[SeekAndFind]

RE: Permission to use “like” from a linguist?

Of the English speaking countries out there... is this phenomenon of the overuse of the word ‘like’ purely an American thing? Or is it something that has caught on in the English-speaking world?

[scrabblehack]

I used to be on a linguistics listserv....It may even have been ADS...I thought that “like” as a verbal crutch began with the Shaggy character on Scooby Doo, but someone corrected me....there were much earlier citations than that.
I don’t remember if they were American English or otherwise.