So

So is an English word that, apart from its other uses, has become increasingly popular in recent years as a coordinating conjunctive opening word in a sentence. This device is particularly used when answering questions although the questioner may also use the device. So may also be used to end sentences. When ending a sentence, it may be: a coordinating conjunctive to refer backwards to something previously mentioned a coordinating conjunctive dangling "so" (sometimes called trailing "so") to refer forwards to something that may be said an intensifying adverb. Sentence opener The first known written use of so as a sentence opener is in several lines of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, published in the mid-1380s, for example: So as a sentence opener has been used in later historical literary works such as: The Rape of Lucrece, 1594, by William Shakespeare Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded, 1740, by Samuel Richardson It is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of so as a sentence opener began in Silicon Valley. Michael Lewis, in his book The New New Thing, published in 1999, noted that "When a computer programmer answers a question, he often begins with the word 'so. Microsoft employees have long argued that the "so" boom began with them.