Slang

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Lolly Ockerstrom

Slang is unconventional, hard-hitting, metaphorical language that is colloquial, sometimes vulgar, and always innovative--nothing registers change in cultural thought faster or more dramatically than slang. Lexicologist Stuart Berg Flexner defines slang more precisely as "the body of words and expressions frequently used by or intelligible to a rather large portion of the general American public, but not accepted as good, formal usage by the majority." Linguists Lars Andersson and Peter Trudgill, on the other hand, claim there is no good definition of slang and quote the poet Carl Sandburg: "Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands, and goes to work." Although linguists make no value judgments on levels of language, the general public seldom views slang without passion. It is seen as either a harbinger of hope and change (particularly among the young) or as a threat to what is perceived as "proper" language and society.

Informal and spoken rather than formal and written, slang is not the same as dialect, nor is it equal to swearing, although it may take on a vulgar edge, and it almost always evokes negative attitudes. Characterized by its ability to startle, slang falls below the "neutral register" of daily speech: terms such as "whore," "ho," "tart," and "slagheap" for the neutral "prostitute," for example. Perhaps most importantly, slang changes its identity according to who is speaking. What is slang to one, to another is not, depending on one's educational, economic, or social position, and even according to location and generation. Slang is generated from any number of specific language communities or subgroups: jazz musicians, college students, narcotics addicts, immigrants, the military, show business, street gangs, etc. From each of these sometimes overlapping groups come specific terms which identify practices and behaviors particular to its members. Distinct lifestyle choices fuel the need to find a language to name evolving social behaviors and thought, which often challenge more established cultural codes. "Mallie," a term unthinkable prior to the rise of American shopping malls, refers to persons (usually young) who frequent shopping malls for sociability and entertainment. Although most slang is generated by male speakers, the rise of feminism has spawned a female slang or "girl talk," showing the degree to which ideas about gender are changing. Because slang is spoken rather than written, it lacks the status of standard written English. Once slang terms appear in dictionaries, they are seen as having gained currency and, therefore, fuller entrance into the culture. Until then, slang is fully accessible only to insiders of particular subgroups.

Slang also changes over time, and either disappears quickly or becomes fully integrated into the language. Few, if any, would now recognize the word "knucker," which originated from the criminal world of the mid-1880s, but most would understand its current incarnation, "pickpocket," which originated from late eighteenth-century criminal slang. Drug slang changes quickly, in part so that drug dealers can more easily spot undercover agents. "Phone," "bike," and "bus," once slang versions of the more formal "telephone," "bicycle," and "omnibus," have now all but replaced the original terms. Most slang coinages are local in both time and place; much of it, like other cultural phenomena, originates in such large cities as New York or London and fans out to distant towns and cities.

The exact origin of slang is not known, although given the nature of language as a living, changing entity, it is probably as old as language itself. Andersson and Trudgill identify Aristophanes, the fourth-century-B.C. Greek playwright, as the first writer to use slang. The Roman writers Plautus, Horace, Juvenal, and Petronius also employed slang for stylistic purposes. Shakespeare also used slang in his plays. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, underworld criminal societies became rich and potent sources of slang, some of which is reflected in early detective fiction by such writers as Wilkie Collins and Agatha Christie.

What differentiates slang from other categories of speech (such as jargon or argot) is one's reasons for using it. In Slang, Today and Yesterday, Eric Partridge identifies several reasons for using slang, including the desire to be different, novel, or picturesque; to enrich the language; to engage in playfulness; to identify one's self with a certain school, trade, or social class; to reduce or disperse the pomposity or excessive seriousness of an occasion; to be secret. Slang is always used self-consciously, with a desire to create a particular identity. One might say (but not write) affectionately, "Sweetheart, you da cat's meow," or "Yo--what's happenin'?"

In the twentieth century, the development of slang has paralleled the rise of dominant cultural movements throughout the decades. The 1920s left its mark with jazz and the rise of the machine, creating such terms as "flapper" (a female dancer in a short skirt) and "percolate" (to run smoothly). The 1930s contributed "dehorn," a hobo word for bootleg whiskey or denatured alcohol, and such railroad slang as "groundhog," meaning a train's brake operator. The 1940s was the decade of the military with such coinages as "pea-shooter," from World War II Army Air Force pilots to denote a fighter pilot or plane, and the word "buddy" (meaning "pal"), which, although created in the 1800s, was heavily used by American GIs and took on a particularly sentimental connotation. This term later evolved into several variations such as "ace boon" or "ace buddy" in the black community. The 1950s' beatnik generation revived 1930s jive talk and used such enduring slang phrases as "cool it" to mean relax, and such colorful phrases as "cool as a Christian with aces wired" to signify someone who is tranquilly confident.