"...what is the current popular word/term for "square"? "

Here's some words from African American cultures:

Something, or some situation or some one who is square is
"lame", "tired", "weak", "played out", "old", "nerdy", or "white bread".

Some people still use 'jive' {which is a negative now} but that term isn't used as much as it used to be {among 35 and under Black people-according to my experiences, and observations and those of my daughter who is in her early thirties who shared this opinion with me and helped me add words to this list}.

Obviously, some of these terms have been co-opted by {taken up, become part of} mainstream America.

-snip-

Here's some "current" * words & phrases to describe something, some situation, or someone who is not square:

"bad", "mean", "awesome", "hot", "smokin", "burnin up", "the bomb", "blew up"; "phat", "righteous", "tight"; all that", "all that and a bag of chips", "off the chart", "off the hook", "off the chain", big" {as in "got big"} ,"large" {as in "livin large", and "the shit".

I guess "the shit" must be the ultimate 'bad' means 'good' word...though maybe its basic meaning is that it is basic, 'for real", which come to think of it is another term of praise for the un-squared persons, things or situations.

It should be noted that "to bomb" is bad {bad=bad} but "to be the bomb" is very good. [Note how: the 'old' 1960s term "dynamite" morphed into "the bomb", which connects to "blew up" which connects to "got big" which connects to "living large".

There's a method to this madness.

Imo- among most African Americans, the words 'cool' {or "cool and the gang"}, 'groovy', 'hip', and 'fresh' were 'played out' {retired}' a long time ago.

It seems to me that on the whole, White people keep using slang terms much longer {waaaay longer} than Black people do. However some old African American slang from 19th century or earlier such as as 'bad' {multiple meaninds, but I was focusing on the bad=good meaning} cool, hot, smokin, bombed, the bomb {also multiple meanings}meaning a number of different things, 'hot' , and 'smokin'. "Cool" is also still being used as in the command "Cool out"

*Of course "current" doesn't mean that these words are newly coined or that these definitions of these words are a new development. In most cases, I don't think these words or these particular meanings of these words are all that new. In this post I'm defining "current" to mean that these terms and phrases have been used in the last five years or so.

But many of these terms were being used by some African Americans in hip hop and other circles at least 10 years ago and probably a number of them have been retired and replaced with other terms.

See urban dictionary.com for other contemporary slang that comes from or has been associated with African Americans.

[I just upgraded to Internet Explorer 7 and I can't find the copy paste cut icons which is a real drag {"drag"- a slang term from the 1960s or so which means something that is definitely not good}.