Want to mack on that hottie from math? Impress them with your kick ass vocab skills.
Slang is a root of pop culture. There are hundreds of different typesof slanguage, but youth slang is the most common. Single words are able todefine an entire decade. Chunks of America’s past are summed up with wordslike ducky, tubular, off da heezy, etc. But where do these seeds of wordagecome from? Music, movies, and (most recently) the Internet influence and birthslang constantly. For example, to be hacked in the fifties meant to be punished or grounded. Today it is the computer equivalent to a force dentry. The Internet influence is dwarfed by the shadow of the music world.
The Jazz Age, The Age of Aquarius, and the Era of Eminem have all spawned their own lingo.
We hear the words on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean they are available for everyone’s use. There are unspoken rules when it comes to the world of slang:
- People over the age of forty cannot pull off the “izzle” thing.
- If you can’t explain what it means in plain English, you shouldn’t say it.
- Very, very few middle-class white kids can successfully speak in ghetto-ese. Most who attempt look foolish.
- Stay current. What was da bomb five years ago is not supafly today.
Think you know your slang? Take our Slanguage Quiz and find where yourank in the world of colloquial speech.
1A Melvin is:a. a studb. a 50’s hotrodc. a wedgie. Bling bling is:a. gaudy jewelryb. a skanky girlc. a type of dishwasher detergent that makes glasses sparkle. If you lose badly at something, you are:a. pwn3db. a hep catc. crusin’ for a bruisin’4. Hit and Miss in Cockney Slang means:a. getting dumpedb. kissc. catch nothing while fishing5. A rude nickname for a disco-diva is:a. Stellab. Winniec. Val6. To agitate the gravel is to:a. get bus-ay with a member of the opposite sexb. take a fashion risk, like wearing stripes and plaid at the same time. to take your leave7. LOLROTFLMAO means:a. my cat is sleeping on the key boardb. I’m laughingc. I’m having a seizure8. Gutt Waddin’ is:a. beating up nerds (i.e., punching them in the gut repeatedly)b. binging on fast foodc. leaves/debris that clog house gutter in the fall9. If you are straight up frontin’, you are:a. dressing like a skankb. pulling off a difficult skateboarding trickc. misrepresenting yourself10. If something is grody to the max, it is:a. awesomeb. gag-me-with-a-spoon nastyc. unfair and unfortunateanswers: 1.c., 2.b., 3.a., 4.b., 5.a., 6.c., 7.b., 8.b., 9.c., 10.b., Scoring:If you got 0-3 correct, you are a FLAKE! (60s slang for a useless loser) That was a little lame. But don’t flip your wig, there is always hope.
