MetaFilter posts tagged with slang

Writer, musician, polymath

PeterMcDermott — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:58:21 -0800

Stan Kelly-Bootle began his career as a member of the earliest wave of computer programmers, who wrote prolifically about a wide range of computing issues. Back in his home town though, he's probably best known for his contributions to a lexicon of local slang, Lern Yerself Scouse, and for his canonical and not-so-canonical contributions to the British folk repertoire. Stan's website

How to sell wolf tickets.

Bookhouse — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:50:55 -0800

A guide to prison slang. Texas prison guards' guide to prison slang. Jim Goad's guide to prison slang.(He should know). More prison slang. Yet another guide to prison slang. Gang slang collected by police. Even more prison slang. Barely readable tripod page with more.

Reflection's Edge

Pants! — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:34:13 -0800

Reflection's Edge, a monthly fiction zine (back issues), has many resources for writers, including slang/dialect (don't miss the links to Texas Talk, the Internet Guide to Jazz Age Slang, or the 1736 Canting Dictionary), writing advice and interviews, and advice on how to sell your story.

Vulgar Song and Slang from the 19th Century and earlier

Kattullus — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 06:55:22 -0800

Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from 1811. Canting Dictionary (thieving slang) from 1736. Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes (1536–1896). Before you end up scragged, ottomised, and grinning in a glass case, you should learn to sing Frisky Moll's Song... and know what the heck it means:
A famble, a tattle, and two popps,
Had my Boman when he was ta’en;
But had he not bouz’d in the diddle shops,
He’d still been in Drury-Lane.

New Dictionary Words: extraordinary rendition or girlfriend experience?

wendell — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:04:59 -0800

Hundreds of 'new' words in the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary (Reuters story), also via BBC, AP and the Fox Television Stations (headline with no story, surprising since its publisher is another Rupert Murdoch subsidiary... but I digress). Some are obvious: hoodie, wiki, POTUS, plasma screen; some reflect our times: Gitmo, Londonistan, extraordinary rendition, carbon footprint; some are absolutely slangy: celebutante, McMansion, muffin top, man bag, disemvowel, barbecue stopper, girlfriend experience... Also in the book: ho. And not the version Santa Claus says. The new dictionary is available "online, on mobiles, as a desktop application or integrated with Microsoft Word" - when you buy the deadtree edition.

live from the custody suite!

parmanparman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:41:25 -0800

Got Playdar? Have you been seagulled lately? Find some great new words to insert into your work, family and friendly conversation. Have you seen that new bitcom?

Charlie Foxtrot.

Miko — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:47:46 -0800

Embrace the Suck. Intensive military activity creates an incubator for slang. By bringing together people from geographically diverse backgrounds, putting them into stressful circumstances, and teaching them a new language of jargon and acronym, the armed forces create fertile ground for new idioms - many of which return home in civvies when the conflicts are over. In the Civil War, World War I and World War II, in Korea and in Viet Nam, servicepeople created or popularized now-familiar terms like shoddy, hotshot, cooties, tailspin, fleabag, face time, joystick, SNAFU, FUBAR, flaky, gung ho, no sweat, flame-out, and many, many others. Now, the GWOT brings us a new generation of 'milspeak'. Military columnist Austin Bay has published an early collection of neologisms from Gulf War II. On NPR, Bay explains what The Suck is, how to identify a fobbit, and why Marines look down on the attitude of Semper I.

Medical terms, such as "LOLFDGB" - Little Old Lady, Fall Down, Go Boom

dios — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 09:32:19 -0800

Doctor's slang that might be on your chart.

The art of the con

blahblahblah — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:23:15 -0800

Do you know your close-up con games? Some classics: the Tip, the Jamaican Switch, the Wire (and its incredibly complicated cousin, the Rag), the Texas Twist, the Pigeon Drop, the Spanish Prisoner (or Nigerian Scam) and the ancient pig-in-a-poke. Also, learn the argot of the classic con artist, view some videos of card scam moves and discover some patter as well, or just see how the language of the con has been used in one of the more famous papers in sociology.

Dude!

bigmike — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 06:07:53 -0800

Dude! ...Dude. [via AIR]