Slang throughout the years

It’s a fine old American slang term for a jail, still widely known today. Most people would connect it with the nineteenth-century cowboys of the Wild West.

Otis ended the evening in the Mayberry hoosegow.

Bae is a slang term of endearment^[1] primarily used among youth in communities. It came into widespread use around 2013 and 2014 through social media and hip-hop and R&B lyrics.

It’s bad when bae doesn’t reply to your texts.

The most common use of “yeet” is as an exclamation when you’re throwing an object. However, the word isn’t limited to being associated with objects, as you could also say, “I’m going to yeet myself into the pool.”

I just yeeted my cat across the room. (not advised.)

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.

Slap appears to start getting applied to music, specifically, by at least the early 2000s. Now, the origin of slang, especially successful and widespread slang terms like slap, are indeed hard to pin down, but the musical slap is often credited to Bay Area hip-hop slang. (Hyphy, anyone?) It was first entered into Urban Dictionary in 2004.

Rihanna’s new single slaps so hard, I can’t stop listening to it!

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!

Unknown origin, probably related to boogie-woogie music.

Let’s boogie!

The phrase is sometimes used to mean ‘get going’ or ‘hurry up’. It was explicitly defined that way in the New York Magazine in 1904. “Shake a leg … meaning to ‘hurry up’.”

Let’s shake a leg, you guys. We gotta be there in twenty minutes.

Expression: Similar to “No offence” or “back off”, “Don’t @ me” literally means don’t mention my name in a tweet, comment, etc., but is usually used in pretext of something predicted by the presenter to be offensive to a social audience of a specific type.

Donald Trump is the best president ever. Don’t @ me.

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.