Definition and Examples of Slang in English

Definition and Examples of Slang in English Slang is an informal nonstandard variety of speech characterized by newly coined and rapidly changing words and phrases. In his book Slang: The Peoples Poetry (OUP, 2009), Michael Adams argues that slang is not merely a lexical phenomenon, a type of word, but a linguistic practice rooted in social needs and behaviors, mostly the complementary needs to fit in and to stand out. The Characteristics of Slang   The most significant characteristic of slang overlaps with a defining characteristic of jargon: slang is a marker of in-group solidarity, and so it is a correlate of human groups with shared experiences, such as being children at a certain school or of a certain age, or being a member of a certain socially definable group, such as hookers, junkies, jazz musicians, or professional criminals. (Keith Allan and Kate Burridge, Forbidden Words. Cambridge University Press, 2006) The Language of Outsiders   Slang serves the outs as a weapon against the ins. To use slang is to deny allegiance to the existing order, either jokingly or in earnest, by refusing even the words which represent conventions and signal status; and those who are paid to preserve the status quo are prompted to repress slang as they are prompted to repress any other symbol of potential revolution. (James Sledd, On Not Teaching English Usage. The English Journal, November 1965)  The downtrodden are the great creators of slang. . . . Slang is . . . a pile of fossilized jokes and puns and ironies, tinselly gems dulled eventually by overmuch handling, but gleaming still when held up to the light. (Anthony Burgess, A Mouthful of Air, 1992) Standing Out and Fitting In   It is not clear to what extent the slang impulse to enliven speech, the impulse to stand out, mingles with the slang impulse toward social intimacy, the impulse to fit in. At times they seem like oil and water, but at others the social and poetic motivations emulsify into one linguistic practice. . . .  All of us, young and old, black and white, urban and suburban have slang, and, with your eyes closed, we can tell black guys chillaxin with their buddies from young soccer moms dishing out about the latest issue of Jane*. We share more slang than separates us, but what separates us tells us and others where we fit in, or perhaps, where we hope to fit in, and where we dont. . . . As a social marker, though, slang works: you know that youre among the old, tired, gray, and hopeless, rather than hip, vivid, playful, and rebellious, if only in spirit, when you hear no slang. Slang is a tell even in its absence. (Michael Adams, Slang: The Peoples Poetry. Oxford University Press, 2009)   Your mother reads and reads and reads, she wants English, as much as she can get her hands on . . .. Id come late Friday afternoon, it used to be that I would go home with a magazine or two and maybe a paper, but she wanted more, more slang, more figures of speech, the bees knees, the cats pajamas, horse of a different color, dog-tired, she wanted to talk like she was born here, like she never came from anywhere else . . .. (Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Houghton Mifflin, 2005) Modern Slang in London   I love modern  slang. Its as colorful, clever, and disguised from outsiders as slang ever was and is supposed to be. Take bare, for example, one of a number of slang terms recently banned by a London school. It means a lot of, as in theres bare people here, and is the classic concealing reversal of the accepted meaning that you also find in wicked, bad and cool. Victorian criminals did essentially the same with back slang, reversing words so that boy became yob and so on.  The other banned words are equally interesting. Extra, for example, mischievously stresses the superfluous in its conventional definition, as in reading the whole book is extra, innit? And that much-disapproved innit? is in fact the nest-ce pas? English has needed since the Normans forgot to bring it with them.  And who would not admire rinsed for something worn out or overusedchirpsing for flirting, bennin for doubled-up with laughter, or wi-five for an electronically delivered high-five? My bad, being n ew, sounds more sincere than old, tired, Im sorry (Sos never quite cut it).   Mouse potato for those who spend too much time on PCs is as striking as salmon and aisle salmon for people who will insist on going against the flow in crowds or supermarket aisles. Manstanding is what husbands and partners typically do while their wives or partners are actually getting on with the shopping. Excellent. (Charles Nevin, The Joy of Slang. BBC News, October 25, 2013) Old Slang: Grub, Mob, Knock Off, and Clear as Mud   When we refer . . . to food as grub, it is perhaps hard to realize that the word goes back to Oliver Cromwells time; from early 18th century come mob, and also knock off, to finish; and from early 19th century, the sarcastic use of clear as mud. (Paul Beale, editor of Partridges Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge, 1991) The Life Span of Slang Words   With the exception of cool, which retains its effectiveness after well over half a century, slang wordsgroovy, phat, radical, smokinhave a very brief life span in which they can be used to express sincere enthusiasm. Then they revert to irony or, at best, expressions of a sort of mild sardonic approval. (Ben Yagoda, When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It. Broadway Books, 2007)  The latest slang term for defecation, however, is dropping the kids off at the pool, which offers hope for a new generation of euphemistic suburbanites. (William Safire, Kiduage. The New York Times, 2004) Slanguage   The expression slanguage has been in the English language for well over a hundred years and has an entry in reputable dictionaries like the Macquarie and the Oxford. One of its first written appearances was as early as 1879, and since that time it has been in regular useThe slanguage of a sporting reporter is a fearful and wonderful thing, to give just one early example. The word slang has given rise to quite a number of wonderful blended or compounded words, such as slanguage, and many of them have been in the language a very long time. (Kate Burridge, Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History. HarperCollins Australia, 2011) Can O' Beans on Sloppy Slang   Well, said Can o Beans, a bit hesitantly, imprecise speech is one of the major causes of mental illness in human beings. . . .  Ã‚  The inability to correctly perceive reality is often responsible for humans insane behavior. And every time they substitute an all-purpose, sloppy slang word for the words that would accurately describe an emotion or a situation, it lowers their reality orientations, pushes them farther from shore, out onto the foggy waters of alienation and confusion. . . .  Slang possesses an economy, an immediacy thats attractive, all right, but it devalues experience by standardizing and fuzzing it. It hangs between humanity and the real world like a . . . a veil. Slang just makes people more stupid, thats all, and stupidity eventually makes them crazy. Id hate to ever see that kind of craziness rub off onto objects. (Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All. Bantam, 1990) The Lighter Side of American Slang I know only two words of American slang: swell and lousy. I think swell is lousy, but lousy is swell. (J.B. Priestley) * Jane was a magazine designed to appeal to young women. It ceased publication in 2007. Pronunciation: slang