Posted on 02/11/2006 6:14:22 AM PST by JusticeTalion
NEW YORK (AP) -- Groovy is over, hip is square, far out is long gone. Don't worry, though -- it's cool.
"Cool" remains the gold standard of slang in the 21st century, as reliable as a blue-chip stock, surviving like few expressions ever in our constantly evolving language. It has, despite the pressures of staying relevant and trendy, kept its cool through the centuries -- even as its meaning changed drastically.
How cool is that?
Way cool, say experts who interpret words and slang for their messages about society.
"Cool is certainly a charter member for the slang hall of fame," says Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of popular culture. "Cool just sits back and keeps getting used generation after generation and lets the whole history of the language roll off its back."
(Excerpt) Read more at poststar.com ...
Heh. True. Forgot about that ( too early. Neurons aren't all firing yet. )
Dude, that was an excellent post.
From: http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html
Here is some hardboiled slang...
A
Alderman: A man's pot belly.
Ameche: Telephone
Ankle:
(n) Woman
(v) To walk
B
Babe: Woman
Baby: A person, can be said to either a man or a woman
Bangtails: Racehorses
Barber: Talk
Baumes rush: Senator Caleb H. Baumes sponsored a New York law (the Baumes Law) which called for automatic life imprisonment of any criminal convicted more than three times. Some criminals would move to a state that didn't have this law in order to avoid its penalty should they be caught again, and this was known as a "Baumes rush," because of the similarity to "bum's rush."
Be on the nut, To: To be broke
Bean-shooter: Gun
Beezer: Nose
Behind the eight-ball: In a difficult position, in a tight spot
Bent cars: Stolen cars
Berries: Dollars
Big house: Jail
Big one, The: Death
Big sleep, The: Death (coined by Chandler)
Bim: Woman
Bindle
of heroin: Little folded-up piece of paper (with heroin inside)
the bundle (or "brindle") in which a hobo carries all his worldy possessions
Bindle punk, bindle stiff: Chronic wanderers; itinerant misfits, criminals, migratory harvest workers, and lumber jacks. Called so because they carried a "bindle." George and Lenny in Of Mice and Men are bindle stiffs.
Bing: Jailhouse talk for solitary confinement, hence "crazy"
Bird: Man
Bit: Prison sentence
Blip off: To kill
Blow: Leave
Blow one down: Kill someone
Blower: Telephone
Bo: Pal, buster, fellow, as in "Hey, bo"
Boiler: Car
Boob: Dumb guy
Boozehound: Drunkard
Bop: To kill
Box:
A safe
A bar
Box job: A safecracking
Brace (somebody): Grab, shake up
Bracelets: Handcuffs
Break it up: Stop that, quit the nonsense
Breeze: To leave, go; also breeze off: get lost
Broad: Woman
Broderick, The: A thorough beating
Bruno: Tough guy, enforcer
Bucket: Car
Bulge, as in "The kid had the bulge there": The advantage
Bulls: Plainclothes railroad cops; uniformed police; prison guards
Bum's rush, To get the: To be kicked out
Bump: Kill
Bump gums: To talk about nothing worthwhile
Bump off: Kill; also, bump-off: a killing
Buncoing some (people): Defrauding people
Bunk:
"Take a bunk" - leave, disappear
"That's the bunk" - that's false, untrue
"to bunk" - to sleep
Bunny, as in "Don't be a bunny": Don't be stupid
Burn powder: Fire a gun
Bus: Big car
Butter and egg man: The money man, the man with the bankroll, a yokel who comes to town to blow a big wad in nightclubs (see reference)
Button: Face, nose, end of jaw
Button man: Professional killer
Buttons: Police
Butts: Cigarettes
Buy a drink: To pour a drink
Buzz, as in "I'm in the dump an hour and the house copper gives me the buzz": Looks me up, comes to my door
Buzzer: Policeman's badge
More at http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html
That was back in the era of phonograph records. You know, those groovy black things?
Now with CDs and portable MP3 players all the rage it should be "pitty" or "bitty."
Dudette.
Slap my ass and call me Suzy.
It may be because "Groovy", "hip", "far out" are expressions of enthusiasm; they have to be shouted, or have an exclamatiom mark, or something. Whereas "cool" is, well, just cool.
A few years ago a couple of friends and I (as a joke) decided to start a rap group. We were "Curly Fry," "Lipton Ice," and "Skim Milk." Lipton Ice later decided that "Jack the Rapper" was a better name (and really, it was).
Fortunately, the group never got off the ground. It never even got onto the runway. Actually, it blew up in the hangar.
Actually, I hear young girls calling each other "dude." It now transcends gender, I guess.
That's the answer I've often heard from folks 10 years younger.
Kids of the age to actually misuse the word don't respond,
they only look at me like I'm not hip.
I'm thinking Zero Kelvin ...
Still, nobody does slang like the English. I mean, "'ow's yer fathuh?" And "Bob's yer uncle." And we won't even start on the rhyming stuff ...
"Ever see the Iraq video of a bunch (30 or so) enemy troops getting blasted to bits by a bomb dropped by a US pilot?
The enemy gets scattered like bowling pins and one can hear over the radio the pilots comment (a good Beevis and Butthead imitation)...."AAAAWWWWWWWWWW DDDuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudddeee"
Absolutely hysterical even in light of the killing of others."
Got link?
Neat, that's really copacetic.
Hey, I see a word they missed in those "B's":
The Business (or just Bizz).
They use to use "the business" on 'Leave it to Beaver' a lot. Like: "Gee, Beav! Don't wear that! You don't want the guys to give you the business"...
Our troops have *rad moves*.. that is all I know about the knarly topic. ;]
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