American's slangs................

If we're going to get into slang from different countries...(which is off topic but hey!)...

From an Oz point of view, one of the best is the Canadian clothing company "Roots" and the way Americans "root" for their favourite sports teams.

The word "root" has an utterly different meaning in Oz slang. Australian is a very descriptive language. Procreation is but one aspect of life for which we have many varied and colourful expressions.

I couldn't help myself. I had to buy a sweatshirt with "ROOTS" in big letters with a picture of a beaver underneath. I mean, I understand this combination is quite okay in Canada with the beaver being a national symbol and all but, honestly, when looked from the Oz point of view...

Luckily, it's summer here and I can't wear it yet. I'm hoping that by winter I'll have the intestinal fortitude to do it. Thing is I love that red they use in teh Roots clothing. It's a wonderful colour. (Trouble is the sweatshirt's navy blue - they didn't have any red ones left at Vancouver airport.)
 
i don't know a lot of them but it was amazing how many are still in use.
he went away for a bit (went to prison)
to bump someone off (kill em)
let's blow this popsicle stand (let's go)
in the can(in jail)
cop(police, which is actually an abbreviation of Constable On Patrol)
to croak(die)
a dive(a rundown place)
head dr. (psychiatrist)
and lots more. 70 years later and we're still using them. pretty cool i guess
 
One of the Farscape epys had Crighton believing he has returned to Earth. His crewmates are captured when they return to make sure he makes it home o.k. Since the humans on Earth do not have the same translator diodes injected into them that Crighton now has, they could not interpret each Moya's crew's language. Part of the epy has you hearing their conversations in English, part in, well, gibberish (when the humans are listening to them).

And most of the "Crightonisms" that are so funny really are our present day slang.
 
It is kind of fun and interesting to see which slang words make it through time, which change over time, and which disappear entirely.

Does anyone in the UK use the word 'toff' to describe anyone anymore?

The word 'fag' has had a lot meanings - far from the derogatory one used today - cigarette and torch are two that I can think of.

Something was said on Andromeda a couple of episodes ago that I wondered whether it would last that long. They used 'paint ball' to indicate that the ship had been marked to make it easier to find. I can see using just the word 'paint' since that is used in targeting, but 'paint ball'?

Cheers,
 
Paint balling was the rage here in LA several years ago!

Language definies so much. Joe's library had a book sale and we were looking at an etiquite book from 1969 and the words that were considered unusuable in polite company were a hoot! Davenport, boyfriend or girlfriend I didn't even bother to look up HO, or any of my current faves. But language and slang relly defines who you are and where you comefrom!
 
Don't forget slang used in various jobs...like mine...everything is abreviated "ORD has ATC,but it has an ETD for 1300 Zulu. FYI, the APU is MEL so will need the GPU and bottle." :)

tranlation: the plane to chicago is delayed until 9 am by Air Traffic Control and, by the way, the onboard power unit is not working so we will need to use the mobile diesel generator and compressed air bottle to start the engines.
 
I love jargon. It really point to whom is in the in group and to whom is out of the group! Such a definer!
 
In my journalism classes we didn't use the term 'jargon', we used buzz words. We were told that you couldn't write 'science' if you didn't know the buzz words and what they meant because scientists don't speak english, they do 'techspeak'. ;)

Cheers,
 
for me it could be 'count him down to the bite. trt 15 seconds.'
count the anchor down to the soound bite and the total running time in 15 seconds
'golf ran over so nightly news was jipd'
golf ran too long so we joined nightly news in progress
'it has a flight of two'
the commercial is airing every other week
'for 6 we'll run a pag, for 10 it'll be a vo'
for the 6pm news we'll run a package, for the ten o'clock news we'll run a voice over'

and lots more that'll confuse ya...though not as much as the atc stuff though
 
Can you imagine what it would be like to get all of these people together and insist that they have a convo using only their own buzz words, jargon, whatever? We could call it the Tower of Babel Club. ;)

Cheers,
 
YOU GO! MYTHINGLINK

That is why I try to avoid jargonization of a language! I have always thought that the reason people specialize in a field is because one language and one jargon is all we could learn to speak. (Yes, I know my son's father spoke 14 Languages (various dialects and pidgeons not included.) This is a BAD JOKE! Not for the anthro reasons of exclusion, inclusion and status!
 
Several years ago there was a book put out called Tech Speak. If your library has a copy, check it out. It's hilarious. The authors have taken everyday objects and described them in technical jargon. ;)

Cheers,
 
probably better than my 'well the thingie that makes the dooey-whatzit work broke so we need a new one'
 
Originally posted by skydiver
probably better than my 'well the thingie that makes the dooey-whatzit work broke so we need a new one'
Click to expand...

Probably. ;) I'm going to try to find my copy and see if I can't post some of them. It used to sit next to You Can't Eat Peanuts in Church and other Little Known Laws.

Cheers,
 
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