Spyke
lemmy.sdf.org

Radical. Tubular. Bodacious. Gnarly. Basically anything a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle would have said.

78
undrwaterreply
lemmy.world

18 year old daughter just uttered "gnarly" tonight during a horror movie.

We were shocked!

16
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

God its hard to remember but yes all of those were said completely seriously, not a drip of sarcasm or tongue in cheek. Now it's hard thinking that anyone would say tubular without being completely ironic

10

It only works when you say it with that TV California surfer accent too though, like

Shyeah, duuude, it's like tohtally tubular! 😎

3

I love surfer slang because it's rooted in a verbose comprehension of the English language. The hyperbole of it brings me joy lol.

7

I really try not to say this out loud. Im mostly successful. Its deeply imprinted.

24

I’ve been hearing this a lot more within the last ~14 months.

14
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I hate how that word became pejorative, because it was used correctly. By the way, it's still used in plumbing. Retard is a verb which means to slow, e.g. retard the flow. When you call a person who is developmentally disabled that, yes it's rude, but it means their mental process is slow. The word was being used accurately. It's just not nice to say.

I don't think "window licker" was ever accurate, but for some reason it's slightly more socially acceptable to say (or imply, e.g. "I will say this for him, his windows are always clean").

12

There's a few term of that kind of age which were like that. Medical terms or just plain English words that became labelled "derogatory" because of how they were used. I always felt it showed how poor the vocabulary of some people was. If they only knew the derogatory meaning they'd get offended by it's use in all situations even if the meaning was innocent.

7

It doesn't mean their mental process is slow. It refers to developmental retardation. As if the person's body is just going to "catch up" one day... Which is why it was a stupid thing to say all along.

1
lemmy.today

"Everyone's always asking me: 'What are you doing, retard?', but nobody ever asks 'How are you doing, retard?'"

6

That was very common when I was growing up. Unfortunately, it has been replaced with variations of autistic, though "anti-woke" people will use both.

5
lemmy.world

Eh, I use it for very stupid people. Obviously devoid of ableist intent.

I feel as though the context matters with this. For the genuinely evil and criminally unintelligent I would use the clinical "Mentally retarded".

"Retard" and music (low volume) on buses are the controversial hills I'm willing to die on.

-9

Maybe later, for now I have petty culturally unpopular positions that I will maintain. They are few but they are mine.

-4

hella

i picked this one up from living in california for 15 years and it keeps tripping up the people i talk to everywhere else i've lived since then.

i don't even notice that i do it until someone points it out to me. lol

12
proudblondreply
lemmy.world

I called something “the bomb” the other day and my mind did a record scratch, like, did I actually say that unironically??

4
3abasreply
lemmy.world

Who you calling a dog, dawg?

I'm finna get my homeboys to whoop your ass, you dig homeslice?

2
lemmy.today

Surfing the world wide web. Sounds so dumb now.

I dunno I still kinda love it. In part I think it might sound a little dumb now thanks to how big money has turned the primary web interaction into "Schlorping at the Centralized World Trough."

But web surfing is still a thing with the Indie Web, and it can still be an apt description because you can catch and ride "waves" of various networked pages and find really neat stuff. There was a sense of exploration to it, the whimsy that you could get carried really far from where you started and potentially have a lot of fun along the way.

I still like to surf the web. Cowabunga. :)

3

You just described going down a Wikipedia hole too. Always a good way to procrastinate

3

And the act of traveling on said highway was...surfing. For some reason. The 90's were stupid, and I'm from there.

7

Also using it for situations of inconvenience. Eg, "The next train is cancelled." "That's fuckin gay!"

16

I grew up in the 90s, theses were used by everyone all the time. I still use these, even though I don't like to. Though, if any of an excuse, I don't use them to denigrate those disabled or homosexual.

"Retard" is used for any person or thing that is hard to work with, complex to use. Anything complex that takes up a lot time, not simple to use. My oven clock is "retarded" as it isn't intuitive when trying to set the time. I am "retarded" for not taking the time to pull out the manual and learn how to set it after the power goes out.

"Gay" is for anything or anyone that is dramatic, causing a situation or problem when there isn't one. For people who are overly sensitive, who take offense at "sub conscious facial micro aggression" of others.

I grew up beating up the bullies of disabled kids. When I got older, I became a lgtbq advocate and donated time\money to charity that supports them. Am I trying to excuse my behavior by still using these ....?....

9

Sure that's not just an age thing you and your peers have outgrown?

Both is unfortunately still in use by youths here, but just not once they are grown-up.

5

We had a campaign in Canada called "'That's so gay' is so yesterday" when I was in school. A lot of classrooms had stickers or posters with that quote. IDK how well it worked in general but definitely had an effect on me, especially since I was at an age where I didn't really understand what homosexuality even was, and one of my first exposures to the word was that it's not okay to use it as an insult.

4

I'm old enough that teachers referred to us as the "retarded kids" not to our face at least but when they thought we couldn't hear them.

By us I meant the learning disabled.

3

Syke. Or psych. Early 90's kid slang, had a definition akin to just kidding or fooled you but more mean spirited. Said to mark the previous statement as intended purely to mess with the listener's mind or psych them out. Similar in spirit to ending a sarcastically spoken sentence with "NOT!" though distinct.

"Yeah man, you can drive my car. Psych! You're not touching my ride."

The more I type about it, the less "psych" looks like a valid English word.

32

Dude, don't try to psych me out! You and I both know it's:

🎶I know you know that I′m not telling the truth,

I know you know they just don't have any proof.

Embrace the deception, learn how to bend

Your worst inhibitions tend to psych you out in the end🎶

3
Eggyheadreply
lemmy.world

This is truer than you might think. A lot of slang developed out of a need to express oneself without having the vernacular (or even desire) to clearly articulate. It leads to innovating interesting (and in some cases more practical) new ways to say something in a way others (typically in your in-group) can understand easily.

I suspect a lot of that crazy Gen Z stuff comes from kids getting into social media well before fully developing their own social skills, so it just started manifesting through terms and phases they picked up from video games and such.

1
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Because it started in grade school, and grade school kids were not aware of the word "psych." So they spelt it how it sounded. Sike or syke, they're both equally incorrect, but the point is the kids who used them were using them correctly.

The only thing remotely weird about it was when they learned the word "psych" and thought they meant two different things (like they don't believe "psyching someone out" is a thing, like it does not click for them).

4
jrubal1462reply
mander.xyz

To add to the confusion: For 2 weeks/year I help out the local ballet studio with stage crew. We have this big white backdrop curtain, and colorful lights are pointed directly at the curtain to make dramatic and moody changes to the background during certain dances. When I heard the name of these, I assumed it was the "psyche curtain" and "psyche lights" because that's how it is pronounced.

Turns out the box is marked "Cyc." I have to assume that the people that sold the curtain are way less amateur than I am, so I would like to add this third potential spelling.

5

Cyc is short for cyclorama. A way of lighting a backdrop which kind of wraps around a stage, that wrap around effect which lead to the name.

4

OMG, I haven't thought about one of those since I stopped taking ballet. Learned all those French spellings, never thought about how to spell the "Cyc" curtain/scrim, only that we were to stay well clear of it because it was super expensive and can't be repaired. (Expensive bc huge seamless fabric stretched on a curved frame, and any repair would ruin the seamless illusion.)

1
communismreply
lemmy.ml

I had always assumed it was humorously mis-spelling the word. Like people who would spell it "kool".

1
lemmy.ca

The more I type about it, the less "psych" looks like a valid English word.

..because the word is 'psyche': "I psyched him out."

I think it's Greek origin, and it's like "psychology".

-1

"Psyche" is a different word to "psych" in English. "Psyche" is a noun, pronounced "sye-kee"; "psych" is a colloquial/casual verb, pronounced "syke".

3

I once had a coworker who said she was all that and a bucket of chicken. Black lady, too. I would not repeat it... to her. I've since picked it up. "All that and a b_____ of ch_____" is the new saying, and anything that starts with a B that makes sense with something that starts with ch- fits. I haven't actually heard any others, but I noticed that pattern was maintained across the two.

..."All that and a board of cheese"? Maybe...

3
lemmy.world

Grody.

I still call things grody, but it's apparently twee and shit to say now.

22

I didn't learn until an embarrassingly late age that you shouldn't say "jewed them down" or "I got gypped" when discussing prices, etc. Once it dawned on me what I was saying, I felt pretty mortified, but I grew up hearing them as normal words. It was just a thing you say.

17

Most of the stuff that was said back when I was in school were slurs. Like nearly every spoken sentence contained at least one slur.

17

Cool beans is in regular rotation. My daughter has also banned me from taking her to school.

6

Bread. Yes, the word bread. It was quite popular in northern India. We use to call stupid people bread. Like, "Tu bread hai kya?" (Are you bread?)

This was alternative to the word "chutiya", which is a curse word, that we could use in front of teachers and elders.

13
piefed.social

rad. as in a conjunction of radical, which is also a slang term no longer in use.

people look at me real weird when tell them the cool thing they just told me is ‘rad’

13

I seem to recall hearing Brennan Lee Mulligan saying it quite a bit in Dimension 20 and it made me giggle.

4

Still use it, unironically, along with things like "righteous."

I like taking what I like from various ways of speaking, until mine is my own. Don't let anyone take that away from you. :p

3

Seriously? as far as i was aware that's a perfectly normal thing to say?

1

Fo sho, mostly because growing up made me realize I'm never really sho of anything no mo.

12

It was pretty common when I was in high school in the 90s. But for some reason the kids I knew insisted it was fuck-a-nay.

1
lemmy.world

DL

Short for down low.

Never really hear it anymore.

Also

The bomb.

No one says that anymore.

And

Phat.

To refer to a thick gorgeous woman.

12

I recall "Phat" being problematic. Especially since it was applied to thicker women.

Since it sounds like "fat", its use was generally followed with a "phat with a p" to clarify.

Making the short slang word void for being used easily and casually.

I did respect the approach of trying to change a word that's usually used to demean someone as a way to complement someone. But it just didn't stick.

1

Phat to me in the '90s meant either good, or big. But specifically big, gnarly stuff. Like jumping your mountain bike and getting phat air.

1
aceshighreply
lemmy.world

Dope isn’t a thing anymore? My heart sank a little…

11

I say that shit all the time and teach my kids too. Pretty much has gradually settled into a term of serious admiration for particularly tasty art (of any kind).

2

I still say 'biffed it' sometimes.

Ex: "You fucking biffed it hard on that last jump there, bud."

8
aussie.zone

Nobody says "cool' anymore. It feels weird when I say it unless I'm trying to be tubular or bodacious.

Or I'm hanging with my boys Fido Dido and Cool Spot drinking a nice glass of Sprite.

11

oooooh, I played a lot of Cool Spot on the megadrive back then. It was fresh

2
lemmy.zip

Don't hear "house" meaning to destroy something anymore.

Ima house you.
I'm about to house this burrito.

11
moonshadowreply
slrpnk.net

This is in common use in my area with slightly modified context. To "house" something is to envelop and incorporate it, almost always in reference to food. Threatening to house someone would be weird and vaguely sexual, "bro fuckin housed those crispitos" is a normal thing to hear

4
lemmy.zip

Interesting, I haven't heard it since the 90s. Do you pronounce it with an s or z? We said s, even though the normal verb form (eg "the governor housed 10000 homeless people with the latest bill") is said with a z for me.

1
lemmy.today

Phat and cattywhumpus.

Phat fell out of fashion and cattywhumpus isn't a thing where I live now

9
lemmy.dbzer0.com

cattywhumpus

Square rig sailors have a whole lexicon of unique terms of art and slang not used outside of that niche and I always thought this was one of those, I’ve only heard other tallship sailors say it. TIL

3

No it's definitely around in the South. You have a real hootenanny and things might get away from ya faster than a greased pig so things go all cattywhumpus.

2
lemmy.zip

bae is the one that was really everywhere and then just fell off a cliff.

9
lemmy.zip

I once got made fun of at work for using "hella" about something. People are stupid.

8
NKBTNreply
feddit.uk

The only person I've ever heard say it is Eric Cartman

1

Cartman was the first person I ever heard use it, by at least a decade. These days I hear a relatively small number of people use it regularly.

1
lemmy.world

Going back to real young, no one calls their ass a “heinie” anymore.

8
dmention7reply
midwest.social

Semi-related, I've always liked the Weezer lyric "Somebody's Heinie is crowding my icebox".

It's a great vague double-entendre, IMO.

3
tkoreply
tkohhh.social

Sublime, not Weezer. But yes, great line!

2
dmention7reply
midwest.social

Wait what? No, it's from Undone (The Sweater Song)!

Or am I coming down with the 'heimers?

Edit: It's actually Say It Ain't So. Alzheimers confirmed.

2

Shoot, my bad. I don't know why my brain told me Sublime, but you're obviously correct. Say it ain't so...

2

Hate to break it to you all, but Say It Ain’t So came out in 1994. When I was a kid (ish). 😉

1

Au contraire.

I knew a kid in high-school with the last name Haney. You can bet your whole ass we all called him Hiney all four years.

1

XD is pretty rare as an emoticon now.

Also abbreviating you as u, to as 2, for as 4, etc. Probably because we have full keyboards and not numpads anymore.

7

ITT is a bunch of slang words that are still in use.

6

When something was "dry" it meant it was bad. Never heard it again after I finished middle school.

5
lemmy.world

"Bread and butter", said to your partner when they're about to split a pole while you're walking.

"The buffalo is off the nickel", similar to "the cheese has slid off his cracker", or, alternatively, depending on usage, a way of saying bullshit.

Both of these phrases were said by William Shatner in a Twilight Zone episode, and I've never, ever heard any of anyone using them.

5
lemmy.zip

“Bread and butter”, said to your partner when they’re about to split a pole while you’re walking.

What? I understood close to zero of the meaning of anything in this sentence.

5

Say you and your significant other are out walking, and your significant other is about to walk around a pole, allowing the pole to come between you.

That's called splitting a pole and it is considered bad luck as a portent of something coming between you in your relationship.

Bread and butter is just the older way of saying don't split the pole.

2
sh.itjust.works

"Spastic" and even "spaz" is used in the US but isn't considered an ablest slur here. My understanding is the British used it as a slur for cerebral palsy or parkinson's disease patients, where in the US it simply means an uncoordinated jerky motion and/or clumsiness. Let's not mince words, the United States of America is perfectly capable of generating slurs; but this one isn't ours.

3

There was a British charity, The Spastic Society. They became fairly high profile in the early 80s being involved in children's magazine shows for fund raising. Often children with conditions would be featured. The intent was that featuring them would make the condition more relatable, but kids saw them more freaks to be mocked.

It resulted in "spastic" / "spaz" becoming school playground taunts to the extent that the charity changed it's name to avoid the term.

2

"Spaz" as in to "spaz out" has always meant crazy or some variation on that where I grew up, though I haven't heard it in ages. I suppose it is ableist, and I suppose we always meant it that way, I just never thought of a person with a disability when I said it. The flip side of that is, by so casually likening someone to a differently abled person in a prejudicial way, one demeans the differently abled person, even if they weren't the target of the ire or the ridicule.

So we were definitely in the wrong for using it.

2

The closest it came to being used as a slur in the US is to accuse someone of clumsiness. We never called people suffering from nervous system diseases "spastics." Don't put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby.

2

The macdonians always used to say "Sick fish" and it meant "Really good".

2

My parents considered it to be their greatest achievement that their kids say "cool" instead of "geil" (hot or sometimes horny).

2
Crozekielreply
lemmy.zip

wtf is that? Isn't the second word a racist slur??

1

Isn’t the second word a racist slur??

Not that I'm aware of. This phrase was common with East Coast kids in the 1970s. It meant something like, 'that's cool' or 'amazing.'

0
aussie.zone

“Bray” as in “I’m gonna bray you after school”. It just doesn’t come up ever anymore.

1