"Overexcited" - An idiom of the English language?

Saberu

Saberu

Saberu

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I was talking to my friend and she used this phrase, and although I've heard it lots of times before I only just started thinking about it now.

The phrase itself simply means excited and is usually viewed to mean more excited than saying simply "excited". In which case it does not follow any other meaning than either "excited" or "very excited".

The nearest phrase I can think of to this is either "overpowered" or "overcome", however these phrases actually make sense because they imply two seperate forces, therefore allowing one to be objectively bigger than the other. However with the word excited it is not so as you can only be in one state of excitement at any one time and to define "overexcited" as simply excited more than a normal amount of excitement would imply the usage "very excited" which negates the need for the term overexcited which sounds wrong anyway.

I don't know what everyone else thinks but I think the usage is flawed. Theres probably lots of other flaws in the English language, but I wanted to highlight this one particularly as it stands out so clearly.

As i'm a computing student I probably lack the subjective analysis English requires to be able to realise this as a correct term, so maybe I'm wrong but it is still what I believe.
 
Tried&Tested said:
I thought it meant being more excited that you should be. ie "he's just a little over excited".

:)
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Who defines how excited you should be for any given event? Whose to say the person is not simply "very excited".
 
Mohinder said:
over cooked
over done
over eager
over excited

What's the problem? :confused:
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Over cooked/ over done is alright because it can be measured quantitavely. However phrases like over excited/ over eager cannot. Phrases like "very excited" are much more suitable.
 
Saberu said:
Over cooked/ over done is alright because it can be measured quantitavely. However phrases like over excited/ over eager cannot. Phrases like "very excited" are much more suitable.
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Not at all. If you say someone is over excited you are saying you think they are too excited. Saying they are very excited means you see no problem with their level of excitement.
 
Pudney@work said:
Not at all. If you say someone is over excited you are saying you think they are too excited. Saying they are very excited means you see no problem with their level of excitement.
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Well maybe it's me against the rest of the world but I don't think it sounds right. Excitement is too subjective to be viewed as something that you can have too much of. Anyway it's clear to me now that no one else sees it that way so i'll be quiet.
 
Um, over excited is just like over cooked because it means "too excited."

Thread closed.

God, I hope my fellow computing students in Sept aren't like this :eek:
 
Saberu said:
Well maybe it's me against the rest of the world but I don't think it sounds right. Excitement is too subjective to be viewed as something that you can have too much of. Anyway it's clear to me now that no one else sees it that way so i'll be quiet.
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Nah the issue you have is from the way you've learnt, you want it to have a quantative measure, e.g. this is that much or it has to be this size to apply. A lot of the more scientific types also get this issue, because quite frankly you're trying to apply quantity to something which is abstract. You need to do more philosophical learning to balance your viewpoint :D
 
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