I am going to provide three common situations that Americans at least typically use slang for. Please state your current age, gender, and what slang you used as a teen versus now. I’ll go first:
32 years old, female
A good or favorable thing or event: then- awesome now- cool
A bad or unfavorable thing or event: then- sucks or bummer now- sucks
Something putting you at a disadvantage, or someone taking advantage of your situation: then- screwed now- screwed (usually followed with a preposition such as up, over. back then, the word “royally” was usually included.)
If you can think of any other really common situations that are always replied to with slang rather than with a formal response, feel free to add them to the list.
I am especially interested in dopers who are currently young adults, in which case you would only have a “now”.
By the way, when I was a teenager, bummer was specifically a bad acid trip. It was not generalized to mean “anything unpleasant” until a few years later.
Yeah, Aes, I try to keep my hand in. A coupla years before it got the “ph,” fat meant something was just stuffed with soul or meaning. “Man, listen to that fat bass line!” Now, phat just means very good; so, phat is not as fat as fat was. :rolleyes:
Someone putting you in a bad situation= Screwed, Messed up
That is for me and some of my friends anyway…for the most part our slang is kept fairly simple unless its words we made up ourselves, in that case nobody knows but us.
This is one of the reasons I am asking. I have a friend who uses “yanked” for sucked, “hosed” for screwed, and some other very outdated language. I don’t mind when it is just us, but out in public, it is embarrassing. But then I realized that I might be just as out of date as he is! He has a teenage son - I would think he would pick up some more modern language from him.
I find it interesting that younger people are still using things like heinous and bites. Those were very 80s phrases. I wonder if slang goes retro just like clothing? Teens clothes have 60s overtones, and their slang has 80s overtones?
Oh, and Arch Trout - Noting that your location is Scotland, I can’t help but hear your slang with a Scottish accent - the sexiest accent there is in the world to my ears. I don’t care it if is swearing too much - I bet it sounds wonderful when you say it.
56, (gotcha beat AskNott ) female, born and bred in the South
Good/favorable event/thing:
Then - blast or cherry, bitchin’, copasetic (sp?), just a gas
Now - sweet
Bad/unfavorable event/thing:
Then - bummer; Mercy Sakes, I guess…see below
Now - fuck
Disadvantage/Taken advantage of:
Then - bum’s rush
Now - screwed
{hijack} I try to act my age, but it’s so damn hard. I had a recent incident leaving a huge conference at which I had spoken several times, (so I was not anonymous , unfortunately…this is important to the story) walking to the parking lot with a good friend I work with, stepped off the sidewalk and twisted the crap out of my ankle. Wearing boots and long coat I twirled around several times as I was “going down” yelling “Fk" all the while; then as soon as I landed in the Forsythia bushes remembered I was supposed to be a Southern Lady and said “Mercy Sakes” which I never say, btw. The story is all over my place of work and people greet me with either "FK" or “Mercy Sakes” depending on their age mostly. My friend does an excellent rendition of me twirling into the Forsythia bushes and the "F******k” gets longer each time; people stop by our office for a demo and she loves to oblige. {hijack}
My mother was holding my child as I prepped the car for a trip to the store. I told her to “put him in the carseat, it’s cool” and she hesitated. I kept prepping the car and said, “it’s okay, really, you can put him in the carseat, it’s cool”.
Finally she said, “Well, I’m waiting because I’m afraid that it’s too hot to put him in the carseat.” Then I realized she didn’t realize I was speaking of the temperature … “No, mom, I checked the buckles. It’s cool enough in there for him to be buckled.”
21, male and a pretty heavy gamer (I know, I know.) My slang changes rapidly over time and across games, so these are just the ones I’ve been using consistently for a while.
Good thing/event: nice, cool, awesome
Bad thing/event: sucked, pretty wretched, decidedly suboptimal
