A current buzz word?

Carol

Carol

Just having a sudden burst of creative energy where fiction is concerned.
I have a character sending an e-mail to a girl he's never met-(doesn't know it's actually his current girl)- and is trying to impress her into meeting up. What are the latest buzz words being used by young men and women in their early 20's?
Any suggestions appreciated.

josiehenley

Abbreviations are the big thing, in speech as well as in writing. For example lol for laugh out loud, but is often used just to denote irony, people do actually say lol. ROFL is rolling on the floor laughing but I’ve never heard it said. In writing things like b4 and l8 (before and late). E.g. he might say ‘Don’t b l8’

Minging would be if something/someone is disgusting, and banging if they’re great. Bling is jewellery and adornment, sometimes bling-bling. These are all things I’ve overheard and sometimes use myself as I’m such a cool hipster mum! (lol)

A warning about using terms that are too culturally specific and especially if they are not obvious by the context – they go out of date very quickly and don’t transpose out of the area where you’ve based your story.

Carol

That's useful to know Josie.
I just want the occasional words that he can throw into sentences to give the impression he's hip/trendy and a 'nice' guy, but just enough to suggest sleezy as well.

doodle

Carol - you might (not) like to know that 'hip' was first used in 1904!  I can't really help you as the young people I know mainly grunt - the only words I can think of that they use are minty (cool) and lush (good looking).  Whereas we might say 'he's had a hard life' to indicate less than pristine features, twenty somethings use 'he's had a hard paper round' (!!!).  There is, in existence, The Oxford Dictionary of New Words but as it was published in 1999 it won't help you on this occasion!  It would be useful to anyone writing a book specificially set in the 1980s/90s though. 

scribe

Being one who is fast approaching being a 'mature lady', I consulted my daughter, she who has just reached the other side of grunting.
She informs me that 'buff' or 'fit' covers both good looking and sexy, and that 'well nice' covers a person who is, well, nice :0)
Foolishly, I began by asking her how she would describe George Clooney to which she replied, 'Old'. Hmmmm. Now I really feel old - but I hope it's of some use :0)

Katy

My daughter (18) uses: cool (more often spelled as kewl); chunes (tunes - music); fit (attractive); gay (but be warned, very controversial usage of this one, which understandably caused a big problem on the BBC recently - she uses it meaning silly or daft as well as the more conventional meaning); chav or chavvy (a style of dress / attitude, not flattering); pube (yes really! for pub); and on the subject of pubs, the names are shortened, so Weatherspoons becomes Spoons etc; Gothic is 'goff'; you also have Imo or Emo (describing manga / anime style hair cuts & clothes);  DVDs is said as "DeeVaayDees" in teen speak; CDs as "seedies". Also lots of wierd and wonderful 'emoticons' in e-mail including a lovely one <3 for love, and other abbreviations like BTW (by the way), IMO (in my opinion), etc etc!

That's all I can think of for now, will try and think of more!

Carol

What a world there is out there!
These are great, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who will find it useful.

Crazy Horse

There was a spate of shorthand words used on texting but these are dying out due to predictive text. By the time you have cottoned on they are gone. Bang on, wizard prang, tally ho crumpet off the port wing. tells you how ancient I am

Nefertari

This is when it helps to be an Eastenders fan! lol

josiehenley

emo also means 'emotional' as in 'I'm feeling really emo tonight' or 'she's just being emo, forget it'.

starpanda

I'm definitely getting old...:D

starpanda

hello Josie!...didn't realise it was you, for some reason I can't see the last person to post a message until, I post one...if that makes any sense

Neph

One my son always uses for something that is bad or naff is 'bob'.  Its the way he says it to that is hilarious. Oh and if its good its 'sick' which I find rather gross!! (He's stood here laughing at me)

Carol

Yes, mine have 'bob' too.

Mica

an "emo" is a person who is into indie/ pop rock, like fallout boy, razorlight and panic! at the disco. it's also the style that goes along with that, like punk or mod- a bit scruffy-student, tightish jeans, messy hair and eyeliner.
i found this out yesterday when i was talking about getting a star tattooed on the inside of my wrist (apparantly emo's have three stars of different sizes tattooed on their wrist). my sister told me that she was talking about music with a friend of hers in uni. this girl said about being an emo, and couldn't believe that my sis (and me, and our friends) could possibly like fallout boy AND justin timberlake at the same time! (we went to see justin in manchester on tuesday, and it was AMAZING!!) i like that my music taste is eclectic, and feel bad for people who pigeon-hole themselves.
BTW, justin is a FOX!! (meaning gorgeous, sexy, yummy, mmmmmm...) 

SilentTony

"BTW, justin is a FOX!!"

If he ever goes into medicine he'll be Dr Fox.

I agree I only feel pity for people who wear blinkers when it comes to music. Obviously kids do this because they feel the music is them and any association with another genre would be cheating. They'll grow up.
Why close yourself off from the universe of music, art, film and even books. There are too many good things in the world to ignore simply because of some insular prejudice of a peer group.

*SA*

what was going on then? weird webbo today!! that message from mica just then was actually little old me!! xxx