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Remember "white man speaks with forked tongue"?

In a recent online presentation, editors and researchers working on a first-of-its-kind dictionary of African American English gave a status update on the project. As academics explained their various methodologies, slides displayed behind them showed words that are more often associated with Twitter than Oxford: “Bussin,” virtual attendees were told, means impressive or tasty, while a “boo” is a lover. Those were two of the first 100 words that the Oxford University Press said it had prepared to include in the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, the hopeful result of the three-year research project announced last spring.

If you have heard a group of Gen Z talking and thought, “What does that word even mean?”, you are probably not part of the generation. You are either a millennial or older. Don’t worry—you are not alone and being old is a natural part of life. Similar to the generations before them, Gen Z communicates with specific slang and phrases. It can be tough to figure out what they mean. Here are some of the most common Gen Z slang terms you may not know. 1. Sus It is a short term for “suspicious”, typically meaning that something is...

National Simp Day – June 3, 2022 United StatesNational Simp Day is celebrated on June 3 every year. It is an important day that aims to break the stigma currently surrounding the term ‘simp.’ For instance, many men are called ‘simps’ when they show sympathy towards another person. The term is derogatory since it implies that the man wants to sleep with a particular woman. Women, on the other hand, are called ‘simps’ when they go all out for a man and their love is not reciprocated. The different meanings it holds based on gender are misogynistic and end up...

SNIP Below, the terms that create the most confusion among the uninitiated (ahem, parents), per digital jigsaw puzzle platform I’m a Puzzle who crunched the numbers to come up with the country’s most Googled slang terms. Unsurprisingly, many of these words come from social media (“FYP” refers to the page a person is shown on TikTok with videos the app thinks the user will enjoy based on its algorithm, and a “Finsta” is a fake Instagram account…something your kid probably definitely has.) Other terms (like “bae“ and “woke“) come from African American Language (AAL), which as Ellen Gutoskey points out...

There's only one correct way to spell it, y'all"Bless your heart," "Too big for his britches," and "Well, I s'wanee," just to name a few of our favorites. But the best-known word in the Southern vernacular is probably our most-loved pronoun: y'all. A contraction of "you" and "all," as defined by our Mason Dixonary, "y'all" is used when addressing or referencing two or more people. Though "y'all" is inherently plural, in the instance of addressing a larger group of people, "all y'all" is more of a casual, slang phrase that's sometimes used. Like how all soda is called Coke and...

Among the 600 new words and definitions are "supposably" and "finna." When Dictionary.com tweeted out some of the new words, those two additions racked up thousands more quote-tweets than any of the other words. Dictionary.com says the adverb "supposably" means "as may be assumed, imagined, or supposed." It describes "finna" as "a phonetic spelling representing the African American Vernacular English variant of fixing to."

The seventies get a bad rap. When people talk about the decade, they focus on all the embarrassing stuff like Pet Rocks, Watergate, shag carpeting, and disco music. Sure, there was a lot about the 70s that was cringe-worthy. But it also had some of the most colorful, over the top slang of the 20th century. And if you don’t believe us, well baby, you can just keep on truckin. Put on your best polyester suit, crank up the Bee Gees on your 8-track player, and revisit some of the best worst slang of the Me Decade. On the other...

I was recently on a hike with my son's Naval Jr. ROTC unit. I spent a lot of time chatting with my son's instructor, a retired Naval Commander. Normally, when I hear slang or jargon that I am unfamiliar with I am not too shy to ask what it means. However, if one understands the context of what such terminology means then there is no reason to actually stop a conversation. Anyway. the commander used a phase, I believe it meant to do what is absolutely the least possible to acquire an objective or to achieve rank? I believe the...

A top Russian official has accused the US of "childish tantrums" in its response to the annexation of Crimea, and suggested that American politicians practise yoga and watch sitcoms to help chill out. "Clearly, the US leadership is really annoyed, and cannot come to terms with the new situation, which has arisen in large part due to the deliberate line taken by the US and its allies in Europe to prepare anti-Russian forces to take power in Ukraine," said deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, in an interview with Interfax. "Trying to demonstrate how unhappy it is with the exercise of...

On the weekends, it's fun to go to a red onion and get dixie-fried, but try not to run into a used-to-bePlenty of phrases from the first self-described hipster generation remain a part of modern conversation: People still get bent out of shape, annoying people bug us and muscular guys are still built, just to scan the b-words. Here are 26 words and phrases that don't get much use today, but are worth sneaking into conversation. 1. A shape in a drape A well-dressed person. "Usually she just wears jeans, but she sure is a shape in a drape in...

British people have long bemoaned the gradual encroachment of Americanisms into everyday speech, via Hollywood films and sitcoms. Now, "Britishisms" are crossing the pond the other way, thanks to the growing online popularity of British media such as Harry Potter, Downton Abbey and The Daily Mail. For example, BBC News reports that "ginger" as a descriptor of a red-haired, freckly person has shot up in usage in the United States since 1998. That's the year the first Harry Potter book, with its Weasley family of gingers, hit store shelves. The trend shows up in Google ngram searches, which track the...

What Kind of American Accent Do You Have?November 24, 2011 Xavier Kun To most Americans, an accent is something that only other people have, those other people usually being in New York, Boston, and the South. And of those other people, half of the ones you meet will swear they "don't have an accent." Well, strictly speaking, the only way to not have an accent is to not speak. If you're from anywhere in the USA you have an accent (which may or may not be the accent of the place you're from). Go through this short quiz and you'll...

Heard of bobowler, baffies, bishybarnabee, tittermatorter? Well, these are some of the weirdest words used in Britain. For the first time, the British Library is keeping track of the nation's regional words and has developed a word bank of around 4,000 entries. The words were submitted by visitors to the British Library in central London or to a series of events at provincial libraries as part of its Evolving English exhibition. According to experts, many local dialects died off in recent decades, squeezed out by the increasing standardisation of the language thanks to population mobility as well as the influence...

Australians add new words to dictionary By Nick Squires In Sydney  Last Updated: 1:20pm GMT 10/01/2008       They gave the world budgie smugglers, sanger, arvo and barbie*, but Australians have shown themselves to be endlessly inventive, with a new collection of words and phrases added to the rich repository of Strine. The country’s biggest online dictionary, Macquarie, has included the 85 words or phrases in its latest online edition and wants Australians to vote for the one they consider most influential or apposite.   Toad juice anyone? They are grouped in 17 categories, from business to travel, and...

Growing up Irish in Queens and on Long Island, Daniel Cassidy was nicknamed Glom. “I used to ask my mother, ‘Why Glom?’ and she’d say, ‘Because you’re always grabbing, always taking things,’” he said, imitating his mother’s accent and limited patience, shaped by a lifetime in Irish neighborhoods in New York City. It was not exactly an etymological explanation, and Mr. Cassidy’s curiosity about the working-class Irish vernacular he grew up with kept growing. Some years back, leafing through a pocket Gaelic dictionary, he began looking for phonetic equivalents of the terms, which English dictionaries described as having “unknown origin.”...

PRIESTS, PROSTITUTES, psychologists, cops, jazz musicians, poker players. Every trade has its jargon and "insider lingo." ... ..."Embrace the suck" isn't merely a wisecrack; it's an encyclopedic experience rendered as an epigram, gritty shorthand for "Face it, soldier. I've been there. War ain't easy. Now deal with the difficulty and let's get on with the mission."... ...Dynamic truth: Basically means "this is the plan when my supervisor gave it to me, but change is already in the works."

June 11, 2006 Save the Sharks By Kathleen Parker The poor shark can get no rest these days. Everyone is jumping him. For those whose shark metaphors stalled on "Jaws," "jumping the shark" refers to the moment when something, usually a dramatic production, runs - or strays from - its course. Coined by Jon Hein (jumptheshark.com), the phrase evolved from the episode of "Happy Days" where the show's writers, apparently out of ideas, had Fonzie literally jump a shark while water skiing. It was so over-the-top that the show was deemed dead by those who monitor such things. People are...

Finally!!! There is a way fo` those of you uptight, prehistizzles conservatizzles ta be able ta reach tha hip hop generizzle … It’s called Gizooglizzles. Translation: Finally!!! There is a way for those of you uptight, prehistoric conservatives to be able to reach the hip hop generation … It’s called Gizoogle.com. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

1. Grachki (grach'-key): Chicagoese for "garage key" as in, "Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?" 2. Sammich: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef; it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun. 3. Da: This article is a key part of Chicago speech, as in "Da Bears" or "Da Mare" -- the latter denoting Richard M. Daley, or Richie, as he's often called. 4. Jewels: Not family heirlooms...