Slang is a type of language that consists of words, and phrases, that are regarded as very informal.
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“Buff” and “Nurf” from video games etymology
In video games when the makers increase the power of something it is sometimes refereed to as a buff. If they decrease the power of something it is called a nurf or a de-buff. This also applies to ...
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How did the word “beaver” come to be associated with vagina?
What is the etymology of the word beaver as it relates to a woman's vagina?
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Is “jux” a real word?
Urbandictionary.com says it means:
To rob. Verb. Present tense of juxt.
It has 342 votes but I can't find any evidence of actual usage on a google or COCA search.
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Meaning and origin of “That dog don't hunt”
Is That dog don't hunt an American slang expression? What does it mean exactly and where does it originate? If possible, please give some examples.
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Origin of the expression “Get stoned”
My daughter asked me a question in the car the other day, and I didn't have an answer. She asked me about the origin of the expression "get stoned" (i.e. with regards to drug use), and how it might be ...
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456 views
Is “girls” a suitable complementary term to go along with “guys”?
Trying to keep the discussion about language and meaning, and hopefully not getting socio-political, is "girls" a valid counterpart for "guys", as in "guys and girls"? The intention is to describe a ...
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What is the reasoning behind the “urban” slang word “tight” coming to mean “cool/great/slick”?
How and why did the word tight come to be appropriated in this sense, for example as in, "That car is tight, cuh!" ? I mean, one easily extrapolates from the "normal" definition to understand why ...
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Why do we “beat seven bells out of” someone?
To thrash someone within an inch of his life is sometimes referred to has beating seven bells out of him. But why should seven be the number chosen? This source here acknowledges the phrase exists but ...
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Having some kind of grit
What does the expression, "You have got some kind of grit," mean?
Is it sarcastic, like being a bit crazy?
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Why does “I got 'busted' for smoking weed” mean 'caught'?
How did the word 'busted' morph into a synonym for 'caught'?
Busted, down on Bourbon Street,
Set up, like a bowling pin.
Knocked down, it gets to wearin' thin
They just won't let you be....
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Does “way too long” mean “a lot too long” or “slightly too long”? [closed]
Does way too long mean a lot too long, or slightly too long?
Does way too stand for a huge or small measure?
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Why do we say a check “bounced”?
A "bounced check" is a check that cannot be processed by the bank because the party who wrote the check has insufficient funds to cover the amount of the check. (To my understanding it is a non-formal ...
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Origin of “to be into [someone] for [a sum of money]”
"He's into me for fifty quid" means "He owes me fifty pounds". It's common enough in the UK, but I'm fairly sure I've heard it in American movies too (bucks or grand there, not quid, obviously), so I ...
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Origin of “son of a gun”
Growing up there was a friend of my family who would often use son of a gun as a slang term. For example,
And that son of a gun has a 300hp motor in it.
Like any father, my Dad wanted to raise ...
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What is the meaning and etymology of 'scut' from 'scut work'?
What is the origin of scut in scut work?
According to Merriam-Webster,
scut work: routine and often menial labor
Probably from medical argot, scut meaning 'junior intern'
First known use: circa 1962
...
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Question regarding the usage of “Bang”
Can anyone shed some light on the origin of the use of the word "Bang" to imply a positive adjective?
For example, here are three colloquial phrases which use the word bang to lend strength to the ...
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Where and how is Geil used?
The urban dictionary writes:
GEIL (Guy-el) The best colloquial
word ever established by the German
language. It has slowly assimilated
itself into English speaking culture,
particularly ...
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Why do we “talk turkey”?
Some customers and I started to talk turkey over a programming requirement the other day, meaning that all parties involved were starting serious negotiations or discussions.
Naturally I wondered why ...
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Meaning of “catch you on the flip side”
I received an email from a coworker, and we're not that friendly. Actually, we're not friends at all, just two good colleagues. In his email, he wrote as his last sentence
Catch you on the flip ...
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Police in general as “feds”
There are many slang terms for the police, and one which has recently been in the news in the UK is "the feds", as in
if you see a brother... SALUT! if you see a fed... SHOOT!
Cassell's ...
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2answers
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Where does the slang adjective “peng” come from?
I read on Cambridge Dictionaries’ About words blog that peng is a British slang adjective meaning pretty, very attractive. I am told by a coworker that it is of Caribbean origin, but have no more ...
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How should one use “awesome” today? [closed]
Lately I have been hearing the word awesome used in many places. I'm trying to figure out how it is used. It has already been discussed on this site a bit. See
"When I'm sad, I stop ...
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Is kickassiness an accepted word?
I have been looking for a word that means kickassiness, but haven't come across one. Is this an accepted word? If not, what word can be used in its place?
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What is the origin of the term “screw” in the case of a prison guard?
The term screw can refer to a prison guard. An example of this is seen in the folk song The Catalpa:
So come all you screw warders and jailers
Remember Perth regatta day
Take care of the rest of your ...
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How common is “fugly”?
"Fugly" is a vulgar slang adjective as far as I know, and I wonder how common it is, and how do people react when they hear that word. Native speakers are appreciated if they share their opinions.
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What does the word “hacking” or “hacker” come from? [closed]
Is there a history behind the word "hacker" and "hacking"?
Could it have anything to do with "hashing" i.e. using a hash function?
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Where does the phrase “No skin off my teeth/nose” come from?
The phrase "it's no skin off my nose/teeth" is generally used to mean that something isn't much of a risk/concern. But where does it come from? Specifically with respect to teeth. What is tooth skin?
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What does the punctuation “//” mean?
What does the punctuation "//" mean? For example:
I think I owe myself a THWACK.
//ashamed
... //run
... //head down
I heard this is related to the comment in the programming ...
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3answers
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Why is “ass” considered obscene?
Spam filters replace obscene "Ass" for "butt"
Meanwhile, in literature, newspaper articles, forum posts, sayings, proverbs, etc. I am encountering many more expressions with ass but not with butt. ...
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Was there textspeak before texting?
2b |! 2b, < = ?
With such a rich history of inventive writing and puns, it seemed bizarre to me that the idea of writing in txtspk would be a new one. I found a brief degree of truncation in ...
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Origin of “I can haz”?
I see some domain names have "icanhaz" in them. I think there must be some story behind it. Do you guys know?
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Where does “can't be arsed” come from?
I've only heard it from Kiwis, but I am told it's used in other countries as well: "I can't be arsed" means (IIUC) "I can't be bothered". Where could the expression come from? It's the only ...
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Why does one run around like a blue-arsed fly?
I have been a bit busy recently; too busy to give this website the attention it warrants. In fact, I said to myself yesterday, I have been running around like a blue-arsed fly.
I stopped to think: ...
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Officer's shoulder bars - what are they?
I have read one historical joke, that during the Civil War Officer's shoulder bars were called "pumpkin rinds". Where are these mysterious shoulder bars from? I can find only shoulder boards or straps ...
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All up in my grill?
Is the phrase
[all] up in $POSSESSIVE_PRONOUN grill
which is synonymous with the figure of speech
in one's face
an automotive metaphor?
If so, would it be more correct to spell the last ...
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Why abbreviation for “Definition” as “Def^n” (math context)
I've seen in math and physics lectures delivered in English, that people use to abreviate the commonly very used word "Definition" by "Def n"(Def superscript n). What's the meaning of this n? That is, ...
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Is there any connection between Polari and Nadsat?
While reading the Wikipedia article on Polari, I was struck by the similarities between Polari words and these used by the Droogies in Clockwork Orange. Does anyone know if there are any links between ...
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Sing Song - nursery poem definitions
My wife was reading me this poem for our kids' homeschool
A city plum is not a plum; A dumb-bell is no bell, though dumb; A statesman's rat is not a rat; A sailor's cat is not a cat; A soldier's ...
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What's a word that can mean both “good” and “bad”? [closed]
I've recently read about a word that was defined both as "shockingly good" and "shockingly bad", but I can't seem to recall the word. Does anyone know what it is? As far as I can recall, it was a ...
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Usage and confusion on “geek” and “hipster”
Within the circle I regularly communicate with the meaning of these words is commonly understood:
Geek - someone with an obsessive interest in one field.
Hipster - someone who ironically apes geek ...
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What is the origin of “rock” meaning “utilize”?
Urban Dictionary example:
"you can have the bed, I'll rock the couch"
Earliest example I can think of:
RUN D.M.C. "It's Tricky" -- "It's tricky to rock a rhyme . . . "
Now it seems ...
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What's the origin of “throwing someone under the bus”?
What's the origin of the phrase "to throw someone under the bus" or "so-and-so threw me under the bus?" (in the sense of betrayal)? It seems like a very specific phrase not to come from some specific ...
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Usage of hain't
According to Dictionary.com, ain't has two meanings:
Nonstandard except in some dialects. am not; are not; is not.
Nonstandard. have not; has not; do not; does not; did not.
When I ...
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How to spell “the youzhe” as in the abbreviation of “the usual”
The usual is a common reply to what will you order? or what are you up to?. It is often abbreviated, in Canada, to the first syllable of usual, as in the youzhe. How would you spell this abbreviation? ...
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A negative person [closed]
What is the best word that I could use to describe a person that seems to attract negative situations? Every time I am around him/her, something bad always seems to happen. Is there a word to describe ...
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Origin and meaning of the American 1960s slang phrase, “bread is”
I am trying to answer a question from a library patron who remembers the entire phrase, "bread is" that she and her friends used in the 1960s. She accepts that "bread" was used for money or "dough," ...
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What does it mean to “drink a lot of haterade”?
A friend recently posted on their Facebook status that she has "apparently been drinking lots of haterade lately"[sic]. Does this mean other people are annoyed with her or she's annoyed with other ...
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Meaning of “flip the script”
I’ve heard the phrase “flip your script” or “flip the script” in various hip-hop songs. What does it mean?
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word for false nostalgia
Is there a word to describe nostalgia for things that never existed? For example, a 1950s-style diner is supposed to reconstruct a cultural archetype, but there never existed such a diner. John Wayne ...
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What does “flustrated” mean, and is it a word?
What does the flustrated mean? Is it even a word? I am using Lingea Lexicon and it doesn’t know this word, but the Internet is full of it.
I find myself hating people for using it both in English ...
