Currently cool slang you will not touch

[mollyringle]

What is the local currently-hip slang word or phrase that you refuse to use?

I'm not saying it has to offend you (like calling stupid stuff "gay") - just something you don't use, because it isn't you.

For me, here in northern California, it's "hella." (Both as "very" and as "a lot of": "That test was hella hard." "He got hella bruises from snowboarding.") I thought it was extremely bizarre when I first heard it. I'm getting used to it now, but I still don't use it myself. I would feel like a poser if I did; like one of those sad teachers trying to sound cool. Even though I'm not exactly ancient.

Anyway. What is it in your area?

Comments

[grass-stained.livejournal.com]

hi. my name is amy. I added you to my friends list after reading your Two Towers parody. Just wanted to say hello, since I've posted twice in your journal now and you might be thinking I'm just a random weirdo, but no, I'm actually a fan of your humorous Lord of the Rings posts. Which might still make me a weirdo, but hopefully a less random one. Moving on...

anything with "izzle" inserted into it. for instance, take the word "sweet," either as the kind of taste or as something that is cool or otherwise good. sweet + "izzle" = swizzle.

last time I checked, "swizzle" was relative to what you use to stir coffee... and yet, entirely too many people around here (central Florida) are saying things like that. "Swizzle." "Shizzle" (corruption of "sure"). I can't think of any more examples; generally when people say that I look at them like they've lost their mind and tune out whatever they said.

[darthbeckman.livejournal.com]

I've lived in Northern California my whole life, so I've grown up hearing that word hella times. I never use it though. In fact, when I do try to use it, people look at me just as you described, as if I'm the teacher trying to be cool and reach out, lol.

[aziraphale.livejournal.com]

You know, I've quite a few friends from your neck of the woods. I have, over the past few years, gotten quite used to "hella." I think it's silly, but hey, whatever. What really bugs me is the variant "hecka," used, I gather, by people who wish to say "hella" but refuse to utter the pseudo-curse "hell."

Down here, the phrase that I won't use is "wrecks shop." As in "My car is fantastic. It wrecks shop" or "Jet Li is such a badass! He wrecks shop!"

Now, I don't actually find anything wrong with the phrase, but find it exceedingly silly. I have also only heard it uttered by a couple of people and therefore can't vouch for its origins or whether or not they were just making something up and pulling my leg.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

my students say, "it's mad brick out, yo."

translation: It's very cold outside.

how BRICK became cold, i do not know.

[bexone.livejournal.com]

It's not so much "current" as "permanent," but from New England I give you:

"Wicked," as either "cool" or "very"

With the variant "wicked pisser" (piss-ah if you're doing the accent,) which is just more so.

Sets my teeth on edge.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It's not slang, really, just dialect.

Here in Memphis it's never "Where do you live?" It's "Where do you stay?"

I stay in hotels or with my parents. I LIVE in my house. I dislike the implied impermanance.

Any of the black slang, including def, fly, etc. I am far too white to use it and have it sound right.

I won't use "all that" either as in "She's all that."

[celtic4.livejournal.com]

Lived in Central or Northern California my whole life...the current words are "mad" and "sweet". ^^;

As in, "He's got mad skillz, yo" and "Wow, that's a sweet car." ^^;;;

And I have heard "hella," well, hella times. :p

[joemorf.livejournal.com]

I won't give anyone "props."

I don't care how good your performance was... I'm going to congratulate you, not give you props.

If it is a really good performance, I'll tell you what I liked about it in detail, but I won't give you "mad phat props."

~j

[poopsmoothie.livejournal.com]

'tight', as in 'Yo, dat shit is tight!' Used in the same ways 'cool' is.

[raethe.livejournal.com]

I've heard oodles of the little kiddies roaming around central pa hicksburg using "wiggidy" for cool. Those ebonics-lite mennonites have a lot to answer for.

[tigmode.livejournal.com]

Proof that I am old and uncool: I cannot stand anything that even remotely resembles ebonics or hip hoppery. It's appalling sounding. The worst of it is every other syllable has "knowhat'msayin'" stuck to it. UGH.

I am guilty of "wicked". I'm from western New York but we say that too.

[joemorf.livejournal.com]

I just remembered another one: Off The Hook.

Off the hook currently seems to mean something really wild and fun, or really good - hard to tell exactly.

Off the hook used to mean "out of trouble" - like when Fish asks Sonny Corleone, "Mike, can you get me off the hook?" when he knows he is gonna get whacked.

How did this phrase get misappropriated? I hate it when that happens.

~j

[senninha.livejournal.com]

Assbandit (like asshole of bastard)

Not offended by it, but I don't want to come off sounding like a try-hard

[(Anonymous)]

I picked up "wicked" while I was in New England, but I don't use it seriously. I'm totally goofing when I use it.

For me, it's "awesome." It's not a regional thing for me, it's within the culture of the youth ministry I worked with for 10+ years (Young Life). I think it's over-used (mostly by the volunteer leaders and staff), but I'm guilty of using it still.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hi Amy - don't worry, no random weirdo-ness assumed. :)

We certainly don't have the "-izzle" thing out here. Though now that you mention it, there were a couple people in chat rooms who kept using "shiz" (I guess for "sure"), and yeah, I thought they were very strange.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I think there's an age cutoff of about 19, for being able to use it without looking pathetic. heh.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

hahaha..."wrecks shop"? That's hilarious. Definitely new to me. Amazing what a difference of a few hundred miles can make.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hmm...frozen solid like a brick, maybe? Not sure. Usually best not to analyze these too closely.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I actually do use "wicked" sometimes (usually in the phrase "wicked cool"), and have no idea where I got it since I've never been to New England. TV or movies, perhaps.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Interesting stay/live usage...

And, yes, it's usually rap- or hiphop-ish slang that I sound silliest using. Similarly for "phat". I really am far too white to pull it off...even though, as a linguist in training, I know that's a completely arbitrary judgement. Fact remains people would look at me funny. :)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hehe... I don't use "mad," but I do use "sweet". As pseudo-skater-kids in Oregon we said "sweet" all the time, and it recently got resurrected.

that's hella interesting

[(Anonymous)]

The first time I heard "hella" was on South Park. I forget what the show was about, but Cartman kept saying "hella" and the other kids got really annoyed. It was very funny.

I hate it when people - and newspapers and major media! - say a politician is being "dogged." I think traditionally the word for this type of thing was "hounded." Somehow the hip-hop lingo of, like: "yo, home, you doggin' that" has worked its way into to the vernacular of the news-pretty-boys who are trying to be hip. It sounds really weird to me.

Here's my post on the topic (http://nikita_demosthenes.blogspot.com/2003_01_19_nikita_demosthenes_archive.html#87688336).

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

hahah...this thread is becoming quite entertaining.

"Mad phat props," indeed. I have heard it, but also would not use it.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

"Tight," exactly. Lots of my linguistics students wrote that down as a synonym for "cool," on a slang question in homework. Cannot see myself using it.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

*snickers at idea of Mennonite children saying "wiggidy"*

Isn't that what the Kriss Kross kiddies said? (Like, 12 years ago?)