Transcript Slide 1

Transformations of Slang over Time
Connie Eble (1996), who studied college slang at the University of North Carolina, found that in a
seven-year span (1980-1987), only 10 percent of the college slang lexicon remained in use, and
over fifteen years (1972-1987), only four out of two hundred words stayed the same. Slang is, she
concludes, quite ephemeral.
Slang Synonyms
In college slang there are particular words that generate the most
synonyms, listed below. Compare Eble’s findings from 1972-1993 with
our class findings from 2008 and 2010. Obviously, a lot has changed.
But have slang words changed much in the past 2 years?!
General
meaning
Slang Words:
1972-1993
Slang Words: 2008
Excellent
Sweet, killer, bad, cool, awesome
Sick, sweet, cool, nice, wicked, ill, bitchin’, ballin’
Sweet, awesome, ballin’, cool, legit, rockin’, right on!, epic,
intense, sick, wicked, nice, legit
Dork, creeper, loser, freak, sketch, tard, nerd, goob
Creeper, sketch, weirdo, dork, loser, tool, freak, tard, nerd,
geek
Socially inept person Dweeb, geek, turkey
Slang Words: 2010
To be or get drunk
Wasted, catch a buzz, trashed
Shitarded, wasted, bombed, hammered, black-out,
crunked, gone, tanked, schwasted, pissed
Hammered, tanked, wasted, destroyed, plastered, crunked
(crazy + drunk), bombed, shwasted, tipsy, trashed, fucked
up, smashed, blacked out, shit show, destroyed, shit-faced,
gone
To relax
Fraternity/sorority
member
Disregard
Chill out, veg
Chillax, chill, hang out, hang,
Chill, hang out, chillax, lazy, veg, chill pill
Bagger, Suzi
Fratter, frat whore, fratastic, sorostitute, bro, broseph Fratty, sorositute, bro, broseph, frat boy, fratter, frat whore,
Bag, blow off
Screw over, ditch, bounce, sexiled, negged, shot
down, mean-mug
Shot down, ditched, sexiled, blown off, screw over, leave
hangin’, bail
To kiss passionately Grub, hook (up)
hot
Attractive
Hook up, make out, hit that, suck face
Hook up, make out, tonsil hockey, hooks it
Hot, bangin’, bossy, spittin’ game, smokin’
A ten, hot, bangin’, hot as balls, cute, fine, lookin’ good
Fox/foxy
Attractive person
To have a good time jam
Piece of ass, a ten, hottie
A ten, hottie, goddess, babe, hunk, cutie, eye candy
Rage, party, good times, good times (always twice)
Crazy fun, party, rage
To do well
ace
Own, kick ass, kill it, nail it, sting it, dominate, rape it, Own, ace, kill it, dominate, rape it, rock that, kick ass, poned,
demolish, rocked that, smoked that bitch
nailed it
To insult
To leave
diss
Shut down, serve, bitch out, burn, diss
Shut down, burn, diss, serve, bash, bitch out
book
Peace out, outie, bounce, split, book, roll, haul ass
Run, split, book it, out, peace out, peace, later, split, roll,
bounce, haul ass
To eat rapidly
Pig out
Get your grub on, chow down, gorge, stuff your face, Stuff your face, inhale, wolf it down, feast, pig out, chow
pound, housed,
down, be a fat kid and get cake, have a food baby,
Out of touch
clueless
Zoned out, retarded, blonde, slow, out there, space
cadet, spacey
Space case, spacey, zoned out, blonde, retarded, slow, not
all there, spaced out, checked out, clueless
Worst situation
The pits
This sucks, this blows, lame, NOT cool
This sucks, NOT cool, fan-fucking-tastic, bomb, lame, this
blows, this sucks, FML (fuck my life), this sucks balls, this
bites, lame
To go to sleep
crash
Pass-out, die, crash
Pass out, crash, conk out, hit the sack, die, zonk out, out
cold,
Unattractive, out of
favor
To have a bizarre
experience
Friend
cheezy
Whack, ridiculous, tacky, lame, dog, fugly, butterface Fugly, creepy, gross, sketchy, tacky, butterface,
Trip out
Bug out, buggin’, wig out, tweak out, freaky, high as
shit,
Homeboy, homegirl/homey
Dude, biff, biffer, homeslice, boy, bro, dude, homeboy, Chica, amiga, friendses, bro, peeps, dude, man, hun, love,
girlfriend, lovey
girlfriend, homegirl/homeboy, girl, boy, bitch, BFF
Male, any person
Below standard
dude
Dude, guy, bro, man, son
Dude, guy, bro, man, son, the man,
slack
Weak, crap, craptastic, lame,
Shitastic, crap, lamo, bull, this blows, weak, lame, average,
craptastic, poor, stupid, weak sauce, sub-par
One who follows the granola
lifestyle of the sixties
Tweak, trip, wig out, spazz, freaky, weird, trippin’, tripped,
trippy, bug out, blaze up,
Hippie, granola, stoner, tree-hugger, pothead, crunchy Hippie, pot-head, stoner, tree-hugger, crunchy granola
But not all slang words are ephemeral!
•“Eventually, some slang passes into standard speech; other slang flourishes for a time with varying popularity and then is forgotten;
finally, some slang is never fully accepted nor completely forgotten. O.K., jazz, and A-bomb were recently considered slang, but they are
now standard usages. Bluebelly, Lucifer, and the bee’s knees have faded from popular use. Bones (dice), beat it, and cool seem destined
to remain slang forever. Chaucer used the first and Shakespeare used the second” (Flexner1986:xix).
•“No slang word can top ‘cool,’ which linguist Pamela Munro ranks as one of the longest-standing slang words on campus. ‘Cool,’ which
originated in New York jazz clubs in the 1930s, ‘has immense staying power,’ says Munro. ‘I don’t know any other words like that. I think
‘cool’ is just amazing” (Elie 2001).