OK. You've seen my explanation for 'pop a cap in your ass.' In a sense what I was doing there was expressing my appreciation for the non-literal aspects of what might seem like 'low' language use. I wanted to point out that it is actually very clever, and, in its way, sophisticated. What slang would you make a case for being really clever? Make it sound like Shakespeare! Here's an 'off the top of my head' example: under glass - police slang for in jail. I like the 'small organism being scrutinized under a microscope' feel of that one. Synecdoche, glass for the whole jail which also has bars and concrete and so on.
************* M*W: I love to tease my teen-age grandchildren talking like a rapster with the hand movements! I say things to them like "what's goin' down at your crib?" and "tell your peeps in the hood yo g-mama's back." They love it, but they don't understand that I try to keep up with the street lingo! BTW, they're not into the gang lingo. I do it just for fun! Peace Out MoFo
My emphasis. Thanks for the examples. I especially like 'hood' short for neighborhood. When used in a phrase boyz in the hood, I get a double image of the boys in the neighborhood and the boys wearing sweat jackets with hoods. Also since it is one hood there is a fuzzy single large hood with several heads in it. This hood trope has overtones of crime - with the hood concealing - but also casualness. A sweatjacket is relaxed causal wear. I think it ends up with a sweet tone. 'Peeps' means both marshmellow candies shaped like ducks, I believe, and people. I don't know how conscious the users are of either the candy or the fact that peep means to look slyly or playfully. The word is cutified, my coinage, in any case, and I like the effect since it seems to emphasize the eyes in the quick image I get of his or her 'peeps'. It comes off affectionate and very familiar. Crib could have a number of roots. The bed for babies or the stall for cattle. I have no idea which is the main root. Afroamericans coming up from the rural south could have come up with either. Either one gives it a self-deprecating air, either making the speaker a child or an farm animal by extension. Both have a very homey air to them.
"Spit the dummy" meaning an unnecessary angry outburst. I'm not sure how widespread its usage is, but it's common in my part of Australia (S.E. Queensland). I just love the imagery. I should perhaps add that a dummy is called a pacifier in other parts of the world.
Turd burglar, and I'm not in the least bit homophobic, it just has a wonderful ring ( pun unintended).
Lord Love a Duck Colder than a witch's tit. Those I grew up hearing quite often. I guess we didn't have as much slang as sayings.
Every generation has slang, but as the generation matures much of its slang is adopted as standard speech and its origins as slang are forgotten by younger people. "Hot rod" in my day was slang for a car lovingly customized by the owner for drag racing on the street, but in an era of energy conservation and unmodifiable solid-state components it's come to mean any car that looks racy, even if it was built in a factory with a stock Volkswagen engine. "Hippie" was a slang term for a "hip" person in the beatnik era, before it became a noun for a demographic group. "Dude" was originally an Eastern city dweller who came "out West" on vacation to see some cowboys and Indians, now it's a grammatical particle almost as meaningless as "the." "Rapping" used to mean sitting down and talking about the serious aspects of life such as careers and relationships; we had "rap sessions" with our mentors and counselors.
Chocolate cake is mental health food. Women understand this better because men rarely feel "naughty" for eating food that makes them happy.
I imagine that whenever one would say "pseudo-intellectual(ism)", one could instead say "mental health food". E.g. That book is full of pseudo-intellectualism. >> That book is full of mental health food. But that's me, I can't use the phrase "health food" and keep a straight face.
I took the opportunity of quizzing a friend today about slang terms, he's an old style Aussie bloke and I guessed he'd know a few. He rattled off a few of the standards, 'So dry I saw a tree chasing a dog', 'this wind would blow a dog off a chain', 'shifty as a shithouse rat', ' like a rat up a drainpipe'(sexual reference), 'classy as a rat with a gold tooth',..apparently rats figure heavily. 'So horny I'd fuck a well dressed rat' By the way, these are essentially Australianisms best I can tell, we're a classy bunch. 'I'm not fussy, I'd fuck a black snake with a festered arse..o..on..only if ya held it's head..only if you held it's head.." We continued, phrases like 'Map of Tassie' ( Map of Tasmania which is basically triangular and used to describe the female pubic region), 'Budgie smugglers'( mens swimming briefs), " Wallaby Ted's brother ( referring to Roo Ted, i.e buggered). 'Cold as a witches tit', already covered by the morally unravelling Orleander ( fish don't talk either!) There were many more, ' built like a brick shithouse'. "No-one's ever said that about me" I proclaimed. ( I'm of the basically ectomorphic variety and never carry any chub). "No you're all prick 'n' rib!" He said. That one was new to me, I must confess, I like it.
