I sometimes make an artificial distinction between colloquialisms which nevertheless have an obvious derivation from the object or concept they refer to, and those words or phrases designed to exclude.

Examples of the former might be: "gas axe" = oxy-acetylene cutting torch; "nut strangler" = spanner, or sometimes fitter or mechanic

Examples of the latter: LART, whooptie, the dog's [look very carefully at the punctuation], GAS (explanations below).

I personally would find it amusing to hear the former slang in use, but mildly offended if I thought the speaker was using the latter to indicate that I was not an accepted member of his or her group. (Junior NCO's in the Armed Forces and Database Managers are especially good at this sort of usage.)


Some slang falls between these two extremes. "Prang", "gremlin" and other examples of RAF slang are sufficiently onomatopoeic to allow most people to make an intelligent guess as to their meaning.


By the way: LART = "Luser attitude readjustment tool" = four-by-two lump of wood, what help desk technicians would dearly like to use on their more clueless callers; "whooptie" = see the discussion in this thread' "the dog's" = "the dog's b*ll*cks" = very good, apt or fit for use, presumably came from the US phrases like the "bee's knees" which again came from "it's the business" as pronounced by recent Italian immigrants to the US. (Thanks to Mr. Nigel Rees for that etymological insight.) GAS = "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome" which many of us suffer from, but which would baffle a non-musician who strayed into the Mudcat or any in-depth musical discussion.