MetaChat - Favorite Slang You'd Like To Resuscitate?

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29 April 2009

Favorite Slang You'd Like To Resuscitate? →[More:]

I got to thinking this a.m. about all the great slang we used to say but don't anymore. Stuff like "grooving" from the 60's and 70's ala "several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a pict. (Pink Floyd Umma Gumma album song, fwiw).

"Grooving" sounds like fun.

Also, old-timey folks at the turn of the century used to say "Well dog my cat!" which is unbearably wonderful and pan-species-ist.

Swing hipsters of the 40's used to come out with "cut the foy foy!" meaning, cut the bullshit.

Your faves? Let's re-viralize for the good of the nation.

post by: Lipstick Thespian at: 08:42 | 42 comments

"Vo-dee-oh-doe" - meaning "hotness".

posted by Joe Beese 29 April | 09:09

"far out!"

Spent my teenage years saying that. A lot.

I still say "groovy" from time to time.

posted by flapjax at midnite 29 April | 09:11

And as far as "grooving", lots of musicians still use that to describe music, like: "it was grooving".

posted by flapjax at midnite 29 April | 09:13

Bitchen.

No wait, I use it all the time. . .consider it back from the grave.

posted by danf 29 April | 09:38

I've never really let go of the word "nifty."

posted by BoringPostcards 29 April | 09:42

By cracky!

posted by The Whelk 29 April | 09:44

I love when we're groovin' together.

posted by box 29 April | 09:55

DAGNABBIT!

posted by jonathanstrange 29 April | 10:03

I've been saying "dang me" lately.

posted by richat 29 April | 10:17

I say nifty all the time, along with its cousins far out("fuuuuuuuuuu...aaaaaaar out")and spiffy. My FwB loved my use of "spiffy" so much he's stolen it and made it into something sexual, which is slightly disturbing.

I adore it when I'm talking to gomi & she says words I haven't heard in decades...eg deffo & dunny. In this vein, I'd like to bring back some 70s/80s Aus slang. Dag is a brilliant word. Drongo. Galah. I'm going to have to find a copy of Puberty Blues & start talking like that, thought I fear Ro will call Social Services and have me committed. She already makes fun of me when I say "crikey" or "blimey" which I also often say non-ironically.

Shit, am I officially old now?

posted by goshling 29 April | 10:31

Shut the front door!

posted by Specklet 29 April | 10:46

I need immediate translations of drongo, dag and galah.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 29 April | 10:57

I say that sometimes, Specklet.

I nominate "do what?"

posted by rainbaby 29 April | 11:01

Just give 'er !

posted by rollick 29 April | 11:10

"Jive turkey" and just "jive." Man is that one useful. "He just gave me a bunch a jive." "You can't trust those jive turkeys."

All the 30s-40s Cab Calloway hipster nonsense.

posted by Miko 29 April | 11:29

I do say "groovy" at times, but I've heard "Well, butter mah biscuits" used to good effect...

posted by lleachie 29 April | 12:15

Drongo : Idiot, moron

Dag : Literally, a lump of shit that hangs off an animal's (typically a sheep's) arse. So if you call someone a dag, it's not exactly a term of endearment.

Galah: Someone who's a bit daft. (The galah is an Aussie bird, a pink cockatoo.)

All words I still use, and which I learned as a kid in Australia.

posted by essexjan 29 April | 12:28

goshling, I still use "spiffy" too!
(In a totally non-sexual way. That's just weird.)

posted by BoringPostcards 29 April | 12:31

Nifty!

Keen!

Golly!

posted by BitterOldPunk 29 April | 12:36

The best use of "dag" is, of course, the expression "rattle yer dags" which means "hurry up".

You know, like a sheep running.

posted by gaspode 29 April | 12:52

I use "what's the rumpus?" and "take your flunkie and dangle" from Millers Crossing, and "right on" "Theme from Shaft"-style.

posted by kirkaracha 29 April | 13:22

As a product of late nineteen seventies, early nineteen eighties Southern California, it is my god-given mission to keep the word 'stoked' in circulation. I use it to good effect on a daily basis.

posted by msali 29 April | 13:29

msali, I am so stoked that you are on this mission. Totally bitchen.

posted by danf 29 April | 14:13

Danf, I am so stoked that you are stoked.

posted by msali 29 April | 14:19

It's really stoken. (I swear we used to say that, like, a lot.)

posted by danf 29 April | 14:26

danf, I also came in here to endorse bitchin'.

posted by Meatbomb 29 April | 14:51

I still say "swanky" a lot. Or "bitchin'".

I also like in books by Louise Dickinson Rich: "Judas-on-a-Limb!"

posted by Melismata 29 April | 15:00

Oh, and I also use that direct quote from Bugs Bunny: "what a maroon!"

posted by Melismata 29 April | 15:13

I endeavor to use no slang.

posted by Eideteker 29 April | 15:39

Melismata, I use "swanky" and "swell" a lot, interchangeably, e.g., "I want to change into somethin' pretty before we go to [restaurant]; that's a pretty swell joint."

Which brings me to my second word: "joint" meaning "establishment," as in a bar, club, or restaurant.

Well dog my cat!"

I say "Dog my cats!" often, to which The Fella responds with a murmured "Dog my cats indeed," or sometimes, jumping screenplays, he'll respond with the seeming non sequitur, "I don't want you as quiet as an ant pissing on cotton. I want you as quiet as an ant not even thinking about pissing on cotton."

A lot of my slang is Bugs-Bunny-inspired 1930s slang, come to think of it. A friend-of-a-friend once told me that I speak like Myrna Loy talking to Bugs Bunny.

I also sound like Holden Caulfield* a lotta the time, which is not a ringing endorsement of my lexicon. Geez.

posted by Elsa 29 April | 15:49

A lot of my slang is Bugs-Bunny-inspired 1930s slang,

I think a lot of people of a certain couple of generations learned a lot of slang that way. The occasional "dagnabbit" is known to escape my lips. More than slang, though, some of the taglines ("I didn't know you cared!" "Looks like I took a wrong turn at Albequerque," "Ain't I a stinker?").

posted by Miko 29 April | 17:45

Holy moly!

posted by Doohickie 29 April | 17:48

"I didn't know you cared!" "Looks like I took a wrong turn at Albequerque," "Ain't I a stinker?"

Did you ever have the feeling you were being watched?

And when I'm trapped with a chattering ninny, the voice in the back of my brain sometimes parrots him or her in the Bugs-Bunny-as-manicurist voice: "My, I'll bet you monsters lead such innnnnnteresting lives. I just said to my girlfriend the other day, 'I bet monsters are innnnnteresting,' I said. The places you must go, the things you must see. My stars! I'm always innnnnnnterested in innnnnnteresting people."

posted by Elsa 29 April | 18:16

I say "right on" a lot.

posted by Stewriffic 29 April | 19:22

I also say, "right on" and "holy moly".

Sometimes I use grooving as a verb. "I'm not groovin' on those orange pants."

posted by LoriFLA 29 April | 19:50

Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebie FTW!

Seriously, I still talk like a John Hughes character. Tragic.

posted by evilcupcakes 29 April | 20:54

Jeepers, I think this thread is swell.

posted by King of Prontopia 30 April | 12:02

I've recently found myself using foxy: "Nice dress! You are looking foxy, lady!"

posted by Elsa 30 April | 12:29

On my errands today, I bumped into a friend and we chatted for a good long while. Finally, I jolted to reality and saw that I was running late. I wrapped up our chat with "It's been great to see you! I've gotta get a wiggle on if I'm going to beat rush hour!"

posted by Elsa 30 April | 19:04

Ha, Elsa!

Holy moly!

I often say "Holy Cannoli!" I don't know if anyone ever said this outside of NJ in the 70s.

Speaking of Aussie slang, I worked for one guy who used to get us moving by calling out "On your bikes! On your bikes, mates!" which I still think of almost any time people need to get going. He also said "Yippee skippy" a lot.

posted by Miko 30 April | 21:39

Sorry Miko - it's pronounced "on yer bikes" - us aussies try to say things as quickly as we can, and with as little effort as we can. :) We're lazy buggers over here!

(p.s. I say that one a lot)

Also found myself saying "kiss my grits" in #bunnies last night. No idea where I picked that up from!

posted by jonathanstrange 30 April | 21:56

He actually said "your" just like we do ("yer"). IT was the "boikes" that sounded different!

posted by Miko 30 April | 22:11

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