Transformations of Slang over Time Connie Eble 1996

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, broseph Fratty, sorositute, 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 (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, 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, Tweak, trip, wig out, spazz, freaky, weird, trippin’, tripped, trippy, bug out, blaze up, Homeboy, homegirl/homey Dude, biffer, homeslice, boy, bro, dude, homeboy, girlfriend, lovey Chica, amiga, friendses, bro, peeps, dude, man, hun, love, girlfriend, homegirl/homeboy, girl, boy, bitch, BFF Male, any person Below standard dude Dude, guy, bro, man, son, the man, slack Weak, craptastic, lame, Shitastic, crap, lamo, bull, this blows, weak, lame, average, craptastic, poor, stupid, weak sauce, sub-par Hippie, granola, stoner, tree-hugger, pothead, crunchy Hippie, pot-head, stoner, tree-hugger, crunchy granola One who follows the granola lifestyle of the sixties 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” (Flexner 1986: 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 1930 s, ‘has immense staying power, ’ says Munro. ‘I don’t know any other words like that. I think ‘cool’ is just amazing” (Elie 2001).