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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 3, 2009 1:46:57 GMT
I wonder how some slang words last and others don't. It's also funny how we know slang that hasn't been used in a couple of generations.
We all know hot dogs, but why are feet (in American English) also called dogs sometimes?
A hand truck in American English can be a dolly. In Mexican Spanish it's a diablo (devil).
What about perfectly good slang that falls out of use? I loved it when my dad would describe someone as a "crumb bum".
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Post by bjd on Aug 3, 2009 14:38:22 GMT
One of the rare words that seems to survive over the years is "cool". We used it in high school, and it's still used, not only in English. French young people use it too.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 3, 2009 15:13:41 GMT
I use a technical forum that is mostly very young people. Many of them write it as "kewl".
Is "cool" the new "nice"? There's a word that must have been slang in its present meaning at one time, as the original meaning is nowhere near today's common usage.
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gyllenhaalic
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Post by gyllenhaalic on Aug 3, 2009 17:43:22 GMT
Don't make us wait, bix. What was the original meaning of "nice"?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2009 17:51:15 GMT
Younger generations tried a few variations of cool such as "fresh" but they did go back to cool.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 3, 2009 20:34:25 GMT
Oh, sorry Gyllen ~~ I wasn't trying to be coy (one of the original meanings!) I thought we'd all been hit over the head with "nice" by teachers trying to train us to speak correctly. I'm pretty sure that at least well into the 19th century "nice" mostly meant "precise" or "careful" -- as in, that's a nice distinction. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nice
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2009 22:52:43 GMT
A hand truck in American English can be a dolly. In Mexican Spanish it's a diablo (devil). In French it's a diable.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 3, 2009 23:07:10 GMT
Ahhh ~~ do you suppose it's because the handles look like horns?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2009 22:07:49 GMT
Maybe it just does the devil's work.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 4, 2009 22:10:51 GMT
in the devil's workshop?
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 7, 2009 0:21:14 GMT
far out and bitchin. First meant great or wonderful, I think. the second was surfer speak for cool!!! I still hear some people use them both.
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Post by tillystar on Aug 7, 2009 11:59:24 GMT
I realised I was well past slang it a few years ago when I was at the counter in Blockbusters and a boy of about 16 started telling me, very excitedly “them creps are tic, your creps are tic man”. I looked at him with a blank smile and the lovely girl behind the counter translated “he likes your trainers”. I haven‘t really heard creps again, but tic was around for a bit, meaning smart/cool; unless talking about a girl when it means fit. Oh yeah, that’s another one, fit for hot/goodlooking/attractive has been around for a good few years now... its kind of like a "proper" word now...
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 7, 2009 13:59:34 GMT
Don't know either of Tilly's first two examples. I thought "fit" was for anyone who was in good physical condition, regardless of attractiveness. Is the meaning cited above just UK or universal now?
The funny thing about "far out" was that it lingers in the sense of great, but also in the sense of eccentric or off kilter -- "I didn't like the play. It was too far out."
I can tell which native English speakers here have satellite or cable tv from the States by their use of newer phrases. "All good" raised its ugly head recently.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 9, 2009 13:08:57 GMT
Just hope it doesn't get translated into Spanish!
Diable is the normal word for a hand-truck (have never heard the world hand-truck) in French. I've heard people calling it a devil in English, but that is English immersed in French; there are many other such examples (not really "slang").
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 14, 2009 0:17:13 GMT
Who says "gunny sack" and who says "croaker (or croker) sack"? Different terms for the same thing, depending on where you're from in the US. What do people say in the UK?
Really, colloquialisms belong in this thread, as the line between slang and regional ways of speaking is thin.
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Post by tillystar on Aug 17, 2009 12:51:30 GMT
I think in the UK only, but universal within the UK. You can even call a person a "fitty" if they are very attractive, but that is still very slang.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 17, 2009 13:52:54 GMT
sucks ~~ is it part of the language now, in the sense of something being terrible?
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Post by imec on Aug 17, 2009 13:57:03 GMT
Who says "gunny sack" and who says "croaker (or croker) sack"? Different terms for the same thing, depending on where you're from in the US. What do people say in the UK? Really, colloquialisms belong in this thread, as the line between slang and regional ways of speaking is thin. Alls I know from gunny sacks is Johnny "carried his guitar" in one. Beyond that, no clue. Croaker - frog right? Or a sack used to carry frogs?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 17, 2009 14:05:59 GMT
So where do you keep your feed and seed, and how do you have sack races?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2009 14:09:12 GMT
Crokers were a kind of fish where I grew up.
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Post by imec on Aug 17, 2009 14:09:24 GMT
Never been able to round up enough sacks to race them - they's fast in these parts.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 17, 2009 14:30:05 GMT
Crokers were a kind of fish where I grew up. Actually croaker, from the sound they make. *snork* Imec!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 17, 2009 21:42:32 GMT
Yes, those croaking fish are weird.
We laughed as they croaked their agonizing death out of water. Southerners are cruel.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 17, 2009 22:34:45 GMT
*cue music from Deliverance*
Thought of another one similar to "sucks" -- freak or freak out. It's universally used and understood now, isn't it?
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Post by traveler63 on Aug 17, 2009 23:53:26 GMT
Croakers are may be frogs to you all, but to me it is: Then there are Croakies which fit on the each earpiece of your sunglasses so that you don't lose them: ;D ;D
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Post by lagatta on Aug 18, 2009 2:33:25 GMT
But imec, how would you call a "gunny sack" - I'd only heard that term in reference to the US South, but could understand that it was a rural reference - a burlap (hessian) bag used to store and ship crops and other agricultural products. Similar to the sandbags used in your infamous Red River floods.
In Québécois French, we'd call that "une poche" - une poche à patates - a potato sack - une poche de patates - a sackful of potatoes.
In Canadian English, I've usually heard it referred to either to its weight or what it was full of.
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Post by hwinpp on Aug 20, 2009 6:29:02 GMT
...; - une poche à patates - a potato sack - une poche de patates - a sackful of potatoes. ... Really? 'patates'?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2009 6:48:06 GMT
Officially in France 'patate' is the name of the sweet potato/yam. But in colloquial speech, it is indeed used for 'potato.'
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 9, 2019 20:49:36 GMT
Just rereading this thread, I realised how many new slang words have appeared in the last ten years.
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Post by questa on Oct 10, 2019 11:43:47 GMT
Did PHATT make its way out of Oz? meaning great, terrific."You got a phatt deal on that car"
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