Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

the term is an acronym, the letters standing for ‘waste of money, bandwidth (or brains) and time’.

womble n British

a foolish, clumsy or unfortunate person. Since the appearance of the books and television puppets of the same name in the early 1970s, the word has been appropriated, particularly by schoolchildren, to refer to someone considered feeble, contemptible or a misfit. Gonk and muppet, both names of grotesque creatures, have been used with the same connotations.

‘She hangs around with wombles.’

(Recorded, schoolgirl, London, 1986)

wombled adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

wonga, wong n British

money. A common expression since the 1990s (in the 1980s wamba was probably more widespread), this may derive from the 19th century use of the Romany word wongar, which literally denotes ‘coal’, to signify money in the argot of travellers, peddlers, etc.

wonk n American

a swot, in preppie and high-school jargon. The word is probably an arbitrary coinage, although it may possibly derive from the British taboo term wanker.

woo, wooshious adj

excellent. A vogue term of 2003 and 2004.

wood n

1.American a shortened form of peckerwood

2.British an erection, as in get wood

woodentop n British

a uniformed police officer. A term of mild derision used by plain-clothes detectives and disseminated through TV police shows. The Woodentops were a family of puppets featured on British children’s television in the 1950s. There is also an obvious parallel with ‘woodenhead’, meaning a fool.

‘You’d better get your uniform cleaned – you’ll be down among the woodentops next week.’

(Rockcliffe’s Babies, British TV police series, 1989)

woodie, woody n American

1a. an American estate car or station wagon. Wooden exterior trim was a fea-

ture of the models manufactured in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

1b. any vehicle used by a surfer for transporting people and boards to the beach. Old or customised estate cars were originally favoured for this purpose.

‘I’ve got a 34 wagon, and we call it a woodie/ You know, it’s not very cherry, it’s an oldie but a goodie/ Well it ain’t got a back seat or a rear window/ But it still gets me where I want to go.’

(‘Surf City’ written by Jan Berry and Brian Wilson, recorded by Jan and Dean, 1963)

2. an erection. The same notion is conveyed by the British expression get wood.

woof1 n British

an attractive woman. The word, posted on the Internet as an item of new slang in March 1997 by Bodge World, may be a variant form of oof.

woof2, woofter n British

variant forms of poof and poofter heard since the mid-1970s

woof (one’s custard) vb

to vomit. The word is echoic (in colloquial usage it may also describe ‘wolfing down’ food).

woofie, woofy n American

(someone who is) stylish, in the know. The word is probably somehow related to the black slang concept of ‘woofing’ (itself derived either from the imitation of a dog’s bark or from ‘wolf’), as used to describe someone who is behaving in a boastful or intimidating manner.

woof ticket n American See buy a woof ticket

wool n American

1.the female pubic hair

2.women considered as potential sexual partners. Used in this sense the term is a vulgarism, particularly among middleaged males.

She sure is a good-looking wool. woop adj See whoop

woopsie n British

an alternative spelling of whoopsy

Woop-woop n Australian

a very remote region. A synonym for ‘the back of beyond’ or ‘the middle of nowhere’, also expressed as (beyond the) black stump. The term was first recorded in the 1920s and was probably an imitation of a native Australian name.

wop n

an Italian. This derogatory term originating in the USA is now common in all English-speaking areas. The word was first applied to young dandified ne’er- do-wells, thugs or pimps in New York’s Little Italy in the first decade of the 20th century. It derives from the Sicilian dialect term guappo, itself from the Spanish guapo, meaning handsome.

‘“At our last New Year’s Eve party, we had 65 wops, and five Brits”, says Maro. “They behaved atrociously, all huddled up in a corner”.’

(Maro Gorky, Harper’s and Queen magazine, November 1989)

word!, word up! exclamation

an all-purpose term of agreement, solidarity, greeting, etc. (inspired by ‘word of honour’ or ‘the good word’), which appeared first in black street culture of the late 1980s and subsequently in rap lyrics, where it was used as a form of punctuation. Someone asking ‘word up?’ is making the informal greeting ‘How are you today and what’s happening, my friend?’ In the UK The Word was adopted first as the title of a radio programme on the station Kiss FM and then for a controversial TV youth programme of the early 1990s.

‘What do you think?’ ‘Word’.

‘Enjoying wide usage this winter is my favourite word “Word”, which formerly had the sense of “listen” (as in “Word up, man, you be illin’”).’

(Charles Maclean, Evening Standard, 22 January 1987)

wordhole n American

the mouth. Pie-hole and hum-hole are synonyms.

word up vb American

to speak out, tell the truth, say something meaningful. A street slang expression from the early 1980s, originating in black speech.

worked adj American

tired. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

working girl n

a prostitute. A euphemism in use among prostitutes themselves as well as police officers, punters, etc.

‘He said that he’d just met her in a hotel, but I’m pretty sure that she’s a working girl.’

(Recorded, financial advisor, London, August 2001)

works n

a hypodermic syringe, in the language of junkies. The term may also apply to the other paraphernalia of drug-taking, but usually specifies the means of injection.

work the oracle vb British

to invent an oral statement of guilt on the part of a suspect. A term from police jargon (synonymous with ‘verbal’).

‘I wondered if his return was a consequence of his reluctance to verbal, to “work the oracle” as it is sometimes called…’

(Inside the British Police, Simon Holdaway, 1983)

worst, the n

1. something considered contemptible, pitiful, miserable, inferior. A straightforward application of the standard word in use among American teenagers and others.

God, that movie – it’s the worst!

2. something excellent, admirable, superlative. This sense of the word is used by analogy with bad in its black street and youth culture sense of good. The worst was used in this sense by adolescents in the 1980s.

wowler n British

an alternative form of howler

wowser, wowzer n Australian

a spoilsport, puritan or ‘wet blanket’. A word which has been recorded in American usage, but not in Britain; wowser originated in the late 19th century and is of uncertain origin. Most suggested etymologies refer to ‘wow’ as a roar or bark of disapproval or an exclamation of shocked surprise.

wrap n

a portion of a drug such as an amphetamine, ecstasy or crack. Measured amounts of the drug are wrapped in paper or tinfoil for sale to consumers. This term has been in use in Britain from 1989.

wreckaged adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

wrecked adj

intoxicated by drink or drugs. A coinage which parallels such dramatic usages as smashed, bombed, blitzed, destroyed, etc.

wrinkly, wrinklie n, adj

(a person who is) old. A popular term among adolescents since around 1980, the word is often used of (middle-aged and elderly) parents. Synonyms are dusty, crumbly and crinkly.

wrong n British

a foolish, unfortunate or unpleasant person, a misfit. In use among adolescents since 2000.

wrongo n American

the equivalent of the British wrong ’un. A fairly rare term.

wrong ’un n British

1.a criminal, ne’er-do-well or other undesirable character

2.something to be avoided, a nuisance. The term has been a common workingclass colloquialism since the later 19th century.

wullong n British

a very large penis. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003.

Compare bullong

wuss n American

a weak, feeble person and, by extension, a dupe. A word used by college students and young people from the 1960s and probably inspired by ‘puss’, ‘pussy’ or ‘pussy-wussy’, all used as terms of endearment to a kitten.

wussy n American

a variation (and probably the origin) of the more common wuss

‘Come on, toxic waste won’t kill you. Don’t be such a wussy.’

(Armed and Dangerous, US film, 1986)

wu-wu, woo-woo n American

the female genitals. An imitation nursery euphemism in adult use.

‘You might have to show your wu-wu.’

(Hollywood agent quoted in ITV documentary, Hollywood Women, December 1993)

wuzzock n British

a version of wazzock

wylin’ n

the term was defined by a UK adolescent in 2002 as follows: ‘…behaving very badly, drinking too much and shooting people! Hard-livin’ R ’n’ B types would go out wylin’’. It is almost certainly the same word as the wilding of the 1980s.

X n

1.a kiss. A teenagers’ term, from the use of the letter x to symbolize a kiss at the end of a letter. The word is used in phrases such as ‘give us an x’ or, as an affectionate exclamation, ‘x, x, x!’.

2.the drug ecstasy

X-er n American

a member of Generation X. The term was briefly popular between 1992 and 1994.

The narrator of the book is the archetypal X-er. He lives in a rented bungalow (X-ers don’t have mortgages) …

X-filed adj British

rejected (by a partner), jilted. The expression puns on the cult US TV series on the paranormal (The X-Files) and the notion of an ‘ex’ partner being filed away. The phrase was used by teenage girls in particular in the late 1990s.

x-out vb

a.to cross out, cancel

b.to kill, eliminate, rub out

(The phrase is pronounced ‘ecks-out’.)

x-rated adj

a. salacious, taboo, extremely daring or pornographic. Often used nowadays with at least a degree of irony, the expression is an extension of the categorisation applied to films deemed suitable only for those over 18.

We had this real x-rated date!

b. terrifying, horrifying, dreadful. A second sense inspired by the term’s application to horror films.

She’s got this x-rated boyfriend.

xtc n

an alternative spelling of ecstasy (the amphetamine-based disinhibiting drug), in vogue in the late 1980s

yaas exclamation See yass yack vb, n See yak yacka, yacker n See yakka

yackers n British

money. A variation on ackers, in mainly working-class usage.

yaffling irons, yaffling spanners n pl British

cutlery such as knives, forks and spoons as used at the table. The humorous phrase is widespread in the armed forces and derives from the archaic dialect term yaffle, probably imitative in origin, meaning to consume or eat voraciously.

Grab your yaffling irons and let’s get scrumming!

yah, yaah n, adj British

(someone who is) ex-public school, a hooray. The term, particularly popular in Edinburgh since the early 1990s, derives from the class’s characteristic drawling of the word ‘yes’. Rah is a synonym.

yahoo n

a lout, oaf. The word, imitating a wild shout, was used by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels as the name of a race of brutish humans. The modern usage varies slightly in the English-speaking countries. In Britain the word often denotes a boisterous, inconsiderate youth, and is used of hoorays, students, etc.; in Australia the word generally equates with yob; while in the USA the word may depict a stupid and/or coarse person.

yah-yo n American

cocaine, in the street language of the late 1990s. It was included in so-called Ebonics, recognised as a legitimate language variety by school officials in Oakland, California, in late 1996.

yak, yack

1. vb, n (to indulge in) incessant talk, idle chatter. The word imitates the sound of monotonous, grating and/or inane

speech. Nowadays variants of the verb form such as ‘yak away’ or ‘yak on’ are often preferred.

‘How much longer are you going to be yakking into that damn phone? We’re late.’

(Recorded, middle-class woman, Bristol, 1989)

2.n a laugh, joke or instance of humour. Yok is an alternative form, favoured in fashionable journalism.

3.n the yak American cognac, brandy. The use of the term reflects a vogue for expensive cognacs among US rap and hip hop stars, such as Busta Rhymes and Puff Daddy, from 2002.

Compare Hennessey

yakka, yacka, yacker n Australian

work. The word is a native Aboriginal proper name.

yakkety-yak vb, n

(to indulge in) incessant talk, idle chatter. An elaborated form of yak heard especially in the USA and enshrined in the pop song of the same name (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and a worldwide hit for the Coasters in the late 1950s). The term often denotes gossip as well as chatter or talk.

ya mamma, ya mam exclamation defined by a UK teenager in 2004 as ‘a way to diss someone or to answer an insult’

yammer vb

a.to wail, complain or jabber fearfully

b.to talk or shout insistently

Yammer is probably a modern descendant of an Anglo-Saxon verb meaning ‘to murmur or lament’. Its use is reinforced by the influence of words like yell and stammer and, in the USA, by the similarity to the German and Dutch jammeren, which means to whine or lament and derives from the same Old Germanic root as the English cognate.

yang n American

the penis. This term may be an alteration of the more established whang, influenced by the verb to ‘yank’, or is perhaps a shortened form of the post-1970s expression yinyang (itself possibly containing the Chinese yang, meaning masculine principle).

‘Hanging around toilets waiting for some poor guy to reach for a cop’s yang by mistake.’

(The Switch, Elmore Leonard, 1978)

yangyang n American

a variant form of yinyang

yank (off) vb

(of a man) to masturbate. A fairly rare but geographically widespread term.

yank (someone around/someone’s chain) vb American

to mislead, deceive, harass or irritate someone. The image on which the expression is based is that of a chained or leashed animal or prisoner being thoughtlessly or maliciously jerked about or led in different directions. (Phrases commencing with jerk are used in the same way.)

Yank, Yankee n

an American, a native or inhabitant of the USA. Yankee is the older form of the word and seems to be connected with the early Dutch settlers in Connecticut and the rest of New England. It may be a familiar form (Jan-Kees) of the common forenames Jan and Cornelius, a diminutive Janke (‘Johnny’), or an invented epithet Jan Kaas (‘John Cheese’), all applied to Dutchmen in general. Other suggestions are that it is from a nickname given to Englishspeaking pirates and traders by the Dutch, or a deformation of the word ‘English’ by Amerindian speakers. It may possibly be connected with yonker, which is Dutch for young (noble-)man. In the USA Yankee is used as an epithet by which old-school southerners damn northerners and also as a straightforward designation of an inhabitant of the northeastern states.

yank someone’s crank/weenie/zucchini vb American

to mock, mislead or irritate someone. These expressions are all vulgarisations of ‘pull one’s leg’.

yap1 vb

to talk incessantly and/or inanely. An echoic term also used to depict the persistent high-pitched barking of small dogs.

yap2 n

1a. incessant talk, idle chatter

1b. the mouth

This echoic term is often heard in the form of the British working-class exclamation ‘shut your yap!’.

2. American a country bumpkin. This sense of the word is from an archaic British rural dialect term for a simpleton.

yard n

1.the penis. A usage said to be archaic by most authorities, but still revived from time to time by those in search of a robust or rustic-sounding euphemism.

2.the Yard British Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the London Metropolitan Police

3.American one thousand. Also one hundred (dollars).

4.Jamaica. A nickname used by the local inhabitants, probably deriving from the notion of ‘my own backyard’.

5.a home

‘This is going to be someone’s yard – it used to be a morgue, unfortunately.’

(Exodus: The Diary, Channel 4 TV documentary programme, 12 November 1995)

6.American money

yard (on) vb American

to cheat, be unfaithful to (one’s spouse). A black American slang term, deriving from the notion of adulterous trespassing in someone’s back yard.

Compare backdoor man yardbird n American

a.a military recruit or other person assigned to menial outdoor duties

b.a convict, prisoner

c.a hobo frequenting railyards

yardie n Jamaican

a.a member of a secret Jamaican crimesyndicate or gang, said to operate in Britain and the USA since the late 1980s

b.a person from Jamaica or the Caribbean. In Jamaica itself the term has had this more generalised meaning, it comes from the use of yard to denote Jamaica or someone’s home (probably deriving from ‘my own backyard’).

yards n British

a home, flat or accommodation. From Caribbean usage, since around 2000 this form has been more fashionable than the singular.

I’m heading for my yards man.

yarko n British

a synonym for chav, in vogue in 2004. The derivation of the term is obscure but it seems to have originated in East Anglia.

yarning n British

telling stories, especially tall stories. The word, based on the phrase ‘to spin a yarn’ (itself from nautical rope-making or spinning cloth), is heard particularly among adolescent girls since the later

1990s and probably originated in black usage.

‘Yarning is telling your girlfriends all about this amazing bloke you met on holiday and what a deep experience you had…when nothing actually happened.’

(Recorded, London student, 2003)

yarra1 adj Australian

crazy, mad. There is a psychiatric hospital at Yarra Bend in the state of Victoria.

yarra2 n Australian

a stupid and/or obnoxious individual. This usage derives ultimately from the Yarra river, upon which Melbourne is situated, and refers either to the opacity of its water or, like the adjectival form, to a psychiatric hospital on its banks.

yass, yaas exclamation

an exclamation of derision, defiance or provocation in black Caribbean English. It is a conflation of ‘(up) your ass’. The expression was briefly adopted by some black Americans and white British speakers in the early 1970s. (The Rolling Stones’ use of the term ya-yas in the title of their 1970 live album, Get yer Ya-Yas out, was a misreading of this expression.)

Yasser n American

an erection. A shortened form of ‘Yasser Crack-a-fat’, an expression punning on the phrase crack a fat (to have an erection) and on the name of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The word was used by male college and highschool students in the later 1990s.

yatter, yatter on vb

to talk incessantly, frivolously or inanely. This colloquialism is a blend of yap, yak, ‘chatter’ and ‘natter’.

yatties n pl

girls. A term from Caribbean speech, also heard in the UK since 2000, especially among younger speakers.

She hangs out with those posh yatties. yawn1 n

something extremely boring, dull or uninspiring. A colloquial term, particularly prevalent in middle-class usage. It is either a noun, as in ‘the film was a total yawn’ or an interjection, as in ‘they took us round the exhibition – yawn!’. A racier alternative is yawnsville.

yawn2 vb, n

(to) vomit. Although particularly popular in Australia, where it is often embellished

to technicolour yawn, the usage also exists in Britain and the USA.

yawnsville n

a boring thing, person or situation. An American teenage expression adopted in Britain and Australia. It uses the common slang suffix -ville to denote a place, situation or state of affairs.

yecch! exclamation American an alternative form of yuck!

yecchy adj American

an alternative form of yucky

Yehudi adj British

authentic, trustworthy. A jocular item of middle-class rhyming slang using the name of the late Israeli musician Yehudi Menuhin to mean genuine.

yell n British

1a. a good joke or source of hilarity

That’s a yell!

1b. a riotous party or good time

We had a real yell last night.

Both usages were heard among young people from the late 1970s. The first is also in use in upper-class and theatrical milieus.

2. an instance of vomiting

He’s up in the bathroom having a yell.

yellow adj

cowardly, afraid. This now common term is of obscure origin. It is an Americanism of the late 19th century which was quickly adopted into British and Australian English. (In English slang of the 18th and early 19th centuries, yellow meant jealous and/or deceitful.) Some authorities derive the modern sense from the activities of the sensationalist ‘yellow press’; other suggestions include a racial slur on the supposedly docile Chinese population of the western US or a reference to a yellow-bellied submissive reptile or animal, but it seems more likely that it is an extension of the earlier pejorative British senses.

yellow-belly n

a coward. This phrase, adopted by modern schoolchildren from the language of western movies, was probably coined after the turn of the 20th century. The use of the word yellow to denote cowardice is a 19th-century development.

yen sleep n

a waking trance state brought about by the smoking of opium or, by extension, a drowsy, restless sleep resulting from

opium or heroin withdrawal. An expression from the 1950s jargon of drug abusers. The Chinese word yen, meaning smoke or opium, is also the source of the English word for a yearning.

yenta, yentl n

a shrewish woman, a gossip or crone. The word is a middle-European Jewish woman’s name or title (probably related to forms of the word ‘gentile’). The yenta became a comic figure in Jewish folklore, particularly in the American Yiddish theatre before World War II.

yeti n British

a primitive, repellent or stupid person. A term from the repertoire of schoolboys, army recruits, etc. since the 1970s. The word can be used both with facetious affection (e.g. as a nickname) or to express strong contempt.

yey, yay, yeyo n American cocaine

yid n

a Jew. The word is the Yiddish term for a Yiddish-speaking Jew (Yiddish being a Germanic dialect influenced by Hebrew). When used in English the word is invariably racist and derogatory.

yike n Australian

a brawl or violent quarrel

yinyang, ying-yang n American

1a. the anus

1b. the sex organs

Yang and w(h)ang are both common expressions for the penis. Yinyang may be either an embellished version of these, a genuine nonsense nursery word for any unnameable thing or part (it was used in a pseudo-Chinese music-hall chorus in the earlier years of the 20th century) or, alternatively, an adult imitation thereof influenced by ‘yang’ and ‘yin’ as describing the Chinese masculine and feminine principles respectively (given currency in the early 1970s via the I Ching and subsequently in therapy and sex manuals).

2. a fool, dupe, an inept person, a yoyo. This use of the term probably postdates its other sense of the anus or genitals, by analogy with most other words of similar meaning.

‘Well, if it’s a yinyang you want, you’ve got three much better guys for this job.’

(Vice Versa, US film, 1988)

yip n American cocaine

yippy, yippie n

ahippy activist, a member of the socalled ‘Youth International Party’ founded by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin in 1968, the date of the Chicago Democratic Convention where they put forward

apig as a presidential candidate. This short-lived movement was a loose coalition of radicals, anarchists, libertarians and left-wingers concerned with ‘situationist’ and confrontational political methods. The term was sometimes applied to other politically involved hippies and was one of the sources (albeit a heavily ironic one) of the later word yuppie.

‘Yippy politics, being made up as it goes along, are incomprehensible.’

(Oz magazine, 1970)

yo exclamation

an all-purpose greeting, also indicating solidarity, enthusiasm, etc.

yob, yobbo n British

a thug, lout, brutish youth. This is one of the only pieces of backslang to enter the popular lexicon; it was heard occasionally in working-class and underworld milieus from the 19th century until the early 1960s, when it became a vogue word and was extensively used in the newlyliberalised entertainment media. ‘Yobbishness’, ‘yobbery’ and even ‘yobbocracy’ are more recent derivations, often used to refer to brutal behaviour in a social and political context as well as in connection with juvenile delinquency and hooliganism.

‘The London International Financial Futures Exchange, terrible place, full of the most frightful yobs.’

(Serious Money, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

yo-boy n British

a hooligan, adolescent male. The term was recorded in the south of England, particularly in the Slough area, from the mid-1980s and is probably a variation of the older term yob.

yock n

an alternative spelling of yok

yodel vb, n

(to) vomit. An expression used particularly by teenagers and college students.

yodel in the canyon/valley vb

to perform cunnilingus. The first version is a jocular expression originating with

American college students in the 1960s and now heard elsewhere. The second version is Australian and British.

Compare yodel

yoff vb British

to vomit. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

yogurt-weaver n British

a derisive term for individuals involved in or keen on handicrafts, ‘ethnic’ pastimes, New Age remedies, etc. The term was posted on the b3ta website in 2004

yoink vb American

to steal. It is probably an alteration of ‘yank’.

Who yoinked my beer?

yok, yock n

a laugh, chortle or instance of humour. A racier version of yak or ‘yuk’, popular for instance with rock-music journalists.

There’s lots of yoks in this new movie.

yomp vb British

to tramp across rough country wearing or carrying heavy equipment. This item of arcane military slang became known to the general public at the time of the war between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands in 1981. The word is now used, by non-military hikers and others, more or less as a synonym for ‘trek’. It is either an invented blend, influenced by words like ‘tramp’, ‘hump’, ‘stomp’ and ‘jump’, or an imitation of the sound of boots slamming into muddy ground.

yoni n

the vagina. This Sanskrit word (originally meaning ‘abode’ or ‘womb’ and later the female equivalent of a religious phallic symbol) is sometimes used jocularly or by writers on sexual matters in place of a taboo or clinical-sounding alternative. It has been familiar to Western readers since the publication of the Kama Sutra and other Hindu texts in the early 1960s.

yonks n British

a very long time, ages. This now popular word began to be heard in the early 1960s, mainly in middle-class usage. Its exact etymology is obscure; it may be a children’s deformation of ‘years’ or an alteration of ‘donkey’s years’.

God, I haven’t seen her for yonks.

yop vb British

to tell tales, inform on someone. The origin of this 1990s playground usage is obscure.

york vb

to vomit. The term is both echoic and jocular like its synonyms, including erp, ralph, buick, etc.

you-dat exclamation British

an all-purpose greeting or indication of mutual respect or approbation. Respect itself and touch-respect are synonyms. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

youngblood n American

a black youth. The term, inspired by its literary use referring to Amerindian braves, is used particularly of a junior member of a street gang. In the late 1980s the word was often shortened to blood (which also derives from ‘blood brother’).

young fogey/fogy n British

a youngish person of self-consciously traditional attitudes, manners and aesthetic ideals. Young fogey, by humorous analogy with the colloquial ‘old fogey’, characterised another social subgroup of the 1980s. Personified by the fastidious and conservative novelist and critic A. N. Wilson, these mainly male members of, or aspirers to the upper-mid- dle-class re-create in their lifestyle and outlook the more refined pre-1960 establishment values (i.e. [high] Anglicanism, literary dabbling, a liking for traditional cooking/clothing, etc.)

‘These days a “party” is often a sedate à deux affair at the latest Young Fogy nightspot.’

(Sunday Times, Men’s Fashion Extra, October 1989)

youth n Jamaican

a young hero, young gangster or, still in the singular form, young people in general. A specialised usage of the standard English term, it is often pronounced ‘yoot’.

‘There’s nothin’ round here for the youth. No wonder they out on the street looking for trouble.’

(Recorded, Jamaican woman, London, 1988)

you wish! exclamation British

an all-purpose cry of derision or provocation, particularly in response to an

expression of an unrealistic hope or desire. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

yoyo n

a silly, eccentric or frivolous person. This use of the word, which may be said affectionately of a dizzy nonconformist or contemptuously with the straightforward meaning of a fool, originally referred to someone who vacillated or behaved in an irresolute manner.

yo-yo mode adj, n

(in) a state of chaos or confusion. The term occurs in the language of computer users. It is often in the form of an exclamation, ‘full yo-yo mode alert!’, cried when a system is going ‘haywire’. yuck1 n

1.something or someone disgusting

2.an alternative spelling of yuk

yuck2 adj

an alternative spelling of yucky

In American English this echoic approximation of retching is often transcribed as ‘yecch’.

yuck! exclamation

an exclamation of repelled distaste or disapproval

yucky, yukky, yecchy adj

unpleasant, disgusting, sickly, cloying. A very popular word, particularly among children and teenagers since the mid1970s, it derives from yuck as an exclamation of distaste.

yuk n

an alternative form of yok

yukker n British

a small child or baby. The term was recorded in 2002.

yumyum(s) n

anything considered irresistible, such as a potential sexual partner, an illicit drug or a sum of money. A less-respect- able usage of the colloquial and childish lipsmacking exclamation meaning ‘delicious’.

yuppie n

an acronym for ‘young urban professional’ (later also interpreted as ‘young upwardly-mobile professional’) with an added -ie ending in imitation of hippie, yippie, surfie, etc. The word was coined sometime between 1978 and 1980 to denote a new social phenomenon which needed to be distinguished from the existing preppies. The yuppie, originally

identifiable in New York City by a uniform of a business suit worn with running shoes, is an ambitious work-oriented materialist, usually highly paid and extremely receptive to consumer fashions. The term quickly became established all over the English-speaking world, epitomising the ‘aspirational’ mood of the 1980s.

‘Yuppie scum fuck off/Kill a yuppie today.’

(Graffiti protesting the gentrification of the East End, London, 1988)

za n American

a pizza, in the jargon of preppies

zaftig adj American

an alternative spelling of zoftig

zak, zac n South African

money. The same word, possibly from the Dutch/Afrikaans term for a bag (of coins), has been recorded in Australia, where it refers to a small amount of money.

zap vb

a.to overwhelm, destroy, obliterate (literally or figuratively). The term derives from a comic-book sound effect applied to the action of ray-guns in the 1950s and 1960s.

b.to target an individual or organisation for protests, picketing, situationist political action, etc. A word from the lexicon of radical gays in the 1970s

‘The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence… used to go out and zap various things dressed as nuns.’

(Gay activist, Out on Tuesday, British TV documentary series, 1989)

zapper n

a TV remote control. This term established itself in some households in the 1980s. It was coined perhaps to convey the power and relish experienced by viewers now able to switch channels or turn off at a touch.

See also Frank

zappy adj

energetic, speedy, dynamic, decisive. A back-formation from zap.

zazz n American glamour, showiness

plenty of zazz Give it more zazz.

zebbled adj British

circumcised. An item of playground slang of obscure origin.

zeds n British

sleep. This use of the term is probably a back-formation from the phrases stack some zees/zeds, cop some zeds/zees or bag some zeds/zees, all meaning to sleep.

zee n American

a Japanese sports car, in the argot of black street gangs of the late 1980s

‘I saw a guy I knew, my age, had a Blazer [a Chevrolet Blazer – 4-wheel drive jeep]. Another guy got a “zee”.’

(Crack dealer, Independent, 24 July 1989)

Zelda n American

an unattractive female. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. The original reference may have been to Zelda Fitzgerald, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald’s deranged wife, or simply the borrowing of a supposedly odd or outdated first name.

zen n

LSD. The term dates from the 1960s but has been revived, particularly in differentiating the drug in question from ecstasy.

zen out vb

to enter a blissful, contemplative or inert state. The phrase, based on the notion of mindlessness in Zen meditation, was ascribed to the singer Lisa Stansfield in the Daily Telegraph magazine in October 1993.

zeppelin n

a.a large cannabis cigarette; a joint

b.a large penis

Both senses are inspired by the size and shape of the original Graf Zeppelin airship. The second sub-sense may be influenced by the similar use of the slang term joint for both a reefer and the penis.

zero-cool adj American

extremely impressive, admirable, nonchalant, etc. An intensive form of cool probably coined by hipsters or beatniks, now in use among adolescents

zero out vb American

a. to run out of money, to go broke or bankrupt

‘But, dad, I’m totally zeroed out.’

(Maid to Order, US film, 1987)

b.to ‘hit rock bottom’, reach one’s lowest point

c.to fail utterly

zes n American See z’s

zhlub n American

an alternative form of slob