BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned

Subject: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 09:16 AM

I confess. I'm one of those over-analytical people who like to learn about the origins and meanings of songs & words. Some posters in this Mudcat thread Over Analysis really didn't understand or appreciate us analytical folk. But that's neither here nor there since that thread was talking about introducing songs and this thread is talking about sharing the origins & meanings of words & phrases.

So, as I was sayin, I love to collect new words & phrases-especially slang or colloquial expressions that are relatively clean. {I'm not fond of bawdy words-but that's just how I roll}.

All this to say, since sharing is caring, I'm starting this thread to share some words & phrases that may not really be new but are new to me. And I'd love you to share examples of words or phrases that you just learned or add {and possibly correct} definitions that other folks and I've posted about words & phrases that find their way onto this thread.

Also, this thread can be used to ask questions of Mudcat members and guests about examples of slang and/or colloquial expressions that you aren't hip to yet. In addition, this thread can be a place to repost links to or quotes from posts about words & phrases that may have been discussed on other Mudcat threads.

When posting the definition/s of a word or phrase, please also add a sentence or sentences that include that word or phrase.

Btw, I thought about posting this above the line, but the vibe up there seems to serious for my liking right now. So, I hope you guys and gals are down with this. And, if you post any examples, please keep them relatively clean, okay?

Thanks, in advance, for posting to this thread!

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 09:23 AM

Here's a word I've just learned this year-"suss".

I believe that "suss" comes from Jamaica or some other Caribbean nation, but I'm not sure about that. Maybe it's just used quite a lot in Jamaica or some other Caribbean nature but it comes from old English or some other language. ??

suss (sŭs)

tr.v. Slang., sussed, suss·ing, suss·es.
To infer or discover; figure out: "I think I'm good at sussing out what's going on" (Ry Cooder).

To size up; study: "Suss out the designers in whom you are interested" (Lucia van der Post).

http://www.answers.com/topic/suss

-snip-

Here's a sentence I've made up with that word-all by myself!

I love sussin out the origins & meanings of words & phrases.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 09:36 AM

Speaking of Caribbean words, I just figured out {sussed?} how to pronounce the word "patois". And that's just because I saw it on some website with the word {patwa} in parenthesis.

Here's a definition of "patois":

"pa·tois (pa′twä′; Fr pȧ twȧ′)

noun pl. -·tois′-twäz′; Fr, -twȧ′

a form of a language differing generally from the accepted standard, as a provincial or local dialect

jargon (sense )"

http://www.yourdictionary.com/patois

Sentence: When people speak patois around me, I usually don't have a clue what they're sayin.

**

Whoopee! I feel like it's Christmas time 'cause I just found this website that "attempt[s] to create a comprehensive dictionary of jamaican patois on-line":

http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/kerkhoff/DubPoetry/Glossary/patois.html
The All New Dictionary Of Jamaican Patois

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 09:47 AM

I didn't plan to focus on Caribbean words, but since I'm on a roll, I might as well keep on going with that flow.

Here's a post that I wrote on this thread: thread.cfm?threadid=5686
"Lyr Req: River of Babylon"

[I'm reposting that post in its entirety since I believe that it is pertinent to this thread. My comments were written in response to a question about the lines "How can we sing King Alfa's song/in a strange land?" that are part of the song "Rivers Of Babylon"].

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: River of Babylon
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 04 May 08 - 10:26 AM

Here's some information about the referent "King Alfa" "

"King Alfa" is a referent for His Imperial Majesty [HIS] Haile Selassie I [Rastafarians always pronounce the "I" here as "eye", menaing the letter "i]. "Alfa"="Alpha" meaning the first as in the Latin words "alpha and omega". See this excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of_Babylon

"King Alpha is referred to in the line "How can we sing King Alpha's song in a strange land?". King Alpha refers to Haile Selassie. Selassie's wife Menen Asfaw is known as Queen Omega aka The Queen. [2] When Jewish groups sing the song, "King Alpha" is changed to "the Lord's" or "Adonai's"."

-snip-

Given Boney M's substitution of "The Lord's" for "King Alpha", and assuming that that group is not Jewish [and there are Black Jews, btw], the Wikipedia page should say that "When Jewish and Christian group sing the song, they may change "King Alpha"to "The Lord's."

**

Also, here's some information about the phrase "over I":

"Over I" is a Rastafarian language construct that means "over me". As a rule, most Rastafarians don't use the words "me", "we", "our", "us". Instead of "we" , "our", and "us" they use the phrase "I and I" [which is written "InI"] That phrase "I and I" is found in some of Bob Marley's songs.

See this excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafarian_vocabulary

• I replaces "me", which is much more commonly used in Jamaican English than in the more conventional forms. Me is felt to turn the person into an object whereas I emphasises the subjectivity of an individual.

•I and I is a complex term, referring to the oneness of Jah (God) and every human. Rastafarian scholar E. E. Cashmore: "I and I is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, the oneness of two persons. So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact. I and I means that God is in all men. The bond of Ras Tafari is the bond of God, of man. But man itself needs a head and the head of man is His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I (always pronounced as the letter "I," never as the number one or "the first") of Ethiopia." The term is often used in place of "you and I" or "we" among Rastafarians, implying that both persons are united under the love of Jah.

-snip-

Here's some more information about the Rastafarian religion/way of life:

The name Rastafarian comes from "Ras Tafari".

"Haile Selassie I was born Lij Tafari Makonnen (Ge'ez ልጅ፡ ተፈሪ፡ መኮንን; Amharic pronunciation lij teferî mekônnin). "Lij" translates literally to "child", and serves to indicate that a youth is of noble blood. He would later become Ras Tafari Mekonnen; "Ras" translates literally to "head"[10] and is the equivalent of "duke",[11] though it is often rendered in translation as "prince". In 1928, he was elevated to Negus, "King"."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I_of_Ethiopia…

[This is a very well researched wikipedia page on Haile Selassie. In my opinion, it's well worth reading for those people interested in the Ethiopian, Rastafarian, and Jamaican history & culture]

"Ras" is usually translated "prince" among Rastafarians and other Jamaicans. "Tafari" ["Tefari"] is an Amharic language male name that means "awe-inspiring".

Rastafarians are commonly called-and call themselves-"Rastas", and a number of Rastafarians use that title with their first name. Reggae singers who have "prince" in front of their name may be following that tradition and/or mixing that tradition with the use of royalty titles common in a lot of Black folk music such as Calypso and Blues.

**

Haile Selassie's name literally means "Power of the Trinity".

**

"Jah" is the Rastafarian referent for "God". "Jah" comes from the Hebrew name for God "Yahweh".

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: gnu
Date: 10 May 08 - 11:54 AM

Suss.... it's a Brit thang, near as I know.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: mack/misophist
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:02 PM

I've never seen this in print but a very erudite friend once claimed that 'suss' arose from a wide spread rural habit of saying suspicion instead of suspect. So, if you suspect something, you try to suspicion it (or suss it) out.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:26 PM

Hey, gnu! Thanks for posting.

It sure may be possible that "suss" came from an old English word. But maybe Jamaicans give that "suss" more flava [flavor] or [flavour] than what it had or has in Britain.

For instance, I get the sense that the word means "gossip" or digging up dirt [on someone or about some thing]. For example, check out this quote:

"Portmore, wah do some ah dem eediat gal who siddown ah dem step ah roadside and a wait fi beg di artise dem a ting fi Christmas. Some gal ah run off dem mouth and dem need an inside bathroom. Suss time now. Mi have the permit fi bury and the licence fi kill some people career. Ready fi it, Portmore?"

http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20071208/ent/ent3.html
Portmore Suss

**
Here's my "translation" of that paragraph from what I'd considered an online gossip rag [gossip column]

Portmore, why do some of them idiot gals who sit down on the steps [edge] of the road side and wait to beg artists for something for Christmas? Some girls just run of their mouth and [they]need to go do that inside a bathroom.[because what they're saying is so nasty]. It's gossip time now. I have the permit to bury and the licence to kill some people's careers. [Are you] Ready for it, Portmore?

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:32 PM

Thanks, mack/misophist.

That's interesting. After all, "diss" is a clip of "disrespect" so "suss" could be a clip of "suspicious".

But, if I were a betting person, which I'm not, I'd bet that's not the real etymology of the word "suss".

**

I should have said that "to gossip" could be another meaning for the word "suss".

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:47 PM

And speaking of Caribbean phrases, here's one that is also a gesture: "suck teeth"

suck teeth

"To "suck your teeth" at someone is literally the process of sucking your teeth. A sound can be made by clenching your teeth together and then making a sharp sucking motion as if inhaling inhaling ice cream through a straw. The harder you suck the louder the sound. It is usually done out of annoyance at another person.

"Don't suck your teeth at me!" said the angry teacher the student".

"Jeremy rolled his eyes and sucked his teeth at Jerome's bad joke".
by Dutch84 Mar 20, 2005

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=suck+teeth
   
-snip-

Check out this well written post from http://sapodilla.blogspot.com/2006/02/suck-teeth.html

"Suck teeth

"Stchuuuup."

That is the sound of a thousand and one expressions without you speaking a single word.

Is the wordless sound of vexation. But depending on the context, with amusement on you lips, it can mean, "Ahh man, you joking, who you think you fooling?"

With one long "stchuuuuup" and you eyes looking thin and mean, you can cut a big man down to li'l boy size.

With a short "stchup" and a snicker, you can tell a rival gyal that she is nothing.

"Stchuuuup" is the "suck teeth" sound. Some does call it "stew teeth."

Yesterday the whole day I suck my teeth.

We had a powercut, on and off, yesterday. But that ain't why I suck my teeth.

Yesterday I sew and embroider to replace them five handmade things that the ex-cleaning lady disappear with. I suck me teeth with every jab o' that needle into the cloth.

"Stchuup."

Meaning: "Hope she fall in mud and swallow a mouthful."

"Stchuuuuup."

Meaning: "I design, cut, bleed when the needle jook me…and all this time she just skulking in the sidelines, waiting to reap what I sew...sow…"

"Stchuuuuuuuuuuup."

Meaning: [censored.]

See? Suck teeth can convey anything. And some folks can take this form of expression to "art" level. Like me Auntie A. now living in the U.SA. When she vex and suck she teeth, the sound unreel and fly out and wrap around the whole area. In it, you hear things you granny shouldn't hear. But remember! Auntie A. ain't say a word, so if you granny hear, that is okay too.

For years I use to wonder where suck teeth come from. Then one night I watching local tv [when we had a tv].

I been watching a African movie 'bout some village women, they had a li'l argument. One o' them get really vex. She release a potent suck teeth. In it, I hear every cuss word that I know and don't know. It did long and winding. Only Auntie A. coulda match that.

Aha, so that is where it come from, I think. I dunno, I just think so 'cause I see it in that movie.

Anyway, in Guyana now, whether you ancestors born in Africa, China, India, Portugal or England or here, suck teeth is the cross-culture language without words. Li'l children do it; old people with only gums suck they teeth too; aunties, uncles, mothers, fathers and all the rest, do it.

To suck you teeth, you got to pout you lips in a li'l pout, clench you top and bottom teeth close, close. Push the tip o' you tongue against you teeth. Suck in air. Stchuuuuu….when you want to finish close you lips…uuup.

When you become expert, you can even do a side-of-you-mouth suck teeth. This you do when you joking with you friends and one o' them say something nutty.

Stchuuuuuuup.

What is that sound?

Suck teeth around Blogland.

Heh."
posted by Guyana-Gyal @ 8:07 AM"   

-snip-

Another term for "suck teeth" is "cut eye". Fwiw, while the gesture is somewhat familiar to me, the terms aren't. Maybe that's because I was born and raised in New Jersey instead of the Caribbean or the American South {where I gather from my reading some folks excell in suck-teeth}.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 01:29 PM

I forgot to mention that "to diss" means "to insult".

"People got no call to diss me 'round here. I earned my props big time. So no sussin allowed. And no suck-teeth either."

[Mind you, I just made up those sentences. The "me" and the "I" in those sentences aren't me, or they don't have to be me. But it could be if you or I wanted it to be.]

;o)

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 May 08 - 03:39 PM

As it appeared about twenty years ago in my neighborhood, "suss" was simply a corruption of "assess." As used ca. 1945 by some I knew, it was just a mispronounced "assess," (but that was in a rural culture).

As gradually further corrupted, it has taken on the meaning of to "render an opinion" or "make judgement" of someone/something. "Don't suss me" would have meant "Don't make judgements about me."

The degeneration to "gossip" from "assessment" or "judgement" seems fairly "logical," although assuming that there's anything logical about slang is "illogical."

Similarly, in the first places where I heard it, "diss" (also seen as just "dis") appeared as a corruption of "disparage," but I've heard it less prior to the obligatory further degenerations.

John

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 May 08 - 03:59 PM

I have a friend who puts the Fast in Fastidious... I love that formula!

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 08 - 06:08 PM

I love the "I and I" concept, Azizi, and I think it makes a great deal of sense, spiritually speaking. That is, a person is two things at once: S/he is a small individual personality (the familiar "I" most people think of when they say "I") and s/he is simultaneously a living expression of the One Single Totality (the much more mysterious big "I") that is, collectively, comprised of all of us and of everything around us as well. The Big I is both the seen and the unseen. It is all possibilities.

You can think of that as "God"...or you can think of it in various other ways too. You could think of it as Nature, as the Tao, or as Infinity.

"I and I
In creation where one's nature neither honors nor forgives.
I and I
One says to the other, no man sees my face and lives." - Bob Dylan

People are generally very afraid to see the face of the big "I", because they fear that the instant they did they would be obliterated, they would lose all sense of their own individuality and their separateness and be destroyed. But the big "I" lives inside them at all times, whether they fear it or not, and it lives equally so inside others. Better if they didn't fear it, but grew to love it instead.

*********

Now here's a brand new word I just thought of Azizi, and I think it could become really popular:

"sip"

It's short for "gossip", and it means gossip in the negative sense, as in...

"Hey, man! Don't give me one of your nasty sip! I been hearin' way too much of that kind of mean sip about her and I don't want to hear no more!"

I think this could be majorly popular patois on MTV in no time flat. I'm serious. ;-) Let's see if we can get the ball rolling and get everyone sayin' "sip" by this time next year.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Tweed
Date: 10 May 08 - 07:09 PM

Harg, that's insane and typically canook.

Zizi, love you lots girl. Don't listen to that pale northern chap.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: khandu
Date: 10 May 08 - 07:35 PM

gravitas

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 08 - 07:38 PM

You jus' spreadin' bad sip, Tweed. I got no time fo' your sip, capiche?

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 10:15 PM

Thanks for the comments.

Here's some comments in response to yours:
JohnInKansas, "The word "suss" was known in Kansas in the mid 1940s? Well, alright, now! I guess Kansas is hipper than I thought it was. No disrespect intended, or at least not much.

As to "disparage" being a source for "diss". Yeah but what does "disparage" mean? {Nevermind. I'm kidding}. I stand by my opinion that "to diss", "diss", and "dissin" originated in hip-hop culture and come from the word "disrespect. Of course, if you disparage some one, you are disrespecting them.

**

Mzzy, ... a "friend who puts the fast in fastidious" {meaning she or he is real fastidious. I like it!

**
Little Hawk, I've heard of the word "majorly". Is that Valley Girl lingo for "a whole lot"?

Sorry, Little Hawk, I don't think "sip" is gonna do well as a shorter way of saying gossip. The word "sip" already means something unlike the word "diss" or "props", which is another word that originated in hip-hop culture, props being a clip of proper which is an abbreviation for "proper respect". Since "sip" already means something, and that something has nothing to do with "gossip", it seems to me that it will be harder to graft the definition "gossip" on to that word.

**

Tweed, regarding your 10 May 08 - 07:09 PM post, I love you too. But you're a bad boy-excuse me-man. ["bad"=bad not "bad" meaning good] the

**
Khandu, regarding your 10 May 08 - 07:35 PM, I got your inside joke from that wanna be thread you started. And you're an even badder boy-excuse me-man-than Tweed is. ["bad"=bad not "bad" meaning good]

**

Also, Little Hawk, regarding your 10 May 08 - 07:38 PM post, it seems to me that your sentence reinforces my concerns that the old meaning of "sip" interfers with the new meaning that you want to give that word. For instance, I think your sentence "You jus' spreadin' bad sip, Tweed. I got no time fo' your sip, capiche?" could mean "You just spreadin' bad drink*, Tweed. I got not time
[meaning "no interest"] fo' [meaning "in"] your drink."

* "drink" here meaning a bad batch of home made brew

And btw, what does "capiche" mean? Is that a game? Oh, sorry. I'm confusing that word with Parcheesi.

Just kidding.

:o))

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 10:20 PM

The "the" in my comment to Tweed doesn't mean a darn thing.

That's what is called a "typo". "Typo" is a clip of the word "typographical", and "typo" is an abbreviation of the term "typographical error". But you guys and gals already knew that.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 10:30 PM

Okay, before someone thinks of it, lemme say that I realize that "props" is already a word, and means something having to do with stuff theater people use to make their role more convincing [or something like that].

But I still think that a newly created slang word stands a better chance of being accepted by the masses and blowin up big time [meaning "being successful"] if that word doesn't already have a
pre-existing meaning that people automatically think of when they hear that word spoken or when they see that word written down.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 10 May 08 - 11:51 PM

But then again a number of slang words are pre-existing words which have new meanings grafted on to them. Take the word "bomb". A bomb is an explosive device. In hip-hop lingo, a performer [or any person or thing] can be "the bomb" [also written as "da bomb". According to this usage, the bomb means that the person or thing is very good at what he or she or it does [or says or looks like]. In my opinion, the superlatives "hot", "cookin", "smokin", "on fire" [which are all African American slang terms] are related to each other. And "the bomb" is also related to these terms. [Someone or something that is really hot can also be real cool, but following that train of thought might take us to a whole that may take us a whole 'nuther place than where I wanna go at this time].

"The bomb" is even more closely related to the concept of a person or thing being "dynomite" [meaning great, wonderful]. For example, a dynamite performer who is "hot", "cookin", "on "smokin", "on fire" can also be said to be "dynomite". That performer may be described as having "exploding on the scene", seemingly coming out of no where and some folks may also say that he or she makes a big splash [like a bomb makes].

So what does this have to do with the price of beans in Boston? Nothing. But it does go to show that standard words that mean one thing can have entirely different slang meanings but [and] those slang meanings may relate back to the word's standard meaning if you're open to seeing the connections.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 08 - 11:55 PM

Dang! You say "sip" is already taken, and it means "drink"? Dang!

Another great idea misses its moment in time. Dang! I coulda been a contendah.

I figured if "neighborhood" can become "hood" and "afro" can become "fro" and "all right" can become "-ite", why can't "gossip" become "sip"???

Same basic approach, right? You just take a common multi-syllabic word or phrase and you reduce it down to a one-syllable expletive that can be uttered bluntly, aggressively, and offhandedly in such a way as to show that one is tough, cool, with it, and way moreso than the uncool kind of people who take the trouble to utter works longer than one syllable.

****

"Majorly" Is that Valley Girl lingo for "a whole lot"?

Yeah!!! ;-) that's exactly what it is, Azizi. Valley Girl lingo. Doesn't it feel, like, soooooo totally cool to, like, say "majorly" when you mean "a whole lot"? I know it, like, totally does it for me every time I say "majorly"...you know? And it's soooooo much easier than saying "a whole lot" too. Well, maybe not much easier realllly but...I'm like, you know? Whatever.

*****

Here's a weird word that I think was probably invented by Americans sometime in the 20th century:

copacetic

It's very popular with military people and businessmen. To use it shows others how tough and cool and efficient you are.

Here are some more:

hellacious
ginormous
humungous

The above are all composite words made out of real words that preceded them. They are the opposite approach to "hood" and "-ite". Instead of baffling brains with deliberate crudity, you baffle them with deliberate complexity. You take a simple world like "hellish" or "huge" and you make it more complicated:

hellacious, humungous

This apparently increases the amplitude of the word in the mind of both the listener and the utterer.

Or you take two real words like enormous and gigantic, dismember them, and produce bastard progeny:

ginormous

The common feature of all these expressions, to my mind, is this. They sound ugly.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 11 May 08 - 12:29 AM

Funny, I was just reading about the (obscure) origins of 'copacetic' earlier today. Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson claimed to have coined it, but other African-Americans remembered using or hearing it before his time - and there are other competing claims to its origin, but none of them are convincing. Check it out. Definitely American, at any rate. Well, as definite as such things can ever be ...

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: fat B****rd
Date: 11 May 08 - 04:16 AM

What are 'druthers' and how does one get them.
I recall this word from Kris Kristofferson singing 'Jesse James'
Good Morning Azizi.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 11 May 08 - 04:10 PM

Good afternoon, fat B****rd, and all others reading this thread [please subsitute the appropriate reference for the time of day or night where you are].

I must say that it feels wonderful to be proven correct. When my friend fat B****rd asked what are "druthers", the first word that popped in my head was "preferences". But I doubted myself [which sometimes is wise to do and sometimes isn't] and so I looked up the definition for "druthers" via Google, and found this:

"druther- a choice or preference"
http://www.yourdictionary.com/druthers

-snip-

As for how this word came about, I thought that it was a corruption of the words "the other" [as in the other choice]. But yourdictionary.com provides this information:

"Etymology: contr. < I'd rather, with sound infl. by other"

I think that "contr". means "contraction" [but I'm not sure of that] and "<" means "from" [but I'm not sure of that]. And I'm not sure what inf means in the words "with sound infl". My guess is that this sentence means that "druthers" was coined from the phrase I'd rather another [choice].

Then again, that website could be wrong. But that definition sounds right.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 11 May 08 - 04:28 PM

Little Hawk, I like how you used Valley Girl lingo in your 10 May 08 - 11:55 PM post. Though I don't know that lingo well, I think you've got it down pat.

Regarding the word "ite", it's usually spelled "I-ight" or "aah-ite" but the two syllables flow together. "aah-ite" has the same meaning as "alright". A couple of entries on http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=aah-ite indicate that this is a "ghetto" way of saying "alright" and other entries on that website say that this is a "redneck" way of saying "alright". I'm not even gonna get into what "ghetto" and "redneck" mean. Here's two sentences from that website:

Q: "Pass the hot sauce".
A: "Aah-ite"

**

"You have the right to remin silent"

"Aah-ite"

-snip-

My daughter, Blue Balloon, shared with me that in 1993, hip hop artist Doug E. Fresh
recorded a song titled ""I-ight (Alright)". She also told me that that there was a movie called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sling_Blade starring Billy Bob Thornton in which his character always said "aah-ite den" [meaning "alright then]".
In addition, Blue Balloon said that some people she knows say "ah-ite" when they want to let people know that they agree with them and they say "aah-ite den" when they're getting ready to end a conversation.

So "aah-ite den".

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 11 May 08 - 04:39 PM

meself, thanks for posting that hyperlink to the World Wide Words website. That site describes itself as providing information about international English words and phrases from a British viewpoint.

I plan to be a frequent visitor to that website.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 May 08 - 04:44 PM

Heh! "Ahh-ite den." ;-D I love it. Ain't patois amazing?

I find the Valley Girl lingo particularly amusing, Azizi. It seems to have spread far and wide as it is no longer confined to California. I hear it a lot in the local mall here, where there are many would-be Paris Hiltons in the making.

I was completely unaware that the word "copacetic" had originated among African-Americans! I had always been under the impression that it was a white-man invented word. When I hear it I always think of white guys: white businessmen, salesmen, military men, cops...people generally with a bit of a tight-assed attitude toward life, that's what it makes me think of. I have never heard a woman say "copacetic" in casual conversation, but, boy, I've heard quite a few men say it.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 11 May 08 - 06:09 PM

Glad to be of assistance, ma'am. I've been working my way through the articles for the past week or so.

(By the way - was your daughter's name your idea, or her father's? Not that 'Blue Balloon' isn't a lovely name or anything ... )

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 11 May 08 - 06:41 PM

LOL!!

meself, that is too funny. My daughter picked that name because her favorite color is blue and she likes balloons. As to what her real name is, since she likes being mysterious, I've sworn to secrecy.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 May 08 - 07:23 PM

There's a phrase that seems to be popular in my area, Azizi, and it's "to take a boo at" something....meaning to look at it. That one has always struck me as very odd! I think the expression "take a boo at" originated in the British Isles...must be the same thing as "Peekaboo! I see you!"

Another thing people say hereabouts is "How're you keeping?", instead of saying the usual "How are you?". It bugs me when people say "How're you keeping?" I always feel like answering them back, "How am I keeping what?"

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 May 08 - 08:34 PM

I learned the useful new word 'cheffy' from an article in the Home section of the paper. A local kitchen designer went to the kitchen show in Chicago and said that not all the features were mere decor, some were cheffy.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Bobert
Date: 11 May 08 - 08:45 PM

Okay, I ain't read every thing here but...

... "diss" ain't no more than "dis"respect...

Ummmm, I ain't too much into today's "new words and phrases", you know, like "fhat" and all...

...but I I kinda know about black phaseology from the 20's and 30's whn my heros walked this earth... I unnerstand what "ridin' the blinds" was and what "dust by broom" meant...

But the "diss" one ain't all that hard...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: meself
Date: 11 May 08 - 08:50 PM

Undoubtedly, 'take a boo' is a playful derivative of 'peekaboo'. Now 'take a gander', on the other hand ... who knows?

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: meself
Date: 11 May 08 - 08:52 PM

Not to mention, that we now have the question of the origins of 'peekaboo' ...

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: The Walrus
Date: 11 May 08 - 09:02 PM

To return, briefly, to "Suss":-

Halliwell* gives two obsolete entries for "Suss" - The first was a slang term, from the Isle of Wight, for a dog-fish; nd the second was an Eastern (he gves no narrower area than that) term for to "swill like a hog" (with the example "a call to a swine to eat their suss or hog-wash."

For my own part, I seem to recall 'suss' (or 'sussing out') being used (in the very late sixties/v. early seveties) as a term for cunnilingus - but this IIRC was fairly short lived.

W


*Dictionary of Archaic Words

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Rowan
Date: 11 May 08 - 11:52 PM

To return, briefly, to "Suss":-

In Oz, in addition to the meanings already given, "suss" is also a descriptor of something that's not quite pukka, or kosher, or "right" in the opinion of the describer. But I suspect it arrived here from Britain, probably even via the Kangaroo Route.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Gurney
Date: 12 May 08 - 01:53 AM

Walrus, I was around England in the late 60s, but I never heard suss used for cunnilingus. That was called muff-diving.

I just Googled 'British Slang' and got a swag of choice hits.

'Choice' is used in Oz and Godzone to mean excellent, as is 'select.' Originally used by Chinese greengrocers, or fruiterers as they are called here.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Micca
Date: 12 May 08 - 03:47 AM

LH I would guess that "take a boo" is more likely to come from the Cockney rhyming slang phrase which in full is "Take a butchers hook" that is "take a look" but as rhyming slang perversly, and to kep the meaning hidden from "outsiders, always left off the second term of the rhyme this was given as "take a butchers" at that! so it doesnt take much for the "butcher" to shorthen to "take a boo"

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: The Walrus
Date: 12 May 08 - 04:07 AM

Gurney,

"...Walrus, I was around England in the late 60s, but I never heard suss used for cunnilingus. That was called muff-diving..."

Muff-diving, Muff-munching, Dining-at-the-Y - these terms are never exclusive, and, as I said the 'suss'/'sussing out' seemed to be fairly short lived in this definition.

W

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Naemanson
Date: 12 May 08 - 05:11 AM

cacoethes loquendi - the urge to talk.

cacoethes scribendi - the urge to write.

These words came from a program called A Way With Words out of San Diego. I've been listening to it via podcast. I tell my classes to try to control their cacoethes loquendi and thereby starts a lesson in the wonders of English.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 May 08 - 10:33 AM

Another new (or newish) phrase is 'back in the day.' Here's an example I just read.

He and my father were in the merchant marine together back in the day.

The writer doesn't bother to finish the phrase by saying back in the day when [insert something archaic]. No, that's too much work.

====
My husband came home from work one day and said that if one more person used the phrase 'at the end of the day' in a meeting, he was going to go berserk. Evidently this is another phrase overused by people who don't want to think through what they actually mean.
====

Naemanson: It's interesting to hear what you are doing with your classes. Have you ever encountered 'logomachize,' to discuss words? Wolfe and Archie discuss the word in a Nero Wolfe detective story.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 08 - 02:13 PM

A word I learned within the last year or so is "scanno." Analogous to "typo," it means an error introduced by an optical scanner, or more accurately, the combination of an optical scanner and an OCR program that converts the image to editable or searchable text. A common "scanno" is to substitute the number "1" for the letter "l" or a number "0" for the letter "O." You run into a lot of scannos when you search old books with Google Book Search.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 May 08 - 03:20 PM

Then there's the "viddo". It's similar. It's when you search the net for good videos of Winona Ryder, but you somehow end up linking to old footage of Maggie Thatcher addressing the Commons...

This can bloody well ruin your mood for the rest of the day.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 08 - 03:34 PM

There are a whole bunch of words that "dis" or "diss" could be short for: disrespect, disparage, discount, dismiss, discredit, disdain, disallow, dishonor—and if I had a dictionary handy, I could probably find some more. They all describe ways we don't want people to treat us. I'd like to think whoever coined "diss" had all of them in mind.

I think, when people coin, or use, new words, it isn't only for convenience—in this case, not only because it's easier to pronounce one syllable than three. It's also because they want a word that doesn't mean exactly what the older word meant. They want a word that is either more specific, or (in this case) broader than the original. I think "diss" was meant to describe a broader range of attitudes and behaviors than "disrespect" alone would mean.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 May 08 - 03:44 PM

"Prime," "Choice," and "Select" are official terms defined by the US Department of Agriculture for the grading of beef.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:32 PM

The one that I really, really want to know is how to pronounce the Polish word for 'Thanks' if any 'Catter can assist?
The spelling is weird and gives no indication what the noise should sound like.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:36 PM

"Pkcsknlzntchiztlsk!"

Don't ask me how to pronounce it. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:44 PM

Thanks for posting to this thread. Keep those examples and comments coming!

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 12 May 08 - 06:47 PM

Jim Dixon, with regard to the second paragraph of your 12 May 08 - 03:34 PM post, I'm not sure if convenience or a more specific definition or a broader definition are reasons why many slang words are coined. I think that many of these words are coined as expressions of creativity which serve to differentiate the hip from the un-hip {the cool from the square}. Those who are hip to the latest slang words & phrase are cool, and hip. Those who still use old slang words/phrases or standard words & phrases are square.

In addition, I think that slang serves as an important way of expressing & reinforcing in-group identity. Those groups may be limited to a particular racial/ethnic population, and/or may cross racial/ethnic lines. For instance, many of the words & phrases in contemporary American slang come from hip-hop culture. I think it's fair to say that hip-hop culture originated among African Americans and that African Americans continue to be most influential population in how persons in hip-hop culture express themselves {music, dance, verbal and written communication, naming practices, clothing styles etc}. However, other populations besides African Americans have influenced hip-hop. For example, there's little doubt that the music industry [which doesn't have African Americans in the real power positions] has promoted gangsta rap over other forms of hip-hop music. This emphasis on gangsta rap influences which recording artists, and which records, and which slang words & expressions receive the most play.

Subject: RE: BS: New Words & Phrases You've Learned
From: Azizi
Date: 12 May 08 - 07:00 PM

Here's an example of a contemporary American slang word that I don't think came from African Americans -"pwned".

There are a number of entries from urbandictionary.com posters for the word "pwned". Here's one of them:

pwned   

"Unlike the other people who have posted definitions that are ridiculous, do not have substantial backing, or are simply mis-informed, I will give the complete definition of what "pwned" means.

1. The origins of "pwned" are debated but there are two possible sources:
a. A prominent quake player mis spelled "owned" and the new word "pwned" was adopted by people who thought it was "1337".
b. A warcraft map designer misspelled "owned" and thus people started using "pwned" instead.

The definitions are as follows:
In video games:
1. Completely annihilated or dominated.
2. Perfectly owned, meaning the other player did not do any damage.

I pwned your head with my awp.

OR

I just pwned your ass noob!"
-by jack Nov 17, 2003

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pwned&defid=835533

-snip-

According to Wikipedia, "pnwed" is "derived from the word "own"... that implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet gaming culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated. Past tense is sometimes spelled pwnt (pronounced with a t sound), pwned, pwnd, pwn3d, or powned (with the standard d sound). Examples include "pwnage" or "you just got pwned".

In Internet security jargon, to "pwn" means "to compromise" or "to control", specifically another computer (server or PC), web site, gateway device, or application; it is synonymous with one of the definitions of hacking or cracking. An outside party who has "owned" or "pwned" a system has obtained unauthorized administrative control of the system."...

Use, online and in popular culture

The 2006 South Park episode, Make Love, Not Warcraft, satirized the game World of Warcraft. In the episode, the word is pronounced [poʊn] (pone), rhyming with "own".
"Looks like you're about to get pwned. Yeah!" - Eric Cartman (20m 30s into episode)
"That was such über-pwnage" - Kyle Broflovski (soon after above) ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn