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What were some common "ephemeral" words when you were in high school or college? And what are some you hear out of the mouths of students today?
Two that were popular when I was in college (2006-2010) were the verb "pregame" and the noun "random".
To "pregame" meant to drink alcohol, usually at a private location (apartment, dorm room, etc.), prior to a party or event. Pregaming seemed to be most often done by those not of legal drinking age in college, but could be done by those of age to avoid paying the premium for beverages in bars and clubs.
A "random" was a person with whom the speaker does not have any acquaintance. For example, a girl could say "Ewwww creepy! A random messaged me on Facebook asking me if I want to meet him in person!"
A lot of the terms are still used, just not as frequently.
Every sentence had to have some form of the word f**K in it. Fuuuu*k me! was a common response to anything good or bad. Not just crass people, pretty much everyone talked like that.
"Duuude" came into play later at the end of college. It was an expression used for pretty much anything good or bad.
"Kick A$$" was used for anything positive or favorable.
"Ohh Nooooo" in a high pitched tone (like Mr. Bill) used to express a sarcastic and disbeliving response to a statement about something bad happening, where the responder felt that the person talking was a sissy about what a bad thing is.
"Bite me." Was also a common response, usally to some insult or disparaging remark.
"Party" was used in about a dozen different meanings "I want to party with you" = Lets have sex; "Lets Party" = start fighting; "It is time to party" = celebrate. Party hearty = get really drunk or high. "We partied through a few lights and then I blew him away" = I won a close street race.
During end of the Clinton adminstration, "We were smoking cigars" was used to say you were having sex.
"Bollexed up" meant messed up. I think it came from a movie.
Bozo - to describe an idiot or an idiotic action.
Nimrod - I think it meant idiot. Heard it a lot, never really knew what it meant.
Buzzed or Buzzing = drunk or stoned
"lets Rock and Roll" was used to decribe driving away, having sex, partying, fighting, leaving the current location, pretty much any action.
"Commie" "Pinko" and "F**" (a word used to describe homosexual men that CD does not allow) were used constantly as quasi insults, usually good natured insults between friends. THe terms wewre thrown around constantly, especially in high school.
Some things like the last are difficult to understand how they were used unless you were there and young at the time.
Peacenik - Someone against the Vietnam war
Hawk - Someone who wanted to bomb Hanoi
Draft-dodger - Someone who didn't particularly want to be shipped to Vietnam
Head shop - A store that sold illegal drug paraphernalia, or so I've been told
Grass - Marijuana
Weed - See grass, above
Pig - Cop
Fuzz - See pig, above
Flower Child - Someone who wore love beads
Love beads - Something worn by a flower child, see above
Stoned - The result of patronizing the head shop
Rap - What you did with your friends after Philosophy class
Score - Used in connection with grass, see above
Flip 'em off - Express displeasure with someone by showing them your middle finger
Flash 'em the bird (see Flip 'em off, above)
Lay it on me - What you said when you wanted to rap
Bitchin - Primo
Primo - See bitchin', above
Gnarly- either really good or really bad
Wicked awesome or just wicked - really good
Pronto style - ASAP
Bitchin- good
Big time- alot
Sketchy - creepy, not truthful
Stoked -happy
kook/dweeb - loser
grom/grommets - little kids
You could refer to yourself as a retard if you did something retarded. You could call somebody else a retard if they did something retarded. Or you could poke fun at someone as being a retard if they were trying to act all cool and uppity when really they were being... retarded. Or if something happened that was dumb, you could say that was retarded. I'm sure there were other ways we used it that I'm not thinking about right now.
You can't do that these days. It's considered offensive. Like, calling fat people fat. But, personally, I feel like P.C.'ness has gotten out of hand. People are too sensitive and take things way too seriously, IMO. People are retards that way sometimes. lol
Cool (one of those timeless words, I think)
Killer (really cool: Oh wow, those shoe are killer!)
Gnarly (excessive/extreme: I drank a gnarly amount of beer last night)
Tubular (surfer term that meant something good)
Dude/Dudette (male/female)
Tripendicular (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
And of course all that had to be said in a Valley Girl voice (or a Spicole voice if you were a dude).
Zolar (loser)
You could refer to yourself as a retard if you did something retarded. You could call somebody else a retard if they did something retarded. Or you could poke fun at someone as being a retard if they were trying to act all cool and uppity when really they were being... retarded. Or if something happened that was dumb, you could say that was retarded. I'm sure there were other ways we used it that I'm not thinking about right now.
You can't do that these days. It's considered offensive. Like, calling fat people fat. But, personally, I feel like P.C.'ness has gotten out of hand. People are too sensitive and take things way too seriously, IMO. People are retards that way sometimes. lol
When was that? I remember "retard" was used as an insult at least to the late 90s even to early 2000s where I live but not much after that (probably due to claims it was offensive, like you mention). I will still occasionally hear it but very rarely and not as often as it was say even 10 or 15 years ago.
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