| The Mouths of Babes |
[Apr. 23rd, 2008|01:23 pm] |
So for some reason I have been getting nostalgic for my playground days, almost a quarter of a century ago now, and the rich language we used then that is mostly now lost forever. One term that seems to have survived is "fit" for a good-looking member of the opposite sex; as such, I only cite it because it must have been ten years or more before I realised it had any linguistic correlation with muscular development and endurance. I would have used it for someone completely rubbish at sports without a second thought if I fancied them, I'm sure. And, needless to say, I never fancied anyone who was good at sports.
Other vernacular I remember from the time was "tight" or "sly" to refer to someone being cruel in any way, irrespective of the ungenerosity or deviousness involved. "That's well sly!" If you were being cruel to someone and wanted to rub their nose in their ill-fortune, you could say "Spi on you" which meant exactly the same as Nelson Muntz's "ha ha". The derivation of this remains completely mysterious to me to this day.
Most playground jargon is related to taunting of course, and there was a rich vein of derogatory terms usually implying mental handicap ("spaz", "mong" etc) or homosexual inclination ("bummer", "gaylord"). I don't remember much actual swearing as I understand it today, though there were bowdlerisations such as "wazzock", which with hindsight I assume to be a childish form of "wanker".
EDIT: I just remembered that I wanted to mention that our phrase for what Americans call "making out" was and probably still is "getting off with". Mainly because I told ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mercuryglass this once and she was horrified: "ugh, that's so graphic" or somesuch. Crazy Americans!
The other liberty that schoolkids take with language is of course to give their teachers inappropriate nicknames. From what I recall some of these were crude sexualisations of names (e.g. "Titflop" for Flitcroft), quite a few were beard-related ("Dickchin", "Fred Fungus"), but most, bizarrely, were based on identification with historical personages that, at that point, I had never heard of. There was "Lennie" Hutton and "Hairy" Neeves, and many years later I get those, but I'm still none the wiser about "Ben" Lyons. There was an actor called Ben Lyon who enjoyed some fame in the 20s and 30s, but such a nickname couldn't have stuck to even such a superannuated teacher for 40 or 50 years... could it?
You know the drill. Spill the beans about the lost languages of your own childhoods... |
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| Comments: |
The portmanteauisation of "wanker" and "pillock" is given as a theory there, and I don't think it can be totally discounted.
I love the idea that it might be the Middle English for a bull's penis, handed down reverently through the generations. But if that's the case, why did we never call anyone a "pizzle"?
You mean young Britons didn't accost each other with all rhyming slang?! Damn that Guy Ritchie.
I went to Catholic school, and there must have been some severe punishment for playground insults because I'm having trouble remembering any. "Retard" and "lesbo" are about all I can muster.
We were up north, not in London. Any Cockneys tried to come up our way, we'd settle their hash with a swift knee to the bollocks.
Well, we still say 'cobblers' sometimes. No-one says ' berk' though, for shame.
"Making out" generally doesn't get much into "heavy petting," whereas "getting off with" implies orgasm. At least, that's how this American uses those two terms.
When someone did something really smart, we'd say, "He's got kidneys!" No, I have no idea why. And genitalia, both male and female if I remember correctly, was called your "bike." As in, "He got kicked in his bike." Again, I have no idea why.
Oh, and "choice," meaning excellent. "Oooh, that's choice." Or even, "Oooh, he's choice." I'm pretty sure that had something to do with an advertising campaign by something having to do with "Grade A Choice Steaks." Whether it was a grocery store, restaurant, or a cattleman's association, I don't remember.
And I wouldn't be surprised if those were all limited to my grade school.
"Making out" and "getting off" imply nothing! They're two of the most generic verbs in the language combined with two common prepositions. Do Americans orgasm when they're "getting off" the bus?
Or maybe it's just that British heavy petting is much more... satisfying than the American variety ;)
'Getting off' would not imply orgasm to me; I think once one party has an orgasm, that's 'having it off'
'Am!' would probably be the word I have most completely abandoned to the mists of time/the playground. It was used to expression [sometimes mock-] shock, or horror at the bad or deviant behaviour of others. Often it proceeded 'you are going to be in trouble!!!!' (every exclamation mark was expressed, I assure you), or 'I'm telling!'. For particularly terrible transgressions the 'm' sound would be extended; 'ammmmmmmmmmm!'
*express. Not expression.
I do apologise, I've been at the wine.
I grew up in California in the seventies and early 80s, so our slang leaned heavily to such words as 'grody' 'tubular' 'awesome' and such phrases as 'omigod! gag me with a spoon!'. Not a terribly pleasant time to remember.
*shudders*
My little sister very much enjoyed the phrase 'ding dong! you're wrong!'and employed it so often with such enthusiasm that it has remained a reprehensible part of the vocabularies of all members of my family. She also had a difficult time distinguishing the meanings of the words 'testicles' and 'tentacles' and would use them interchangeably...
Yeah, it's really funny when very young children get confused and call it "testicle porn"...
On a less filthy note, I remember my little brother always used to call spaghetti "basketti" and cushions "pushions". He was much more endearing back then!
Ben Lyon had his own TV show, Life With The Lyons, as late as 1962...
Well, there you are. And twenty-five years later his legacy lived on, in one indomitable Cheshire school.
i still think it's quite crass!
select childhood slang:
(bay area, california, 1980s)
hella - adds emphasis
moded/ "you got moded!" - you've been totally insulted, aren't you embarassed
fine - seems similar to your "fit", something you say about a cute boy or girl. emphasize vowels according to degree of fine-ness. like, "oh, he's FOOOOOOINE"
"ugh, that's so graphic"
Interesting - I always felt there was something repulsively graphic about the term 'making out'. Graphic's the wrong word perhaps - but there's a kind of crudeness to it for me. But actually there are no terms for that that I'm actually happy with. I tended to go for good old fashioned 'snogging', but I hate that too.
When I was growing up 'getting off with' felt not remotely linked in derivation to what I now understand by the expression 'getting off'. In the same way, perhaps that if you were 'going out with' someone you were unlikely to be actually literally going out anywhere. But, as clearly the two are inextricably linked for your friend, I can see why she considers it graphic. To us they were just random words. I don't think I ever encountered the expression 'getting off' in the sense she understands it unless I was an adult, and then only in American tv or film.
Gadgee (old man)
Tekka (teacher)
Penka (marble - see wor geordie's lost his..)
and to contribute to the running theme
Getting off with = snogging
Having it off with = shagging
Thinking about this one thing strikes me. Up north schools contained Sharons and Kevs. I understand other parts of the world have different names for these species, any memories?
My understanding of the slang is that "getting off with someone" is young-person slang for snogging and perhaps light gropery, and "getting someone off" is making someone orgasm.
As for other language we had "chinny reckon" for things we didn't believe, and when someone got told off, or badly insulted, they were told to "feel the juice" (occasionally shortened to "ftj" which was just about possible to be disguised as a mini coughing fit).
Ah we had chinny reckon as well, only it was pronounced "chinny rack on"
Aha, I think "chinny reckon" was fairly ubiquitous, although up in Cheshire it was invariably shortened to just "chin". Four syllables was quite a stretch for us in those days.
Am I really the only one old enough to remember the phrase "Joey" being near-universal as a term implying mental limpness? I'm not so old that I realised at the time it referred to a real person, it was just what everyone said. And I was rather unquestioning at the time.
If somebody was being unkind to another person (calling them a Joey, maybe), we'd say "That's bad!" (which, you see, predates bad meaning good). It was 1988 or so before "bad" had positive connotations, and if you did a particularly neat trick with your Spinner (remember Spinners, eh, eh?) you might say you did a "well bad spin" or suchlike. I've been trying to bring "well" back into vogue as a qualifying adjective, but it hasn't worked yet.
Now, if you want to indicate that something is negative (ie bad meaning bad), I understand that the current term is "long". This has replaced "deep," which itself superceded "dark". It's all rather confusing.
Edited at 2008-04-24 12:02 pm (UTC)
There's always Nathan Barley and his "well weapon!" I'm kinda sad that "weapon" hasn't (as far as I know) caught on as a term of approbation, I thought it was genius.
I remember that. People said "Joey Deacon!" while putting their tongues behind their lower lips on the "on" of "Deacon". Or sometimes they just made any noise with their tongues behind their lower lips.
I remember a distinct school fetish with noses. Lots of name calling like 'cherry picker', 'brown noser'.
The taunt of 'homo' was tossed around for a bit, but I can't recall anyone actually knowing what it meant. Raising good ol' redneck children, I s'ppose
JOEY (as in Deacon, the poor mentally retarded guy from Blue Peter): for any general twit (to be accompanied by limp wristed flailing and a tongue in front of your lower teeth pushing your mouth out in a bulge). See also SPASTIC, SPAZZ, SPAZZA, SPAKKA and SPACKTARD. Ironically "The Spastics Society" rebranding to SCOPE just ended up with people shouting SCOPEY at each other. And yes, also MONG, MONGTARD etc.
SKILL: anything generally great (as in "that was well skill!!"). See also GEM ("Michelle got DIY Abortion Barbie for her birthday, it's totally gem!")
Nicknames we weren't too hot on really. Mr Wickstead became WICKSY. Mr Badley was known as CAPTAIN DANDRUFF or BEETHOVEN (he was a music teacher). Mrs Gallyer was generally greeted by "wouldn't wanna sail in THAT" (very tenuous). Mrs Owens was known universally as The Bearded Dragon. Quite accurate really. Dadswell=DADSMELL, Guppy=FLUPPY, GUFFY.
which reminds me
FART, GUFF, BLOW-OFF for flatulence. Usually "EEEW Dadsmell done a blow-off again!" SKIDDY for a really really possibly pant-smearing PARP.
GOOLIES, HAIRIES, NADS, SACK, SCROTES, WILLY etc for man bits. Not really any for girl bits. FANNY if anything. Leading on to FANNY BATTER (Dadsmell fingered Boring Laura by the bikesheds and got covered in fanny batter! EEEEEEEEEW sick.")
I remember SLAG being used a bit. Maybe SLAPPER in senior school.
Sl*t, sh*t, tw*t, c*nt, d*ck, c*ck etc were never really used though. I almost made myself pariah for coming out with "I hate Anita, she's a real CUNN" "GASP! You don't even know what that means!!!!"
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