"Way" Too Much Idiomatic Speech

"No Way, No Way," by Vanilla girls' band. Do you think there's a "way"? No way! Or, is it satire?




Now to the grammar citation* and the many uses of the word "way"

*citation meaning: "a summons to appear in (grammar) court"

An otherwise well-informed and well-spoken guest on Ian Master's political forum, "Background Briefing," a radio program produced in Los Angeles, responded to a Masters question surrounding the seeming ineffectiveness of world judicial bodies pursuing such villains as the Burmese Military Junta which most recently shutdown a Buddhist monastery in Irrawaddy.

Some background:

"The Burmese junta often claims it believes deeply in Buddhism and encourages the growth of the faith. It’s a claim that has the Burmese people shaking their heads in disbelief in view of the junta’s latest crackdown, on Rangoon’s Maggin Monastery." The Irrawaddy

"Why hasn't the International Criminal Court made a greater effort?" Masters inquired.

Guest: "It's so new just beginning to be tested...but it's way, way stronger than it was ten years ago going after international criminals."

"Way" is noun (substantive) meaning "a passage, or a path prepared for available travelling." In a transferred sense it can be the Milky Way, the passage of a whole galaxy in space! Oxford English Dictionary. More humbly: "What is the way home?"

"Way" is used figuratively in many idiomatic phrases, in the sense of with conscious reference to literal travelling: "to know one's way." "Will the team go all the way this year to the title game?" Or, to express it negatively: "There's no way the team will go that far," that is, it possesses not the means of getting very far, "taking a clear path" to the playoffs.

To use "way" as an adverb intensifier as did Mr. Masters' guest, (...but it's way way stronger) is to say: "It's much, much stronger." Even so, too many much's here where one much will do. "Much" as an adverb means "existing in great degree or quantity." Oxford Mini Dictionary. To use "way" for much is inadvisable, as a much more useful word already exists in a literal form providing greater force of expression: "Much." To use "way" twice, is doubly wrong.