Slang is one of the most interesting parts of any language. It adds character to everyday conversation and separates the cool kids from the not so cool. It’s likely that slang has been used all throughout history, Ancient Greek writers used it over 2,000 years ago; and even the famed Shakespeare went with slang in his plays!
The Classic Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was the very first English dictionary of slang words compiled by Francis Grosse in 1785. At the time, slang was a vocabulary used only by ladies of the night, thugs and other individuals of that nature, hence the vulgar tongue.
Many slang words have integrated themselves so deeply into our language we hardly even think of them as being slang at all. Like the word “okay”, this has a rather interesting origin. In the 1830’s young people made a trend of misspelling words intentionally, then using a short hand. “Enough said” would be “nuff said” or “N.S.”; “all right” would be “oll wright” or “O.W.”.
Newspapers jokingly started imitating the young folks, using their practice of bad grammar and that’s where our term “O.K”. came from. In March of 1839 the Boston Morning Post published O.K. meaning “all correct”; or instead “oll korrect”, rather witty if you ask me. These short hands are much like that sang many of us use today for e-mail or internet chatting, like lol (laugh out loud), rotfl (rolling on the floor laughing), brb (be right back), and ttyl (talk to you later). We just keep the correct spelling; our use of the shorthand slang seems to be more for convenience and less for entertainment.
Slang encompasses more than just the ramblings of a teenage mind. The medical field is littered with slang, a certain type that is derived from the Latin language. Much common slang is simply mispronounced words from other languages, like savvy. We use the slang word “savvy”; to say that someone is “in the know”. You might say that I’m computer savvy. The word savvy actually comes from the Spanish word “sabe usted”, which literally means “you know. So, now you’re savvy to the origin of savvy.
Have you ever wanted to work in a diner? Well then you’ll have to get some of the lingo down! There are a few base phrases you could remember like order “city juice” instead of “water”, a “crowd of eggs” or “three eggs”, or have yourself a “bowwow”; in other words a hotdog.
Would you eat:
Adam and Eve on a raft? ( two poached eggs on toast)
First Lady? (Spareribs)
The phrase “first lady” meaning “spareribs” was a pun referring to Eve. The bible describes her as being made of one of Adam’s ribs.
Want axle grease on burnt British? That means do you want butter on your toasted English muffin.
Do you take gravel train (sugar) in your coffee? Want your steak on the hoof (rare)? Diner talk livens up the mundane jobs of a wait staff and short order cooks. It’s witty, full of cultural and historical references.
Slang is used by practically everyone today; from the low class workers all the way to the highly educated doctors; “get me those x-rays stat!” Stat comes from the latin word for “immediately”. Whether it came from another language or was thought up right here slang adds color and personality of any vocabulary. And, as my step father would say, “That’s just a rag in a bush.”
