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YOUTHSLANG
Chapter 3

Youth Slang

People have been inventing slang forever, and while some slang
words last for centuries, the slang lexicon is always changing.
Each budding generation comes up with its own language or
languages, generally used among peers.

A young person’s choice of slang is quite often an extension of the


particular youth subculture he or she belongs to or identifies with.
While new words are born with each generation, young people also
adopt terms that were popular when their parents, grandparents and
even great-grandparents were young. Sometimes young people change
the meanings, spelling or pronunciation of these words. They mix slang
up, and personalise it. And just as there are words unique to particular
generations, there are youth words unique to particular Australian
regions.

Youth slang across the generations

Slang means “words, expressions, and usages [which are] often short-
lived, and are considered unsuitable for formal contact.”54 Much of
current youth slang originates from previous decades and although
most of these terms have not made it into dictionaries, they have
enjoyed long lives. The life of a slang word depends on whether or not
it is adopted by the mainstream or a dominant culture. This is sparked

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by the amount of interaction between the dominant culture and the


subculture that coined the slang word.55 In the case of the word “cool”,
pioneered by the black American jazz subculture of the 20s, 30s and
40s, it was the popularity of jazz, especially among the young people of
the day, that led the word into mainstream youth circles from the 1950s
onwards. It is reported that African slaves transported to America in
the 1600s used the word cool to mean “it’s got soul”, and it is thought
to have survived with that meaning to become part of the wider youth
lexicon. It is probably the term most people think of when they think
of youth slang.
In fact, many of the terms used today to mean fashionable or popular
either began in the Jazz Age or evolved in reaction to terms that came
into use then. Why has jazz made such an impact on youth slang across
the generations and the globe? Well, it was jazz that overhauled high
culture for the first time in the history of the English-speaking world.
African American culture and music continue to coin much of youth
slang and to influence popular culture generally.56

Boomers X-ers Y-ers


peace bodacious bounce
way-out major bling
skag dweeb da bomb
truckin gross out brutal
teach rad/radical foo’
cherry not chica
clyde tubular duh
dream on wicked crunk
the man ace a’ight
be cool airhead fo’ shizzle

While many 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s terms, including those listed in the
table, have been dropped from the youth lexicon, others, like “cool”,

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have remained in vogue. They often evolve


as they are passed on from one generation
to the next. There are different forces
which determine this. Popular culture and
subculture are two forces responsible for
changes in the meaning, spelling and pro-
nunciation, as well as for the invention and
re-adoption of youth slang. To the youth
of today “cool” is no longer exclusively
pronounced “cool”, but “kewl”, “koo-wel”
or “coo’”, and it is often used by young
people to simply mean “ok”, “satisfactory” The rise of retro. Interestingly,
many who wear the image of
or “good” – for example, “yeah, I’m cool”. the cassette or walkman were
It was with the advent of the teenager born after its demise.

in the 1950s that the concept of “cool” really became common in


youth circles. While the attainment of cool has been an aspiration of
young people for a very long time, the difference today is that “cool” is
in a constant state of flux. To Gen Y, trying to be cool is uncool, while
trying to be uncool is cool. It’s confusing for parents and kids alike!
“Cool” has been packaged up and sold for so long now that it’s
becoming more and more difficult to define it, let alone attain it. The
youth of today are being bombarded with more messages, more pres-
sure, than any other generation, but they are also more savvy than
ever, and more cynical. Constant advertising and product placement,
subliminal and otherwise, are often contradictory, so the fact that being
uncool is cool actually begins to make sense.
Writing for New York-based Paper magazine, Fenton Bailey points
out that cool:
belongs neither to the marketers who would peddle it, nor to the academics
who try to colonize it through definition. Cool, like quicksilver or moonshine,
slips through the fingers of all who try to capture and possess it.57
Not only does it evolve from one generation of youth to another,
“cool” also takes on new meaning between youth subcultures. Similarly,

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what the hippies of the 1960s found cool was strikingly different from
what their sophisticated contemporaries, the mods, found cool.

Reinventing the wheel: old words, new spin

Then Now
coo’/kewl – adj. okay, good.
cool – adj. hip, happening
Still used to mean “hip”
major – adj. really cool majorly – adv. extremely, totally
interj. used to express disappointment or
dang – adj. mighty fine
surprise
chick – n. attractive, hip young woman n. any young woman

funky – adj. cool


funk – n. fear and panic and then,
Also used this way by the Boomers and
depression or anxiety
X-ers when they were young

v. to leave or act (from 80s onwards) –


roll – v. engage in manual labour (original
“okay, let’s roll”. Can also mean to steal
slang meaning)
from (“rolled” – from the 60s onwards)

freaked out – frightened, shocked or


freak out – v. go crazy (on the dance floor
angry. Sometimes used to refer to an
– “aaaaaaaah, FREAK OUT!”)
episode that is drug-induced
n. very good-looking person.
freak – n. weirdo
Still used to mean “weirdo”
bananas – adj. crazy adj. hot, cute or adorable
dude – n. male (usually a friend or
n. any male or female at all, friend or not
acquaintance)

“Dude” is another slang term which has been around for a while.
First used in the 1850s in New York to refer to a well dressed male, it
then shifted to mean a city person in the country in the 1890s. In the
1970s, the term was taken up by the surfer subculture to address any
male at all and it became popular in Australian youth circles. Today, it
can even be used to address a female.58
The term phat (awesome, cool) derived from African American
Vernacular English (AAVE or Ebonics), has been a slang term used

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by African Americans since the 60s. It is now popular among Austra-


lian youth. Not simply a misspelling of the word “fat”, it actually has
nothing to do with being overweight. It is said to be an acronym for
“Pretty Hot And Tempting”.59
“Groovy” has been used by young Australians since the 60s and 70s.
It too began life back in the Jazz Age. It comes from the expression “in
the groove”, referring to a phonograph record of good jazz music.56
This table lists examples of youth slang which have survived and
evolved with the generations.

Old is new again


Boomers X-ers Y-ers
dude bogus yuppie
chill/chill out totally dawg
man awesome the bomb
far out bad oh snap
groovy way out dope
funky betty chick-flick
baby bitchin fly
chick chillin bling-bling
crazy bunk all that
dang deck as if

Characteristics of youth slang

Gen Y and Z slang is not a mishmash of words. Much of youth slang can
be categorised according to shared characteristics. Chapter 1 discussed
two types of youth words used today: contrarian and contradictory. A
common word is flipped to take an opposite meaning (e.g. sick means
great); or a word is used in both its positive and negative connotations
simultaneously. Below, a further five have been identified:

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1. Blended words: Single words made from two words. For example,
“crunk” is a combination of “crazy” and “drunk”, used to describe
someone who is between drunk and crazy.
chillax chill out and relax
credlocks dreadlocks worn for street credibility
wigger a white male who acts like a black male
describes an attractive female (delicious) with a great behind
bootylicious
(booty)
ghetto English (derived from the “bling” often desired in low-
blinglish
income neighbourhoods)

2. Virtual words: Computer terminology.


cyberslacking surfing the internet during work time
cyberloafing same as cyberslacking
blogosphere that part of the internet dominated by blogs

3. Analogous words: Words used to refer to something that bears


some sort of resemblance to the thing or action it denotes. For example,
ice refers to stone jewellery, particularly diamonds, because of the close
resemblance to frozen water.
donut circular car stunt

blouse an effeminate male

dogger a policeman, from the verb, “to dog”

solid genuine and down-to-earth

4. Onomatopoeic words: Imitations of the sound associated with


the thing or action they denote.
bling-bling jewellery
doof-doof electronically generated music (i.e. techno)
moshing dancing to rock music in a frenzied and violent way
cha-ching said when one comes into money

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5. Gender-specific words: Words that are generally used by


members of only one sex, and/or are used to refer to or address only
one gender. In our lexicon of youth slang, there is only one word used
by Gen Y and Z females exclusively to address other females (girlfriend).
Gender-specific words used by males to address or refer to females
are usually positive while these for referring to other males are usually
negative. Words used by males to address females and vice versa are
mostly gender-neutral (e.g. boo).
Some of the slang can be used by both sexes (generally words that
carry negative connotation). Others that can only be used by one sex
are generally words that carry positive connotation and express attrac-
tion for a member of the opposite sex. However, there are no Gen Y
and Z gender-specific words in the lexicon used by females to refer
to males in a positive way, although the Boomer terms “hunk” and
“spunk” are still used by young women.

Male referring to female (positive) bootylicious, fine

Male referring to female (negative) ho, skank

Male referring to male (neutral) cuz, dawg/dogg

Female referring to male (negative) cretin, player

There is also youth slang used by only one sex to refer to activities.
These words are mainly used by males to refer to activities usually
engaged in by males, such as fast driving, fighting and playing com-
puter games. Burnout, donut, deck, pwn and slaughtered are a few examples.
Youth terms can often be terribly confusing – they have strict rules
with some words, then others (like “crunk”, for example) can be used by
both males and females, referring to a member of the same or opposite
sex, and can be criticising or praising them. Its negative connotation,
as in “That skank was crunk!” contrast with the positive – “Man, you
were totes crunk on Saturday, it was sick!”

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Another curious feature of youth language is that multiple words


can have very similar meanings. Words meaning drunk for example,
include crunk, bloddo, fap, off chops, off your face/head, sloshed, maggot, mag-
goted and wasted.
Youth slang rarely refers to mundane activities like homework or
housework. Much of it refers to parties and music, as well as risk-taking
or anti-social activities, such as drinking, drug-taking, fighting and dan-
gerous driving. This is a feature of youth slang that has not changed
since the Boomers were young. Other terms are used to express approval
or disapproval of something or someone and to classify other people,
situations and scenarios.

Youth slang words – prevalence by function


To express approval of something or someone 18%
To express disapproval 12%
To classify (negative) 11%
To label risk-taking or anti-social behaviours 10%
To classify (neutral) 7.5%
To classify (positive) 5%
To refer to technology (gaming, social-networking, the Internet, etc) 4%
To refer to parties, dancing, music and hanging out 3.5%
Said when arriving or leaving/departing 3.5%
To address others 3%
Other 23%

Spelling and pronunciation of words are often altered by generations


Y and Z to sound cool or tough. This is particularly common in African
American street talk and has become popular in Australia. Dropping
“er” (gangsta), “g” (playin’), “l” (coo’), “h” (wit) and “u” (yo’), and adding
a “z” (coz/cuz) and “ie” (homie) to words are particularly common. Also,
many of the popular terms used by youth are shortened – for example,
bro or bra instead of “brother” and “sis” instead of “sister”. Australian

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youth, however, rarely give their entire conversations that “street” edge
(as do their American counterparts from the hood, or at least those in
’da hood on ’da telly). They are more likely to drop in just the one or
maybe two words in the course of a conversation.

coo’ cool homie homeboy


coz because playa player
cuz cousin playin playing
da the ta to
dat that thang thing
fo’ for wit with
foo’ fool whassup? what’s up?
gangsta gangster yo’ you
harda harder ax ask

Youth slang across subcultures


Slang spoken by a particular group of people is often deliberately
created and used to exclude people outside the group.57 Youth slang is
notorious for baffling parents and is a tongue reserved for peer-on-peer
communication. Just as youth slang excludes parents, sub-sets of youth
slang exclude fellow-youth. These sub-groups correspond with distinc-
tive subcultures. Many of these subcultures can be found internationally,
although their names may vary from place to place. These subcultures
are often influenced by American culture and are traditionally set apart
by styles of music and fashion in addition to slang.
In the USA today, young white people who are into hip hop and rap
and talk its jargon are called wiggers. It has been observed that they talk
an “MTV” version of ebonics; that is, it is not authentic and is heavily
influenced by commercialisation. Young white people are usually the
consumers not the producers of this subculture and its lingo. Interest-

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ingly, this lingo forms a large chunk of the lexicon of Australian youth
today. To young Australians, African American slang puts them “on the
edge” and is a way of rebelling against the white, middle-class value
system that they belong to.60

The evolution of youth subcultures

40s–70s Trends and Associations 80s–90s Trends and Associations To


Bodgies Elvis, jukeboxes and milkbars Punks Anti-establishment, spiky hair, Sk
and mohawks, safety pins Sk
Widgies Sk

Hipsters/ Jazz, slang, berets, cigar- B boys Breakdancers originating in Em


Beatniks ettes, poetry, underground, 1970s New York City. Popular-
anti-conformist, associated ised by the movie Flashdance
with writers like Jack Kerouac and Michael Jackson film clips
Surfers Into surfing as recreation, Ravers Going to “raves” (underground Go
spirituality or both, coastal dance parties), brightly coloured
lifestyle clothing (hippie-punk mix),
ecstasy and illicit drug use
Hippies Countercultural values, Skinheads Named for their shaven heads, Hi
peace, love, activism, into ska, punk and reggae ho
psychedelic drugs and art music, left, right and apolitical

Mods Sharp dressing, mopeds, Bogans Australian phenomenon, flannel In


scooters, mini-skirts, popular shirts, tight jeans, mullets, beer. Hi
music Think Farnsey, Barnsey and AC/
DC. White dominated

Glam Rock David Bowie, Kiss-inspired, Rappers Basketball and rap music, Va
extravagant haircuts, glitter, African American dominated
platform shoes
Rockers Leather jackets and Grunge Ripped and tatty clothing, Ri
motorcycles, counter-culture, greasy long hair, music like
tough Nirvana and Pearl Jam

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Y outh S lang

Youth subcultures have come and gone over the centuries, but they
rose to particular prominence in the 1950s. During this decade, it was
the hipsters, and bodgies and widgies, and in the 60s, it was the hippies,
mods and rockers. The hipsters, with origins amongst the hepcats of
the Swing Era,61 later evolved into
the hippies. This is an interesting
point to note, that although many of
Today Trends and Associations
the stock standard youth subcultures
Skaters/ Skating as a way of life,
Skaties/ originally a rebellious, non-
of the past aren’t around in obvious
Skegs conforming culture, is now forms today, there are noticeable
more commercialised
elements from the past influencing
Emos Black, side-swept hair, modern subcultures. Each subculture
facial piercings, eyeliner,
“emotional” or depressing is influenced by those groups that
themes have come before them.
Goths Black clothing, tattoos and
body art, dark music and art
It’s important to remember how
significant sub-cultures are to young
people, and how the language they
Hip Break-dancing, graffiti use reflects this. As much as it might
hoppers and hip hop music. Can be
underground or mainstream seem that the words are used by
leaning
people and against people merely to
Indie/ Trendy, “alternative”, usually exclude and define their own particu-
Hipster university-educated, into
progressive art and music. lar group, they are also a signifier of
A spin-off of the Hipster belonging. By utilising certain slang
movement
words and not others, a young person
Valley Girls Paris Hilton, celebrity-driven
ideals, valtalk and the latest identifies himself or herself as a part
trends. Female dominated of something, a group that reflects
Riot Grrrls Originiating in the U.S. in the its members’ stance on things. It is
1990s. Expressing feminism
through rock bands, zines therefore an easy, and usually fun,
and a DIY aesthetic way for them to express themselves.

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Subculture Slang
Mods be cool the man clyde
Hippies peace way-out square
Rappers let’s bounce freakin bling-bling
Skaters grommet session sketchy
Valley Girls like whatever totally

Regional youth slang


Youth slang varies from one part of Australia to another. Many regions,
cities, and individual schools have their own slang terms which baffle
people from neighbouring areas. Even words that are understood more
or less nationwide can be much more prevalent or popular in some
parts than elsewhere, as noted by Randal Thomas. For example, while
the words sweet and rad are used and understood more frequently in
Queensland than anywhere else, both are used in other states and ter-
ritories too.62

Word State or territory where most popular63


When we dislike something
festy Queensland
feral Queensland
wrong Queensland
hectic New South Wales
bogus Victoria
munted Western Australia
gross Tasmania

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Word State or territory where most popular63


When we like something
that’s rad Queensland
sweet Queensland
ace Victoria
gun South Australia
fully sick New South Wales
mad New South Wales
wicked Western Australia
nuff Northern Territory
awesome Tasmania

The next table64 presents some more regional slang words used
mostly by youth – some have been around for a while, while others are
newer additions. The origin of some is uncertain.

State or territory
Word Meaning and usage
of origin
Animal Good, crazy person South Australia
Bad devon Something off, gross, not good New South Wales
To drive around the block, usually in a noisy,
Blockie Tasmania
pimped out car
Uncouth and uneducated person. Now used
Bogan around Australia, but said to have originated Victoria
in Victoria
Dance floor Getting friendly with a member of the opposite
Queensland
action sex on the dance floor
Dart Cigarette Victoria
Containers of nitrogen dioxide intended for soda
Nags/nangs/
stream bottles or whipped cream dispensers, Western Australia
nitros
inhaled by some teenagers
Eastern Melbourne suburbs term for an
Nanger Victoria
uncouth person
Nerpy Good, cool Western Australia

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State or territory
Word Meaning and usage
of origin
Someone who has no friends (“Nigel-no-
friends”). Used by school children in the
Nigel Northern Territory
Northern Territory (also used in the mainland
eastern states)
Stands for “not one friend”. Same as “nigel” or
Nof Victoria
“scott”
Used to mean that you are in fact doing
Not even Queensland
something
Nuffest Silly or stupid Northern Territory
Peachy A champion New South Wales
PGB Stands for “post grog bog” Victoria
Stands for “pretty hot and tender” in
Phat Queensland
Queensland (referring to a young woman)
Phoofy
(can rhyme
with either Fluffy. “Phoofy” hair was popular in the eighties Victoria
“boofy” or
“goofy”)
Piece Sandwich South Australia
As in “Scott (has got) no friends” – same as
Scott Queensland
“Nigel” and “nof”
A resident of Western Sydney. A “bogan” in
Westie New South Wales
other states
Derived from “and so’s your mum”
(used throughout Australia) – “You cry like
a girl” “Yeah, your mum!” It comes from the
Your mum Queensland
predominantly black American use of the
joking phrase, “Your Mum’s so ...”
[insert insult here].

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Originally a clothing company, the "Rockstar" brand has expanded into several
industries, including bars and restaurants, cosmetics, music events and energy drinks.
By manipulating social media such as Facebook, along with clever sponsorship deals,
it has positioned itself as a worldwide sensation, encouraging all-important brand
identification. The "Unit" car decal is a motocross, bmx and fmx clothing brand popular
with young men.

Filler words
Filler words are relied on by all age-groups to keep conversation flowing,
to avoid uncomfortable silences or to recall something. Sometimes
they are part of someone’s everyday spoken language simply out of
habit. Common fillers used by Aussies include “um”, “arr”, “mmm”,
“y’know”, “you know what I mean?”, “and stuff ” and “sort of thing”.
A certain subset of young people use filler words to reflect their
style. Valley talk or “valtalk”, mentioned earlier, is a style of jargon that
involves the excessive use of filler words. In Summer Heights High, a con-
troversial ABC TV comedy series of 2007 and 2008 set in a Melbourne
high school, Ja’mie King speaks valtalk. Some of the fillers she – and
her friends in this subset of young women – use repeatedly are: as if,
seriously, whatever, like, totally, duh, stuff, so, way. “Seriously, as if. Like
you’re going to pass. Like, all that stuff is, like, so way over your head.
You’re, like, totally so stupid.” “Whatever!”

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