Shotgun

Something that really (and I mean REALLY) bugs me is the slang use of the word "shotgun". Sometimes it is used correctly - to call the front seat on a car ride. That's the shotgun seat. It's called "riding shotgun". It's from way back when, driving a wagon, there used to be the driver for the horses and a guy with a shotgun who sat beside him. Holding a shotgun, sitting beside the driver. That's what it means. "Front seat".

So every time I hear someone say "shotgun" to call something else like, say, the last piece of pizza, the best toy, a position in a queue or, worst of all, *not* having to do something, the little rage hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Read the following phrases, mentally replacing the word "shotgun" with "front seat" and tell me if it's stupid:
"Shotgun the good couch"
"Shotgun not"
"Shotgun being on Dave's team"

I know that popular use becomes correct by definition, and we say lots of things that would sound stupid to our ancestors, like "dirt" (was originally "drit"). The point is that I'm here right now and I know what it means. You're saying "front seat" all the time when you're calling things, and as long as I know this is true and keep hearing it, it's going to irritate me.

I've heard someone try to explain it away by saying something like it's an imaginary threat with a shotgun, but this was clearly a justification he had formulated long after he heard the phrase and started using it. He didn't learn it anywhere, he "figured it out" himself by noticing that he was wielding the word "shotgun" to get things, much as you would if you had an actual shotgun.

From now on, I refuse to listen to anyone who uses the word "shotgun" to mean anything except "passenger seat".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Or an actual shotgun.
PPS - I seem to have more pet peeves than I once realised.