No Worries

“Greetings Comrade! This is Casey from Cleveland. I am coming to Cambridge for a couple of days to attend a conference on climate change. Can I stay with you?”

A typical message from a prospective couchsurfer. Unfortunately, I will be way while Casey’s in town, so I reply, “Thanks for being in touch, but I am not available to host that weekend. Enjoy Cambridge!”

To which Casey responds, “No worries.”

No worries? What does that mean? Does Casey think that telling them I can’t host constitutes a worry for me? Do they think I was going to lose sleep over whether they found another place to stay? Were they simply reassuring me that people who attend climate conferences have clear consciences?

“No worries.” Is a phrase we hear often these days, usually in casual contexts. Along with its ubiquitous corollary: “no problem.” Both phrases are, at a minimum, annoying. Worse, they contort our language, to an effect I cannot understand.

According to Merriam-Webster, worry is an intransitive verb: to afflict with mental anguish: make anxious; and also a transitive verb: to feel or experience concern of anxiety; as well as a noun: mental distress or agitation resulting from concern usually for something impending or anticipated. In other words, regardless the form of speech, worry is a big deal.