Professor Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at Reading University, said: ‘There is nothing inherently inferior about slang but it doesn’t cross boundaries very well. Thorne said he found teenagers using old-fashioned words such as ‘reek’, ‘trek’, ‘luka’ (from lucre), ‘galavanting’ and ‘rapscallion’ as new slang.īut some critics say slang lowers educational standards and damages the career prospects of youngsters. Teenagers are also adopting old-fashioned words picked up from grandparents as ‘gran slang’. Texters are using abbreviations such as ‘YOLO’ (you only live once), ‘LMAO’ (laughing my ass off) and ‘CBA’ (can’t be arsed). Internet-savvy mothers have also emerged as slang artists with words such as ‘boyf’ for boyfriend, ‘hubz’ for husband and ‘soz’ for sorry now in common use. There is also ‘nim-nimnim’, describing boring adult conversation, and ‘meh’, a verbal shrug of indifference. Other words and phrases used by teenagers, such as ‘totes’ - or totally - and ‘amazeballs’ - meaning amazing - also feature in the new dictionary. The word ‘merk’ has evolved to mean ‘to humiliate’ among west London teenagers, but originates from American street gangs where it is used as a verb to describe murder.
Many of the words used by today’s teenagers can be traced to the street jargon of the Caribbean, according to the research.Įxamples include ‘choong’ and ‘peng’, meaning attractive, and ‘blud’ for friend. The dictionary also contained sections on new youth slang, which experts say is changing more rapidly because of immigration. Other household slang used by families include ‘grooglums’, the bits of food left in the sink after washing up, and ‘slabby-gangaroot’, the dried ketchup left around the mouth of the bottle.īill Lucas, professor of learning and a trustee of the English Project at Winchester University, which catalogued the family slang words, told the Sunday Times: ‘A lot of these words are inspired by the sound or the look of a thing, or are driven by an emotional response to that being described.’ He added: ‘Once associated with enclosed communities such as the prison, the army barracks, the factory floor and the older public schools, more recently slang has escaped its boundaries and is running wild.’ The new words were published this week in the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, which examines the changing language of today’s society.Īuthor Tony Thorne, an academic at King’s College London, said domestic slang was now being used in the many British households.
According to researchers, people are now more than likely to ask for 'splosh', 'chupley' or 'blish' when they fancy a cup of teaĪccording to the research, people are now more than likely to ask for ‘splosh’, ‘chupley’ or ‘blish’ when they fancy a cup of tea.Īnd among the 57 new words identified meaning television remote control are ‘blabber’, ‘zapper’, ‘melly’ and ‘dawicki’.