Hanging Around

Now, what's the deal on "hanging around"? I know it's an expression with a diverse lineage and many meanings down through the ages (plus an excellent Counting Crows song, I can admit that's a great song - CAN YOU?) - but I want to talk about the current, modern usage.

Hanging around. Is this something you can do by yourself, or do you need to be with other people? I mean, yeah sure, if you just picture it on its own merit, just the bare meanings of the words involved, it seems like something you could do just solo. Even if you were dead, for instance. Gutted on a hook. Hanging around. Yet in terms of how people have come to use and understand the expression, I don't think you can. I think that hanging around carries with it a different assumption. Witness the following exchange:

Burke: "Hey man, what were you doing yesterday? I didn't see you at Trina's thing."

Josiah: "No, I decided not to go. I was just hanging around."

Burke: "Who with?"

Josiah: "NOBODY."

See...in that example, Josiah comes off pretty pathetic, you know? Cool name notwithstanding. "Josiah" is a cool name. But I think in our modern sensibility, when we say "hanging around," that connotes a sort of a group or at least a social activity. It needn't be a large group. You can hang around with just one other person. But if you're by yourself, you're not really hanging around at that point. It doesn't seem like the right term anymore. It seems like you're doing something else.

Maybe you're chillin'.