Dictionary keeps up with teen slang

Dictionary keeps up with teen slang

tools.themercury.com.au

Publisher HarperCollins has come up with a shortlist of words put forward by 14 to 18-year olds and has asked the social networking website Bebo to help pinpoint the most common slang terms in Britain.

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"The findings from the Bebo community will give us the chance to keep track of an exciting part of our language that usually goes unrecorded."

Is this really a good idea?

Among the slang terms proposed, "piff" means good, "breh" means boy and "shifted" means get arrested.

Other slang words are "stunting" (showing off), "pee" (money), "co-dee" (friends) and "pinky" (50 pounds).

And ive never heard any of those terms before, is this a 'savern fing o' wot'?

The list also includes "sick" (cool, good) "bare" (a lot of), "seen" (cool), "mugged" (mocked), "fiend" (addicted) and "hater", which means a negative person.

A little bit more like it.

All in all the english language is becoming a mish mash of slag literary and a words definition shelf life less than that of pc hardware.

Why on earth are they using bebo?

tools.themercury.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13/2/2009 by phushion]

oh dear, dictionarys aren't meant to look for neologisms - they're supposed to collate a massive pile of text from a wide range of published sources and work from that to deduce the current useage of words. The reason they don't seek out new words is a sort of evolution like principle, week and failed words won't get used enough to make the list and thus only words which are significantly used count.

unless they're making a ghastly slang dictionary, which are never very accurate or another dull advertising feature.

Hasn't the English language suffered enough already?

Really? Really...?

Seems a bit silly. Slang changes so quickly that any actual paper and ink book published will be outdated before it even hits the vendor. Why would anyone bother with such a piece of claptrap, when just a few seconds on the interweb can turn up the UrbanDictionary - which is basically the Merriam-Webster of slang, except with as much class and debonair as the side of a rail car in the inner-city. But that's what keeps it far more accurate than any published compilation.

If you're a parent, and you need to decipher your kid's language... that'd be the place to go. Provided you're not a parental hypochondriac, because a lot of slang has multiple meanings in different contexts, and mistranslations may potentially turn a simple turn of phrase into a drug deal.

[edit on 14-2-2009 by Lasheic]

Most of those ive never, ever even heard of. Heh.

All I have to say is that's whack.

(well I tried)

Plus most *British* slang varies wherever you are in the UK...try understanding glasgow slang after being in newcastle or vice versa..

Even though I'm not a big fan of "slang", wouldn't you think a dictionary SHOULD be a "living document"?

Times change, and so do the way people use words.

For example, just for example now, just look at all the definitions you can find for the word "fag" on an online dictionary!

Somebody might use the word in a totally different way than somebody else from some other country might use it.

I think it's pretty handy that, here on the web, especially when there are soo many people from different countries and cultures, that if you don't quite understand what they are saying, there is a dictionary online to give you the "up to date" definition of the word. (hopefully anyway)

There's been plenty of times here I've read another members pos, a word or phrase they said I didn't understand that I looked up on an online dictionary.

Just look at the word "gay", it used to mean HAPPY, now it has a whole different meaning!

This guys a little late. We've have urbandictionary.com for years now and its pretty much a world wide dictionary.

Eugh. Shine on that, mah nizzles.

Well damn someone has to. I'm 24 and these kids are leaving me behind...And I thought I was cool!

That is totally pants.

But aside from the fact i have never heard of most of those or even the Harper Collins dictionary, fair play to them for keeping the bases covered. Surely though most of the larger dictionaries have a time frame that the word is used by, i mean if in 5 years time these words are still being used then fine add them, but as Memysabu said urbandictionary.com would be the right place for this untill further notice.

Eugh, Shine on that, mah nizzles

Priestly, gobble yo nuts dog!

ay, reet nags de prunes.

gracias, mono

[edit on 14-2-2009 by whaaa]

Theres only a few words from my generation that seem to have stuck it out, theres plenty that have been but left just as quick.

Things like

Safe - This guys 'safe' - as in this guys ok, hes cool etc
Rough - That's rough - as in thats good, thats ace etc
Dark - Same as above
Easy (eze) - Easy now/Oh easy fella - as in hello now/oh hello fella etc or reactionary response to something good (see last line)
Soon - Would be used at the end of a conversation in the context of see you later, see you tomorrow etc
Peace - To tie in with the above - take care, look after your self etc
Innabit - Goodbye

Something a UK friend might say to another on his way out of the house when something is presented of interest:

EASYYYY!!! ahh rough, thats dark, safe fella, soon, peace, innabit