Have you kept your slang fresh and current, or are you stuck in time?

When they annoy you use groovy.

A mix of both I guess. I’ve always used slang ironically though.

Is "the bomb" current?

What about "all that and a bag of chips"?

R3, as if!

How about 'that and a token will get you a ride on the subway.'

Cool beans is a sign that you are trying so hard to be cute or clever. I loathe its use.

If I say anything that smacks of being slang, I try to use a tone of voice that implies I know that it’s ridiculous for a 63 year old man to say such things. Or I throw in, “ — as the kids say!”

And how! I keep it up to date, I want to be a killer diller, a real solid sender.

Bae is so cringe. The Salt Bae must be horrified that he’s connected to such outdated cringefest.

OP. you're absolutely the bee's knees.

I'd like to take the word "awesome" and shove it down the throat of the next person that utters it in my presence.

Awesome, dude!

Dope

Sick

Bussy

Bonus Hole

Pregnant People

I actually teach linguistics (among other things) at a university and slang is one of the topics I've been covering with my students (mostly aged 18-25) this term. I asked them to come up with examples of slang they had started using in the last few years and was pretty pleased that I recognised a lot of it, mostly from online. There were terms like 'slay', 'yaaaas queen' 'werk it' and so on from RuPaul's drag race, but also a lot of words that people had picked up from online social media or gaming, like 'based', 'kinda sus', 'gettin salty'.

Probably the internet is changing the way we discover and interact with slang a lot. I also have a student in her sixties (doing another degree as a retirement project) and I asked her to think about the slang that was in use during her youth. Most of the words she remembered had fallen out of fashion, but as she explained them it was interesting that a lot of them came from TV shows that were popular at the time, whereas now new slang tends to be generated and disseminated via the internet just as much as via friendship groups, so older people probably have more of a chance of coming into contact with it.

Whatever!

'Cool' is probably the most obvious and well-known example of slang in English, and actually started to be used in the 1940s, coming into the language via African-American Vernacular English and the medium of jazz. It's interesting to note the connection between youth culture and historically oppressed groups such as black Americans, as well as the art forms associated with them. Interestingly the word 'woke' is about as old as that too, but it only really entered 'mainstream' language a few years ago, and has since mutated in terms of its semantics a lot since it got caught up in the culture wars.

Very interesting, R13!

Skeet is cum

NGL, my use of modern slang is pretty cringe. Deadass.

Datalounge has made me acutely aware of how sad it is when older people use slang that belongs to a different generation or ethnic group.

As in all the "what's the tea on Gaga?" type posts and other attempts by older gay white men to sound like Sassy Black Women™

"Fire" seems to be a big word right now with a certain type of overly trendy white person. One of the new associates uses it a lot (it means what you'd think-- an expression of appreciation or approval, e.g., "That new Drake song is fire") but I've noticed a few of the other Zoomers rolling their eyes when he does and when I discreetly inquired was told that it was appropriate for a middle schooler to use, not a 24 year old.

To which I replied "awesome!"

(No not really. Though it reminds me that "awesome sauce" is far more cringey than "cool beans")

Golly gee, I reckon it's stale, handsome fella.

Using the latest slang or catch phrase is someone trying too hard.

Fresh definitely. I'm a cool cat who has always been " with it" so to speak. I would never change my way of speaking to impress The Man.

I still use “right on” to agree with someone.

I mix it all up. I do it for my fun and not to be, um, cool.

I don't get bothered by young people having their own slang. But one thing that repulses me to no end is when I see writers in popular online publications use adolescent speak. Yuck.

As a 58 year old eldergay, I’d feel positively ridiculous if I uttered the new slang.

I struggle whether I should say a song dropped or was released. Dropped feels odd, but then do I sound like an old fogey for saying it was released?

"Tea" (ie, gossip, dirt, dish) is not new slang in the gay community--I believe it's been around for decades.

Just because RuPaul, Wendy Williams, and tragic wannabes like Andy Cohen have adopted it doesn't mean they originated it.

I'm an old geezer who likes the term "totes adorbs" (written, not spoken).

My slang is the ginchiest, Daddy-O!

Now, excuse me while I check out the gams on that tomato!

If you don't know the freshest slang, you better 23 skidoo.

What about "babe" or "baby" R15 - hasn't that been around forever too?

I am in my 40’s and use the word ‘awesome’ far too much. I am embarrassed by my use of the word, honestly. I need to come up with something more mature. I do say that a man is a ‘snack’ when he is hot. I got that from my 17 year old niece.

I hate "that's so cringe" instead of cringe-worthy or cringey. Not fond of "king" or "fire," either. I like "turnt" because it's a funny word.

I do like how the same word can have different slang meanings over time. To my mom, "tight" was drunk. In the 1970s, she asked if my high school friend, Barbara, was tight. I was befuddled until she explained. Twenty years later, a teen said my new Supra was tight. I said, "Actually, l have plenty of room" not knowing that he had just paid me a big compliment.

I will never be able to eliminate "awesome" and "cool" from my everyday vocabulary, but I did ditch "rad" and "bitchin'" decades ago.

I use brilliant occasionally and people think I'm British.

Bomb shizzle and groovy are about the only two slang terms I use. The word fuck will never fall out of fashion with me.

R32 Yes, babe/baby is another good example of a very prominent and long-lasting slang term, that one was probably mainly spread by pop music, though the OED has traced its use to 1901 or even before then. I'm not sure it has *quite* the prominence of 'cool' though, which has spread all over the English-speaking world and also managed to force itself into other languages such as French.

'Awesome' on the other hand marks one out to be unmistakably North American, it doesn't get used in the rest of the English-speaking world except for when we gently mock you amongst ourselves.

Oops, reposting this link re: baby

This ain’t the Mayflower, pops, but your son just came over in it. Klaxon! Klaxon!

23 Skidoo! Tippecanoe and Tyler too!

I still got it!

Does anyone else use AmazeBalls? Yeah, me neither. 🥸

I use slang that was popular years before I was born.

There was a guy I used to see at Trader Joe's. He was really good looking and nice. I wrote in my journal about him and described him as a -

DREAMBOAT.

I am a big “Whatever”fan, which is a tip-off to being a Gen Xer.

“Wicked”. Like “I’m wicked tired” or “look at that wicked old piece of crap that guy’s driving.”

R43 you're using 'Wicked' as a substitute for 'very', right?

In N Ireland 'Wicked' used to mean 'great', it's dated now but it's something my older cousins would have used as teenagers.

R44 yes, slang for very.

Here in the US it’s more of a New England thing.

Gee whiz!

I know all the latest slang because I teach middle schoolers but I only use it if I’m trying to make them cringe.

I haven't used "far out" in many, many years. It was better than "awesome", though.

"Watch it toot!" never gets old.

I ain't no L7 cuz I like to get jiggy with it, yo

I work with younger people (clients) and will use newer slang (repeat it) if that's the term they're using. For purposes of being understood.

I tend to use and like old slang, before my time, even. The other day, I said: "She grabbed the brass ring." A friend, who is my age, said what does that mean.

If you got a gun, you'd be a lot cooler.

Amaze balls is right up there with awesome sauce, R41. Blargh.

^as is "nothing burger"

Keep it pc

I'll take vanilla!

Fuck off Boris

Nowadays, we call it a “musky slut trench”

I watch a lot of French tv and cool is the most common slang word teens use. I noticed Meghan Markle used the word bummer on the Ellen Degeneres show. That would be a word from the late 60s, before she was born.

I use cool, bummer, bummed out, trippy and totally.

I also say neat and geez.

R44- Here is some Amazon WICKED for you.

All i know is they tried and tried but "ass-hat" never really took off.

I’m still waiting for fetch to happen.

I raised the roof the other day at work and wondered if the younger folk even knew what I was doing.

Bummer was big in the 80s/90s, with Gen X! Not just the 60s. I tend to use slang older than I am. One I haven’t seen mentioned yet that I use a lot: “that rocks!”

This whole thread is the cat’s pajamas!

Op = a square

GROOVY

Back in 1995 at the bars I was the BEES KNEES.

LOL @ R19 who thinks ‘fire’ is huge right now, no one has said that for years.

There are a lot of very uncool people in this thread, which I suppose is no surprise at all.

Isn't Wicked a Boston thing?

Does Datalounge's uncool-ness explain the many "[insert name here] is 🔥🔥🔥" threads, R69?

Still using the non-word “a lot”, eh OP?

Oh the irony - spell check just corrected “alot”, which it rarely does.

This whole thread is so cheugy! (Sorry, I’m in my feelings right now).

R34 Tight today means angry.

Have seen ‘lush’ being used on UK social media, generally by youngers, to ascribe their approval of eye catching landscape or food photography. Don’t know why this makes me feel physically ill. Probably because I’m ancient.

Stuck in time. Cool, awesome, wicked, righteous, gnarly and bummer are part of my lexicon and always will be.

R77 = Jeff Spicoli stan.

I hear young people just LOVE it when middle-aged and elderly talk to them in their hippest slang!

R68, ya thought ya were the bee's knees but I'd a told ya to skit-scat-skedaddle right outta the bar.

Whippersnappers! Get off my lawn!

[quote] All i know is they tried and tried but "ass-hat" never really took off.

It’s a PG way to say ass-hole. But since we don’t need to be PG here or most places, why would anyone still say it?

Nor will I ever be able to eliminate "awesome" and "cool". Everyone still seems to know what those terms connote.

At age 62, I will never be hip, no matter what. It's a loose-loose. But my voice WILL be heard, muthuh fuckuh. Professionally, am finding myself in the Twilight Zone years of my career, managing a large team of aged 20- and 30-something biotechnology scientists who are charged with finding new treatments for severe diseases. It is essential to communicate efficiently and without offending anyone. Which never happens, at least not at the same time. And I have to manage corporate upper management, too.

So, everyone gets a daily dose of my sassy bitchy tired bitter old queen Tourette's Syndrome mouth, which means irony and and sarcasm and mixing up slang and abusing metaphors. Add to it: only a few colleagues are native English speakers and they all earned PhD's, so anything I say comes back better, and it gets all up in my grille: "Data set be hella funky fresh on gamma hydroxy triethylone secretase monoclonal antibody therapy for six autoimmune conditions, Dr, C. yo." "Cool. Awesome. We're capturing some thirsty actuals and deliverables, see."

R8 "so cringe"

If you speak in this way, you have no room to criticize others.

[quote] It's a loose-loose.

It's lose-lose.

So funny, Dr. C R83. I'd be so tempted to just make slang words up and see if they come back at you.

I totally love the concept of a “Fit Check” and wish we had it when I was young. I use the whole _____ check all the time now.

Slang is unhelpful.

It is designed to obfuscate and exclude.

I hardly ever use the term "cringe" but I actually think it's one of the more inspired bits of contemporary slang.

The meaning is almost immediately clear to most native English speakers, and it can be used interchangeably (as slang) as a noun, verb, or adjective. It's a good reflection of the world we live in, where "cringe" words and behavior is everywhere.

I think it’s cute how many of you are attached to the word “awesome.” Both because I wouldn’t consider that slang so much as an adjective and it’s nice you encounter so many things you find awesome. Unless you’re being sarcastic? Is that it? Like how often is a situation/something awesome? Am I missing why that’s slang?

I avoid slang because I feel like older people (over 35 maybe?) using it sound desperate with the exception of poster above who will occasionally use the word “snack.”

I didn’t realize my emojis were outdated until recently. Apparently the younger people use different ones.

I know fer sure, that most gays in WeHo still talk like this👇🏻

I'm 32 and I get along with the slang of anyone down to younger twenties. The teens are starting to lose me though. Not in some terrible way - it just isn't working out. But the worst is always younger teens on the Internet; in other words, people that don't matter.

My slang? Hell, I don't even use the new name when the city changes a street's name.

So you don’t use Black Lives Matter Way or Martin Luther King Blvd or the Transient Highway?

I'm down with it, homey.

Bitchen-A, dude!

One of the best jokes on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Sue Ann is big sister to a black girl. Sue Ann tells Mary that "bad" really means "good". Mary says, "Sue Ann, your cooking is so bad."

Born in 74 and I finally quit saying rad about 10 years and now all the kids are saying it again

I still love ‘old school’ & ‘fly’, which is very old school

Like swear words: less is more

Who or what are these mutuals that they are chattering all about?

Test

[quote] Here in the US it’s more of a New England thing.

Wicked is more of New England but there was a period in the mid-late 90s when it got tied to skater culture. So if you were coming of age around then, it’s possible it was part of your vocabulary.

Also I think even Bill & Ted used it. Heinous! Bogus! Wicked! Excellent!

I have been known to call things wicked of wicked nasty on occasion.

Of the new-ish slang, I like “legit.”

I use “totes” when I want to annoy my kid.

I’ll never lose “awesome.”

hoebag and douchebag are my jam

I loathe the use of slang and idiom, especially snark, in articles and opinion pieces written for mainstream media. It’s symptomatic of a generation raised by Joss Whedon TV shows.

I struggle to finish articles about Dave Chappelle which mention “salty” “edge-lords”.

This eggplant 🍆 is goated bro

My slang is so fetch.

Love you, Dr C (R83)! Tell us more.

I'm old, and there are certain phrases that will never feel or sound comfortable coming out of my mouth, like "dope."

I do like "chill" and a few others I can't think of now. "Y'all" is ridiculous to me. And I do insist on using "groovy" as if I'll singlehandedly bring it back in fashion.

Y’all? It’s so common and widespread, it’s not even slang

I used the word “dissed” the other day without irony and I grossed myself out.

I used to enjoy hearing the latest slang words and finding them funny but then at some point it got on my nerves. It slaps, it’s a bop, she ate, he left no crumbs etc etc sound so stupid to me. I am truly feeling my age these days.

[quote]It's a loose-loose

* lose-lose

[quote] As a 58 year old eldergay, I’d feel positively ridiculous if I uttered the new slang.

HAW HAW HAW! But you do it so awfully well!

[quote] I loathe the use of slang and idiom, especially snark,

"Snark" itself is slang.

So many words are. That's what makes this discussion sort of pointless--you use slang whether you think you do or not.

[quote] I think it’s cute how many of you are attached to the word “awesome.” Both because I wouldn’t consider that slang so much as an adjective and it’s nice you encounter so many things you find awesome.

Of course it's slang. Gen Xers use it all the time to describe something very good; but does it really fill them with "awe"?

I say "boogie" a lot.

-- when I pick my nose, that's a boogie.

-- when someone is slow in front on me, I bark "Boogie!" real loud

-- my fave piano music is boogie-woogie

-- I yell "Get up and boogie" when I want to get down

Kids using "corny" these days really trips me up sometimes. That's a slang word my parents used, and I'm ridiculously old.

R83 reminds me of Jerry on "Rick & Morty" who spent one episode speaking in ironic urban patois.

"I'm looking for the weed whacker because these weeds be wack, yo."

I want to bring, "Foxy" back. It's such a great adjective.

This thread reminds me to try to use the British, "Brilliant" and "Mental" more. As well as the NorCal, "Hella".

I had an older colleague who just retired at 72 who always said "neat." It drove me crazy.

But people are often unaware of when they're using slang (whether in fashion or outdated) because they become so accustomed to using it.

And no one appointed anyone the Word Police, so correcting other people not to use it is ridiculous. You'll just offend them.

Social media is accelerating the use of slang

[quote] Kids using "corny" these days really trips me up sometimes. That's a slang word my parents used, and I'm ridiculously old.

I loved the word "corny"!

R111 Until about 10 years ago, it was something only Southerners and Black people said. Now it’s every other basic poster on Twitter, especially GenY and younger media types. “Y’all, my talented friend Emily has a new memoir out that will give you ALL the feels!”

“Y’all” effectively replaced “you guys.”

I was under impression that “neat” is such an old word it’s no longer considered slang.

I use y’all every other minute

The Nation has become southernized, culturally and politically. And black culture dominates current national culture. So, it makes sense that y’all is now popular nationally. The South is growing and powerful; the North is not.

Guess where r127 is from...

For non-Southern elders, "y'all" conjures this:

Morocco

I cringe whenever I listen to a podcast featuring people in their 30s and 40s (or older) who unironically throw around contemporary slang.

Looking at you, Pop Culture Happy Hour ...

Why? 30 something’s are often creating popular slang, via Tiktok, tv shows, media

At my age, if I said "y'all" I'd feel like Minnie Pearl.

It doesn't matter what teenagers say. And if you act like it matters, you're still uncool for trying to be hip with the kids. If they're saying things in their early twenties, then you should pay close attention because it might stick in the workplace. If they're saying things in their late twenties, it'll be something of a major norm for at least enough years from now that you should care if you want great intergenerational communication and connections.

"Y'all" is more of a thing today for several reasons, one of them being that it is pretty much gender neutral, and more people care about that today than before.

If you're two generations from someone (broadly speaking: you're Boomer and they're Millennial or younger, you're Gen X and they're Gen Z, you're Millennial and uh, having a chat with a pre-teen) you're going to have some difficulty no matter what you try. And vice versa, though at least some youth bother to pay attention or look up the history of slang (they'll know the uses of 'cool' more easily than seniors will even be aware of the newest teen slang). They just may not bother.

Don't ever completely abandon your own slang, because you never know when a new generation, subculture, etc may pick it up again. Millennials (20s-30s becoming only 30s-40s soon) are just starting to find some of their style outdated, but that doesn't mean Gen 'Alpha' or 'Beta' (whatever we call them) won't be Neo Millennials in ways.

I never used that cool beans shit. My slang is stale but it’s pretty original

I still say grody and gnarley to mean gross.

I still like "bitchin" to describe a song or car or whatever. Surfer slang is always at least somewhat cool, used judiciously.

Yes, I use it in meetings

Greg, your new hairstyle is lit!

Did you lose weight, Ginny? Your waist is snatched!

Great job Rick on the party for the work fam!

R118, I feel the same way about "Deez nuts." I'm surprised to hear younger people say this because my classmates used to say that in 9th grade- 20 years ago!

I try not to fixate too much on current slang; I wouldn't want to come off as cheugy.

Whenever I hear people use lots of slang terms, I always think of Stan Lee in the sixties:

I try to avoid slang. I don't think I've ever uttered an "awesome," for example, and that's a legitimate word, more or less applied in a proper way, just overused as filler to signify accord.

Slang such as "cool beans"? Never, that's trying to hard (and now it the purview of fat, frumpy, frauy Ginnys from Billing. I try to register no reaction to corny or dated slang of that sort; to do so might be to open an opportunity for more and worse offenses.

Because my speech is a little more correct, I fill in the void of slang with colorful description and occasional profanity used carefully to bring home a point.

I had a sister-in-law who loves slang and feeling like one of the cool girls bu her use of it. The problem was overuse, like a sitcom catchphrase, and further that her source was often young school kids. She taught me by way of bad example to avoid slang.

Stupid or clever, I accept it from very young people. They inevitably want to see the world as bee, requiring its own new language. But seeing adults too eager to adopt slang to appear au courant is a little sad. If a word skips in now and then, no harm, but when an adult uses "cute" for effect, I'm just embarrassed for them.

The adult parallel is in the workplace where it's always the sadder individuals who are the "early adopters," incorporating every new word that cascades down through their team and from HR communications. Pathetic.

The other day, "ham" came out of my mouth. I said someone was "going ham" (getting violent).

[quote] The other day, "ham" came out of my mouth. I said someone was "going ham" (getting violent).

I would have thought "going ham" meant they were about to have sex with Bonnie Mace.

There are two words that you must never use. One of them is [italic]swell[italic] and the other one is [italic]lousy.[/italic].

I try not to use slang. It's not very top drawer.

I figured this video was relevant to the thread.

This thread explains why so many people here are so miserable, bitter, and joyless

And archaic

Ar—archaic?

Your horse, turkey rustler!

Please don’t discuss your bathhouse disappointments at the dinner table. It’s Eskimo.

Does slang I've picked up from Datalounge count as fresh?

The Johnson’s daughter was seen at the pictures with a smoked Irishman!

He probably would, bejaber!

My slang vocabulary is like a snowball rolling down the hill, picking up leaves and sticks and dirt, and as I'm not young, it has evolved into a dirty slang avelanche. There are current phrases I don't use and some I love, but it's case dependent. I noticed that periodically, a slang Renaissance is happening, mostly when GenZ discovers an old movie. Also, there are words and phrases you just know will age badly. Example: the mid 2010's "epic fail". "Cringe" is the next candidate - at least that's my prediction. I love slang. It's creative and alive, and helps you connect with people who use a word just the way you do.

His parents probably turned up to Eton in a char-à-banc.

Miss Thing bobbed her hair, and boy does it look snakey!

Hawt!!

[quote]Back in 1995 at the bars I was the BEES KNEES.

More like the boars hoof

R141 is funny because I can spot many examples of slang in their comment.

Use the slang you want. A sixty year old doesn't really doesn't give two shits what a twenty year old is doing or saying. If it bothers you, go see a therapist or whatever.

“alot”, OP? Really?

Whaz up, Op? You're slingin it with the slang, homie. For real.

I use very little slang (as far as I'm aware, at least).

It's a confluence of things: having been brought up without the same technology as my peers (born in the early '90s but no real internet access until 2011); having been brought up by older parents and a grandmother born in 1914; my lack of contact with slang-using peers; insecurity which causes me to seek refuge in prestige speech patterns; defiance of trends; a desire to speak in a way that will be universally understandable while remaining nuanced.

Hot. Cool. I can't think of anything else.

163,You seem well rounded. And people shouldn't be lazy with expressing their words, but sometimes it just feels good to use slang.

Thank you, R165. I do use some slang, I'm sure. "Cool", for example, and other ones which are probably slang without my knowing it. I would just feel silly saying "bae" or "lit".

I frequently say fuck, does that count?

Fuck counts, darlin. For fuck's sake, I have no fucks to give. It all counts.

You bet your bippy, I have.

All the sads

I feel/felt seen

Cringe AF

BDF/BDE

Lowkey anything

Sentences that just stop, without a period/full stop [like this]

R43- or this

R53: and let us not forget ‘Totes Adorbs’, of about the same vintage

[quote] This thread explains why so many people here are so miserable, bitter, and joyless

No: it's because you're here, Seacow.

Bob is my uncle

If you're going to use "Y'all" then one should also use "Sho' nuff!" "Hush mah mouf!" and "honeychile".

If you are going to use Southern patois, use all or none.

If by dumbing down my speech to include frequent 'likes', 'literallys', and or referring to anyone as a (posturing) 'ally', 'cis', etc, then, NO, I do not stay current.

I'm in my 50s and will never stop saying "awesome." I don't care. I know it's dated and hokey. Also "whatever." I am Gen X to the core and I just don't care.

I agree about "cool beans." I've always hated it and it was always said by the worst, most annoying people. Wtf did that even mean?

Golly gee, OP. Gee Willikers No.

I sometimes say, “what’s up, home slice?” even though I know it’s dorky and I don’t know what it even means.

My current favorite lang addition is Klan Granny. Nothing sums up old frau white racist like Klan Granny.

OP, when I first read your headline, I thought you were asking about personal hygiene…it took me a full second to remember what slang was.

I’m digging this thread.

I truly love slang, and tried to keep up with the latest when I was younger. Now that I'm old, I don't use it at all in mixed company. I just use it with my partner when we're alone, usually ironically. It's like trendy clothes. They can be cute when you're young but always look absurd when you're old.

I'm afraid that by the time most DL posters (including me) become aware of a new slang term, it has already moved out of up-to-the-minute usage into being yesterday's slang. Because all of us live and die by our phones, I think that the creation of new slang and its transmission across the English-speaking world of the young is nearly instantaneous now - but that also means that new terms fall out of favor just as quickly as they arise and start to become popular. I'm pretty sure part of the purpose of slang was always to leave certain people out of the loop (usually an older generation than that of the speakers). If I worked in an inner city high school, I'm sure I'd have to stay up to date with current slang, if only out of self-defense. But I don't, so I don't.

I'm 73, hope to see 74. I say whateverthehell I want! And that includes "cool" and its emphatic "cool beans"; "awesome" (but never with "sauce"); "aces"; "cat's pajamas"; "groovy, baby"; "whatevah" (with a distinct Bayonne challenging tone); "fuhgeddaboutit"; "sweeet"; and "swell."

My preference is for film noir parlance---"gams"; "yeah, I get it, baby"; "come and get me, coppers"---but my few friends aren't simpatico.

Hahaha, r81! Hey! Maybe "slang" is what the kidz are calling their parts (Parts is parts! Remember that?) these days!

Oh, drat, I referred wrong again! I meant r181!

R83, This is for you, Bae: 🏆👏👏👏

R76, “lush” would be an excellent slang word for great, sexy, beautiful, awesome, cool, etc. I hope it gets adopted in America.

R168, well, in that case, I guess "[adjective] as fuck", often abbreviated to "af" counts. I say that, but I usually append "as the kids say" because I'm old.

I also find that I'm saying "creepy" a lot more than I used to. I don't know if that's slang, exactly, but it used to mean something that was eerie or scary. Now it's anything people think is a little "off". I hated that the previous meaning, which was useful, was co-opted, but now I can't seem to avoid saying it myself.

Most of the popular social media slang was already common in the Black community before White teens, and subsequently the rest of the world, got a hold of it and started echoing it. Therefore, almost no one is using "fresh slang."

A perfect example of this is the phrase "Ain't nobody got time for that." This became popularized by mostly White youth online after a video clip of a news interview with a Black woman went viral back in 2012. Before you know it, the phrase was being used almost everywhere by a completely different cultural and racial group. Meanwhile, Black people had been using the phrase for decades prior.

This same rule applies to terms like "bestie," "bae," "bye Felicia," "on fleek," "[x] as fuck/af," "don't get it twisted," "not today, Satan," "bitch-ass/hoe-ass/grown-ass (basically attaching 'ass' to any adjective), and several others that are common both on and off social media. Today, it starts in circles like Black Twitter/Insta/FB and then spreads from there. But this is not new. White people have routinely taken Black slang and then proceeded to make it corny enough for us to have to come up with some new shit for them to cornify once again (see: "The bomb"). It's exhausting, but keeps the creative juices flowing, I suppose.

^

[quote] 'Cool' is probably the most obvious and well-known example of slang in English, and actually started to be used in the 1940s, coming into the language via African-American Vernacular English and the medium of jazz.

Cultural appropriation and literal violence.

"We Real Cool."

I’m 44 but already feel I’m way too old to use young people slang. I remember a few years people started using the phrase “totes” and I wanted to inflict violence.

[quote]I sometimes say, “what’s up, home slice?”

OMG really? "What'S?" Wow.

Do you also overly enunciate "home slice?" Please tell me this is for comic effect.

I refuse, absolutely will not bring myself to do it, refuse under any circumstances, to address any other man or person as "bro."

Never. Would rather die. It's SO ridiculous to my ears, with exceptions for African Americans who are just speaking in the dialect they were raised in. But some white guy named Trevor who grew up with a lawn in front of his house? No fucking way.

Now, for guys under say, 30, I will allow it and try not to react. I get that language changes and that this is how kids talk these days, and if I have a reaction I'm probably going to be seen as the weird one.

But when someone my age does this I correct them. "I'm not your bro and I don't answer to that."

The word is DUDE. DUDE!

"The word is DUDE. DUDE!"

But you really want to use DARLING.

I may be 70, but I can still put some shizzle in my nizzle once in a while.

I still use "Swell" prolifically, does that make me fresh or stale?

I loved using "chouette" when I was studying French, because it was supposed to be kinda kitsch and old timey. (It means "cool", or great)

I keep my slang fresh and current, so that I can talk to the kids, homeslice!

[quote]I may be 70, but I can still put some [bold]shizzle in my nizzle[/bold] once in a while.

First of all, "nizzle" is another way to say "nigga" so you may want to refrain from saying that around Black folks if you're White.

Second, it originally came from Frankie Smith's song "Double Dutch Bus" which was released in 1981 when you were under 30, so that slang is just about right for your age group.

[quote] Because all of us live and die by our phones

You don't speak for me

Does it count when you use out-of-date slang ironically, daddy-o?

[quote] First of all, "nizzle" is another way to say "nigga" so you may want to refrain from saying that around Black folks if you're White.

I just call a spade a spade, and use spear-chugger.

Is "octoroon" slang or is it just another slur?

Same question for "raccoon."

TIA!

I would feel ridiculous using "fresh" (ugh) slang. I speak "current" in terms of awareness of the news of the times and integrating it into my discourse.

Stuck in time?

So binary.

R206, Once upon a time in my job I had to tell a visitor, an African-American man, that he had a phone call---from a Ms. Coon.

Awkward!

Slay.