A Glossary for the Nineties: Chapter 13 - Street slang
[Taken from A Glossary for the Nineties, by David Rowan (Prion Books, 1998), based on the column of that name in The Guardian's Weekend magazine through most of the 1990s. © David Rowan]
CHAPTER 13: STREET SLANG
Words that are so hot they'll be cold again by the time you start using them
07734 int. The cool greeting for the digital age. It's the number being received by electronic beepers everywhere: turn it upside down and you've got "HELLO". The game also works in Spanish: 50538, or "BESOS", means kisses.
1471 v. The fashionable telephone number for the late nineties. These four digits have come to make a verb, meaning to discover who has just phoned you but rung off. A product of BT callback technology, you tap in 1471 to find out the number of your last caller. Hence the verb: "She bottled out after two rings, but he 1471d her and called her back."
AND MONKEYS MIGHT FLY OUT OF MY BUTT n. sl. "That's rubbish." It began with the film Wayne's World, and soon spread to teen conversations everywhere.
ARM CANDY n. An attractive (generally male) model, who is worth being seen with. Current slang in the catwalk circuit.
BESTEST adj. Better than best, the term now favoured by those Klosters-and-Kensington types who look to the Duchess of York for guidance in such matters.
BOOKMARK v. comp. To make a note of someone's number or address so you can contact them in future (as in "I'd like to bookmark you and maybe see you for dinner..."). It started as an Internet term, but Scientific American has reecorded its growing mainstream use (see also low bandwidth).
BOTTOM-BURP n. Older readers would know this simply as a fart. But then the writers of Just Seventeen magazine have their own, let's say, colourful way of talking.
BUMSTER sl. n. A popular but threatened aspect of Gambian tourism: young men who hang around beaches awaiting the attentions of European women. The country's rulers have banned such "sex tourism" as immoral.
DEAD PRESIDENT phr. sl. US banknotes - recognisable by their portraits of George Washington, Andrew Jackson, et al. A dead pres, in Harlem street slang, is differentiated from money in general, which is simply cream.
DOPE adj. sl. Cool, in nineties teen-speak. You'll also hear of things being slammin', kickin', choice, tight, sweet and sick. Not, of course, that cool itself is uncool: no, that word's still totally dope.
DROP A DIME v. What used to be to grass: current US slang for informing on someone. After all, you can call the police from a public phone all you need is a dime. Or in some states, a quarter; but the term has not proved to be index-linked.
DWERB n. sl. A dwerb is a dweeb, only worse. Accoring to the San Jose Mercury, dwerbs say things like "Gosh, darn" and "You betcha!", and move to California from such cultural backwaters as Idaho, Ohio, Iowa, and other places made up of vowels. Still to cross the pond, but we're watching out for it.
ELVIS adj. sl. How British troops describe a colleague who is unprepared for enemy attack - a gas bombardment in the Gulf, for instance. For Elvis Presley, as the saying goes, "is history".
ELVIS YEAR n. The year a product or trend is at its peak of popularity - before an often sad and embarrassing decline. The year 1997, for instance, might be called the Teletubbies' Elvis year. Then again, there's always the worrying prospect people will keep insisting on claiming they are alive and shopping in local supermarkets . . .
FURNITURE MOVER n. A hysterical patient, in the slang of psychiatrists. A writer, John Davis, has collected together such buzzwords and discovered several other linguistic gems such as pants waver (nymphomaniac) and double header (schizophrenic).
HAIRBALL! excl. The current West Coast word for terrifying: frequently heard from glamorous Malibu types fleeing the bush fires as they threw their Louis XIV armchairs into the swimming pools. Not to be confused with fireball, beachball or ball-bearing.
HIGHBEAMS n. sl. That wide-eyed look that results from getting high on crack cocaine - from the term for full car headlights. The risk, in nineties drug slang, is that the habit will lead to tweaking - that state of drug-induced paranoia - and eventaully might cause you to shoot the kerb. This involves losing everything to crack.
KIBO acr. Knowledge in, bullshit out. Get some experts together to discuss a serious issue, from politics to literature, and watch them waffle. It's even spawned a religion on the Net, known as "kibology".
LOW BANDWIDTH phr., comp. A put-down of someone's mental capacity - as in, "That guy's bandwidth is so low he thinks the Spice Girls are musicians.'' Entering mainstream life from the computer nerds' talk, in which bandwidth normally refers to the amount of information a computer network can process and transmit at one time.
MACK OUT v. sl. To eat a big meal - American "dude" slang, used among those teens who talk of babes being most excellent. Named after McDonald's.
MAXWELL n. A measurement equivalent to about 200lb of human flesh. In current use among undertakers, who define the larger human corpse in this way.
PEAR-SHAPED adj. Ugly or unpleasant, as in: "I can't believe it. Everything has gone pear-shaped" (Brian Harvey, formerly of East 17, forced to apologise after claiming that Ecstasy was safe). Some suggest that the term derives from the womanly shape that some men find less than attractive; others that it was made up by scriptwriters for TV cop shows.
PLOT, TO HAVE LOST THE phr. sl. At last, a slang term that began in Britain and made it to the US. This one, as the US style magazine W discloses, "is the hip English expression for someone who has gone off the rails".
RENTON n. sl. An extremely short haircut - after the one worn by the mashed-up (that is, intoxicated) character played by Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting.
ROCKBROKER BELT n. That part of Surrey once frequented by stockbrokers, now more favoured by ageing rockers. To hear the gentle twang of a Fender, followed by wheezing and puffing, drive past the mansions of Virginia Water and Epsom.
ROLLOVER WEEK n. It started as a Lottery expression for when the jackpot was rolled over to the next week; but now, as a correspondent reports from deepest Shropshire, it has taken on a whole new meaning: "She's got that much energy, every night, can't keep up with her, can I?" a chap was heard saying in the pub. "I'll be glad when it's a rollover week . . ."
ROOFIES sl. s. A drug more formally known as Rohypnol, which induces a hypnotic tate, impairs memory and lowers sexual inhibitions. That's why it's also become known as the "date-rape drug'', and why those unwittingly taking it can end up with more than a headache the morning after.
SCOTTY n. sl. The current slang, prevalent in certain inner-city areas, used for the drug crack. Why? Well, just think of Star Trek and "Beam me up . . ."
SLIM TO ANOREXIC adj. Current PR-talk as to the chances of something unhelpful being allowed to happen. Camille Paglia appearing on the Michael Barrymore show? That's slim to anorexic.
SMURF sl. n. In New York gangster slang, an unobtrusively ordinary citizen whose personal bank accounts are used to launder drug money. Sums are kept small and spread over many accounts; still, billions of dollars are thought to be passing through the smurf community.
SNOG-TASTIC adj. sl. What Prince William is, according to teen 'zine TV Hits. A royal correspondent comments that this, apparently, means that he is a rather kissable young man.
SPACE BANDITn. Not a character in a malignant video game, but a term used by estate agents to describe the national retailing chains which take up large bland chunks of every high street.
SPANG v. To beg on the streets: current slang, probably from that ubiquitous refrain, "Spare any change?"
STEEP sl. n. In current US college slang, someone who wears politically-correct opinions, but also rather expensive clothing. We really must have a cocktail party to raise money for those poor Rwandans. "Guccis but no furs," as one writer puts it.
STUD-PUPPY n. What to call someone you rather fancy - in US slang.
SUCK SOMOEONE'S FLAVOUR v. To emulate someone's style - current teen slang for the way in which admirers of a filthy (cool) person begin to wear the same clothes. But don't be a cretin maggot by sucking the flavour of a cool guy - that's someone who's most definitely uncool, but doesn't realise . . .
TEABAG n. sl. One of those subjects of Her Britannic Majesty who happens to be inhabiting the United States. Or, in the old slang, a Brit.
TONSIL-TICKLING BOUT n. sl. A snog session, in the overwrought slang of teenage magazines. Such a bout will typically occur in the swank-o-pad of a dreamy swoonball who has enormous snog potential, after a romantic meal at a swish nosh-shop. It's possible that nobody actually uses these terms apart from the middle-aged magazine hacks who write it, but then again they might enjoy more snogs than the rest of us.
VIC DAMONE n. Victory - a newly popularised slang term in the States that resulted from George Bush's frequent use of it. To achieve Vic Damone on the golf course, as the New York Times explained the Bushism, the former president had to avoid Wedge City, control the yips and chips, and steer the ball to the dance floor. Meaning he needed to avoid bunkers, control his nerves and chip neatly on to the greens.
WAZZ ON YOUR BONFIRE v tr. To spoil your fun, or take the wind out of your sails - an example of British Youthspeak recently discovered by the marketing industry in its YouthTruth survey. Presumably the Bonfire Wazz fizzy drink is already in the planning stag.
WIZZY adj. The adjective of the moment: anything positive, exciting, magical or desirable has suddenly come to be wizzy . Perhaps linked to the magical powers of wizards, or the inescapable impact of whizz-bangs and whizz-kids. And no doubt connected to that computing buzzword, wysiwyg - standing for what you see is what you get.
WUSS or WUSSY n. A combination of wimp and pussy, this is the insult of the moment as popularised by Beavis and Butthead.
YEAH, RIGHT excl. How a student interrupted a lecture in Chicago dealing with double-negatives. In every language, the lecturer said, you could use two negatives to make a positive - but in English two positives don't make a negative. Cue voice from back of the hall: "Yeah, right."
YUMLICIOUS adj. Kissably attractive, in the nineties language of teenage girls' magazines. Good-looking boys are also sponditiously brilliant, faborific, splendiferous and saucelicious ; and as for the most stunning-looking, no superlative expresses their desirablilty more than the title of Just Seventeen's regular back-page pin-up: Fwoarrrgh!
CHAPTER 13: STREET SLANG
Words that are so hot they'll be cold again by the time you start using them
07734 int. The cool greeting for the digital age. It's the number being received by electronic beepers everywhere: turn it upside down and you've got "HELLO". The game also works in Spanish: 50538, or "BESOS", means kisses.
1471 v. The fashionable telephone number for the late nineties. These four digits have come to make a verb, meaning to discover who has just phoned you but rung off. A product of BT callback technology, you tap in 1471 to find out the number of your last caller. Hence the verb: "She bottled out after two rings, but he 1471d her and called her back."
AND MONKEYS MIGHT FLY OUT OF MY BUTT n. sl. "That's rubbish." It began with the film Wayne's World, and soon spread to teen conversations everywhere.
ARM CANDY n. An attractive (generally male) model, who is worth being seen with. Current slang in the catwalk circuit.
BESTEST adj. Better than best, the term now favoured by those Klosters-and-Kensington types who look to the Duchess of York for guidance in such matters.
BOOKMARK v. comp. To make a note of someone's number or address so you can contact them in future (as in "I'd like to bookmark you and maybe see you for dinner..."). It started as an Internet term, but Scientific American has reecorded its growing mainstream use (see also low bandwidth).
BOTTOM-BURP n. Older readers would know this simply as a fart. But then the writers of Just Seventeen magazine have their own, let's say, colourful way of talking.
BUMSTER sl. n. A popular but threatened aspect of Gambian tourism: young men who hang around beaches awaiting the attentions of European women. The country's rulers have banned such "sex tourism" as immoral.
DEAD PRESIDENT phr. sl. US banknotes - recognisable by their portraits of George Washington, Andrew Jackson, et al. A dead pres, in Harlem street slang, is differentiated from money in general, which is simply cream.
DOPE adj. sl. Cool, in nineties teen-speak. You'll also hear of things being slammin', kickin', choice, tight, sweet and sick. Not, of course, that cool itself is uncool: no, that word's still totally dope.
DROP A DIME v. What used to be to grass: current US slang for informing on someone. After all, you can call the police from a public phone all you need is a dime. Or in some states, a quarter; but the term has not proved to be index-linked.
DWERB n. sl. A dwerb is a dweeb, only worse. Accoring to the San Jose Mercury, dwerbs say things like "Gosh, darn" and "You betcha!", and move to California from such cultural backwaters as Idaho, Ohio, Iowa, and other places made up of vowels. Still to cross the pond, but we're watching out for it.
ELVIS adj. sl. How British troops describe a colleague who is unprepared for enemy attack - a gas bombardment in the Gulf, for instance. For Elvis Presley, as the saying goes, "is history".
ELVIS YEAR n. The year a product or trend is at its peak of popularity - before an often sad and embarrassing decline. The year 1997, for instance, might be called the Teletubbies' Elvis year. Then again, there's always the worrying prospect people will keep insisting on claiming they are alive and shopping in local supermarkets . . .
FURNITURE MOVER n. A hysterical patient, in the slang of psychiatrists. A writer, John Davis, has collected together such buzzwords and discovered several other linguistic gems such as pants waver (nymphomaniac) and double header (schizophrenic).
HAIRBALL! excl. The current West Coast word for terrifying: frequently heard from glamorous Malibu types fleeing the bush fires as they threw their Louis XIV armchairs into the swimming pools. Not to be confused with fireball, beachball or ball-bearing.
HIGHBEAMS n. sl. That wide-eyed look that results from getting high on crack cocaine - from the term for full car headlights. The risk, in nineties drug slang, is that the habit will lead to tweaking - that state of drug-induced paranoia - and eventaully might cause you to shoot the kerb. This involves losing everything to crack.
KIBO acr. Knowledge in, bullshit out. Get some experts together to discuss a serious issue, from politics to literature, and watch them waffle. It's even spawned a religion on the Net, known as "kibology".
LOW BANDWIDTH phr., comp. A put-down of someone's mental capacity - as in, "That guy's bandwidth is so low he thinks the Spice Girls are musicians.'' Entering mainstream life from the computer nerds' talk, in which bandwidth normally refers to the amount of information a computer network can process and transmit at one time.
MACK OUT v. sl. To eat a big meal - American "dude" slang, used among those teens who talk of babes being most excellent. Named after McDonald's.
MAXWELL n. A measurement equivalent to about 200lb of human flesh. In current use among undertakers, who define the larger human corpse in this way.
PEAR-SHAPED adj. Ugly or unpleasant, as in: "I can't believe it. Everything has gone pear-shaped" (Brian Harvey, formerly of East 17, forced to apologise after claiming that Ecstasy was safe). Some suggest that the term derives from the womanly shape that some men find less than attractive; others that it was made up by scriptwriters for TV cop shows.
PLOT, TO HAVE LOST THE phr. sl. At last, a slang term that began in Britain and made it to the US. This one, as the US style magazine W discloses, "is the hip English expression for someone who has gone off the rails".
RENTON n. sl. An extremely short haircut - after the one worn by the mashed-up (that is, intoxicated) character played by Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting.
ROCKBROKER BELT n. That part of Surrey once frequented by stockbrokers, now more favoured by ageing rockers. To hear the gentle twang of a Fender, followed by wheezing and puffing, drive past the mansions of Virginia Water and Epsom.
ROLLOVER WEEK n. It started as a Lottery expression for when the jackpot was rolled over to the next week; but now, as a correspondent reports from deepest Shropshire, it has taken on a whole new meaning: "She's got that much energy, every night, can't keep up with her, can I?" a chap was heard saying in the pub. "I'll be glad when it's a rollover week . . ."
ROOFIES sl. s. A drug more formally known as Rohypnol, which induces a hypnotic tate, impairs memory and lowers sexual inhibitions. That's why it's also become known as the "date-rape drug'', and why those unwittingly taking it can end up with more than a headache the morning after.
SCOTTY n. sl. The current slang, prevalent in certain inner-city areas, used for the drug crack. Why? Well, just think of Star Trek and "Beam me up . . ."
SLIM TO ANOREXIC adj. Current PR-talk as to the chances of something unhelpful being allowed to happen. Camille Paglia appearing on the Michael Barrymore show? That's slim to anorexic.
SMURF sl. n. In New York gangster slang, an unobtrusively ordinary citizen whose personal bank accounts are used to launder drug money. Sums are kept small and spread over many accounts; still, billions of dollars are thought to be passing through the smurf community.
SNOG-TASTIC adj. sl. What Prince William is, according to teen 'zine TV Hits. A royal correspondent comments that this, apparently, means that he is a rather kissable young man.
SPACE BANDITn. Not a character in a malignant video game, but a term used by estate agents to describe the national retailing chains which take up large bland chunks of every high street.
SPANG v. To beg on the streets: current slang, probably from that ubiquitous refrain, "Spare any change?"
STEEP sl. n. In current US college slang, someone who wears politically-correct opinions, but also rather expensive clothing. We really must have a cocktail party to raise money for those poor Rwandans. "Guccis but no furs," as one writer puts it.
STUD-PUPPY n. What to call someone you rather fancy - in US slang.
SUCK SOMOEONE'S FLAVOUR v. To emulate someone's style - current teen slang for the way in which admirers of a filthy (cool) person begin to wear the same clothes. But don't be a cretin maggot by sucking the flavour of a cool guy - that's someone who's most definitely uncool, but doesn't realise . . .
TEABAG n. sl. One of those subjects of Her Britannic Majesty who happens to be inhabiting the United States. Or, in the old slang, a Brit.
TONSIL-TICKLING BOUT n. sl. A snog session, in the overwrought slang of teenage magazines. Such a bout will typically occur in the swank-o-pad of a dreamy swoonball who has enormous snog potential, after a romantic meal at a swish nosh-shop. It's possible that nobody actually uses these terms apart from the middle-aged magazine hacks who write it, but then again they might enjoy more snogs than the rest of us.
VIC DAMONE n. Victory - a newly popularised slang term in the States that resulted from George Bush's frequent use of it. To achieve Vic Damone on the golf course, as the New York Times explained the Bushism, the former president had to avoid Wedge City, control the yips and chips, and steer the ball to the dance floor. Meaning he needed to avoid bunkers, control his nerves and chip neatly on to the greens.
WAZZ ON YOUR BONFIRE v tr. To spoil your fun, or take the wind out of your sails - an example of British Youthspeak recently discovered by the marketing industry in its YouthTruth survey. Presumably the Bonfire Wazz fizzy drink is already in the planning stag.
WIZZY adj. The adjective of the moment: anything positive, exciting, magical or desirable has suddenly come to be wizzy . Perhaps linked to the magical powers of wizards, or the inescapable impact of whizz-bangs and whizz-kids. And no doubt connected to that computing buzzword, wysiwyg - standing for what you see is what you get.
WUSS or WUSSY n. A combination of wimp and pussy, this is the insult of the moment as popularised by Beavis and Butthead.
YEAH, RIGHT excl. How a student interrupted a lecture in Chicago dealing with double-negatives. In every language, the lecturer said, you could use two negatives to make a positive - but in English two positives don't make a negative. Cue voice from back of the hall: "Yeah, right."
YUMLICIOUS adj. Kissably attractive, in the nineties language of teenage girls' magazines. Good-looking boys are also sponditiously brilliant, faborific, splendiferous and saucelicious ; and as for the most stunning-looking, no superlative expresses their desirablilty more than the title of Just Seventeen's regular back-page pin-up: Fwoarrrgh!
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