~라고 할 뻔
TL;DR · OriginThis is the trick of saying everything you wanted to say and then appending "…I almost said." Formally it claims the speaker nearly said something but did not; in practice th…
Origin
This is the trick of saying everything you wanted to say and then appending "…I almost said." Formally it claims the speaker nearly said something but did not; in practice the words are already out, so the content lands in full while the accountability slips away.
According to Namuwiki's account, the bit began on DCInside and caught on from the second half of 2020, when Twitch streamers including Kkoddungying began using it frequently. It was not coined by any one person, then: a community joke that spread once it went out over streams.
It works because it removes the thing to argue with. If the other party gets angry, you can answer that you said you didn't say it; if they let it go, the statement stands. Either way the speaker loses nothing, which makes it well suited to needling people.
Spread
Once it spread through streaming, it became one of the default registers of chat and comments — viewers teasing a streamer, players taunting an opponent, posters saying something they would rather not say outright.
Variants proliferated. Namuwiki alone lists several sibling constructions: "…is what I said," "…I almost went and said," "before I say…," "I'd like to say… but," "…is what someone I know said," "I probably shouldn't say…, right?" All of them put one layer of distance between the statement and the speaker; the wording differs, the function does not.
That function is also why it is not always well received. Since it amounts to saying your piece and then stepping back from it, using it to wind someone up has a way of starting the very argument it pretends to avoid.
How it is used
- As a taunt, appended after an insult to block any rebuttal
- As a way to voice a real opinion and then frame it as a joke
- To deliver an assessment too blunt to state directly
- As chat register, mixing in the sibling variants
Sources
- Namuwiki, "…I almost said" — its origin on DCInside, its spread from the second half of 2020 via Twitch streamers including Kkoddungying, its character as a responsibility-dodging bit, and the list of sibling expressions
