Slang throughout the years

The adjective phat has emerged from hip hop, a cultural movement originating among young African Americans in the United States and associated with rap music, graffiti art and breakdancing.

Taylor Swift’s new album is well phat.

Meh‘s popularity surged after its use on the American animated television series The Simpsons.^[7][27] It was first used in the 1994 episode “Sideshow Bob Roberts“,^[7] when a librarian reacts to Lisa’s surprise that voting records are not classified. It also appeared later in “Lisa’s Wedding” after Marge weaves the words “Hi Bart” on a loom to try to pique her son’s interest in weaving, to which he responds “meh”.

Taylor Swift’s new album is a bit meh.

The term possibly derives from the word “grotesque.” Popularized in the song “Valley Girl” in 1982.

Ugh, that smell is seriously grody—I’m practically gagging.

One early person to use stan for an obsessed fan was the rapper Nas in a 2001 track where he raps: “You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan.”

An Urban Dictionary entry describing stan for intense fandom was added in 2006, and one of the first tweets using stan as a verb for greatly liking someone came in 2008.

Everyone knows I stan for Taylor Swift!

Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (2d ed.) defines “peeps” as a slang term originating in the 1980s on college campuses and in the black community. It’s derived from “people” and it means parents, friends, people in general,

She showed up with her peeps for support.

The word groupie originated around 1965 to describe teen-aged girls or young women who began following a particular group or band of musicians on a regular basis. The phenomenon was much older; Mary McCarthy had earlier described it in her novel The Company She Keeps (1942).^[1]

The groupie followed the band around on tour, hoping to catch one of the members coming out of their hotel after hours.

Fresh is another way to say that something is “cool” or “great.” It is commonly used in reference to how someone appears, including his threads and kicks.

Many people recognize the term from, “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” a popular sitcom from the 90s starring Will Smith. The term is often heard in rap songs to brag about luxurious lifestyles.

For an old man he’s really fly. I’ve never ever seen him not looking fresh!

The boondocks is an American expression from the Tagalog (Filipino) word bundók (“mountain”). It originally referred to a remote rural area,^[1] but now, is often applied to an out-of-the-way area considered backward and unsophisticated by city-folk.

They were in the boondocks with no cell service.

According to an April 2021 article in The New York Times written by Taylor Lorenz, the term cheugy was coined in 2013 by Gaby Rasson, a Beverly Hills High School student, who used it to describe “people who were slightly off trend”; an Urban Dictionary definition appeared in 2018.^[1] Subsequently, it was mentioned in a TikTok video by Hallie Cain in March 2021,^[3] inspiring explainers from various media outlets (including Lorenz’ own article).^[1] The American Dialect Society voted cheugy its 2021 “informal word of the year“.^[11]

She is so cheugy: she’s doing last week’s TikTok trend.

(slang) To vomit. US 1960s, of uncertain origin, apparently derived from a use of the male name Ralph, but perhaps imitative.

After six shots, Jim spent the rest of the night ralphing.