice. “Pardon me while I get by” would do the trick too.

And in the case of your friend who missed part of the conversation? They don’t need to apologize. Instead, they might say, “Pardon me, I missed that last part,” or even, “Can you run that back for me? I didn’t catch the last bit.” Both responses work far better than a half-hearted “Sorry.”

Here’s the real issue: Overusing “sorry” dilutes its power. We are, bit by bit, weakening the impact of those crucial words, “I am sorry.”

Thanks to this 763% overuse, sorry is becoming hollow, trite—drained of its significance. “I’m sorry” is losing its weight. Losing its gravity.

What’s at stake isn’t just the word itself, but a broader erosion of civility. When we hear apologies or expressions of gratitude, we don’t trust them like we used to. They’ve been cheapened, stripped of meaning by the sheer volume of their use.

Can we reverse this trend? Can we stop the mindless misuse of these fundamental words? I think we can.

And if you disagree—well, I’m not sorry. I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts.

Feel free to drop me a line here or at SkipLineberg@themainthingpodcast.com.

Let’s talk about it.