When did the word "so" begin to be used to start a sentence?

Question

In the last few years, I've noticed a growing usage of the word "so" to begin a sentence, especially in the context of higher education.

For example:

Interviewer: "What is the nature of your research"

Researcher: "So, what we wanted to find out is..."

It seems to be a replacement the word "well", or, more informally, "ok".  Has this usage of the word been around for a long time and I'm just now noticing it?  Do you think that is a valid use of the word?

Jay · Accepted Answer

Update: More than a decade on, the links in my answer are no longer valid. See other answers for a wealth of related references.

This isn't exactly an answer to "when," but the example that you provide--of a researcher--follows the thesis of this article on the phenomenon: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/so/ (broken)
This article is linked from http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/episode/2009/03/07/horsey-aeology-binary-black-holes-tracking-red-tides-fish-re-evolution-walk-like-a-man-fact-or-ficti/ (broken) from the CBC Radio program, Quirks & Quarks (see the very bottom of the page, where you can listen to the show excerpt about the use of the word "so").

Phil Rand · Answer

I first noticed it a few years ago from Microsoft people giving sales / technical presentations.  Maybe it started there?

I find it very annoying, and hope it will die out like some of the silly things we used to say when I was in college.

Ken · Answer

Joel Spolsky, I believe, once said it was a Pacific northwest thing, but I can't find it on his blog right now.  That would jive with Phil's observation about Microsoft people.

The Raven · Answer

Back in the 1930-1945 period, it was very common for people to open a discussion with the word, "say." For example, "Say, aren't you the guy who came in here yesterday asking about a Panama hat?"

The opening "so" is similar, but does carry a nuance of, "Then, considering everything we know or has been said about X, ... "

itsjustanalias · Answer

This usage seems like a discourse marker, a way of saying "right then, pay attention, I'm about to give you the answer". Seamus Heaney, in his fantastic translation of Beowulf, uses it so:

Conventional renderings of hwæt, the first word of the poem, tend
  towards the archaic literary, with ‘lo’, ‘hark’, ‘behold’, ‘attend’
  and – more colloquially – ‘listen’ being some of the solutions offered
  previously. But in Hiberno-English Scullion-speak, the particle ‘so’
  came naturally to the rescue, because in that idiom ‘so’ operates as
  an expression that obliterates all previous discourse and narrative,
  and at the same time functions as an exclamation calling for immediate
  attention. So, ‘so’ it was:
  
  So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had
  courage and greatness. We have heard of those princes’ heroic
  campaigns.

To my British ears it doesn't seem new at all.

Barrie England · Answer

How a Man May Choose a Good Wife From a Bad (1602): 'So, let me see: my apron.'

wblakesx · Answer

The usage now bothers me much too. But there is an older form which seems the same:

So I see you’ve been dating again … ?
So, how long have you been back in town?

Etc. I don’t know why the present usage is so grating though. Conjunctional use might be part of it.

When did the word "so" begin to be used to start a sentence?

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