It Is What It Is, or Is It?

Wednesday's Words, because words matter

Our language has expressions meant to distill an idea into a few words. Idioms. Merriam-Webster defines idiom as:

“an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined means of its elements (such as up in the air for “undecided”) or in its grammatically atypical use of words (such as give away).”

It is what it is.

That must be the worst, or at least the most irritating, example of an idiom.

Cambridge Dictionary defines “it is what it is” as an expression “used to say that a situation cannot be changed and must be accepted.”

It’s a big “duh” from me. What does it really mean, other than to serve as a banal filler in a conversation when there’s no other quick and easy response?