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Slang
"It’s a mystery to me why certain words stay in style and some fade out."
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to this Commentary!
By Sanovia Jackson
How do certain slang words go out of style? I can see certain clothes or hairstyles
getting old, but who can say what’s in or out with language? For example, there
are fifty million ways to say hello, like whatsup, what’s crackin, what’s really
good, and what’s da biz, to name a few. It’s not like we sit around deciding
what and what not to say. Somehow we all just KNOW when a word’s got to go.
Rappers have a big influence on what the new slang is for the year. E-40, a
rapper from the Bay Area, came up with words like fashugadale, which is basically
the slang term for the phrase ‘for sure.’ Even that word seems to be played
out now but certain words like whatsup are still going strong. That one is so
popular, people have exaggerated its meaning in commercials to help increase
their profit with the young crowd. You know the commercial, the one where each
guy calls one of his friends on the phone and they yell “Whatsup!!” over and
over again into the receiver.
In the early 90’s, the popular word was “fresh.” Nowadays the word for appealing
is “tight,” and if I said something was “fresh” to express my liking for it,
I would get the weirdest looks from my friends.
I always wanted to make up my own slang for people to adopt. I’ve tried making
up a couple words of my own like click-clackin, meaning talking on the phone
with friends, or saying diamonds instead of money. A couple times while talking
to my friends on the phone, I’ve tried to tell them I needed money by saying
that my diamonds were low. They got real quiet, then burst out laughing, wondering
how I came up with the word diamonds. After a while, I got tired of making up
slang terms. It always sounded like I was trying too hard to come up with something
new.
The only way I could actually get props for my words would be to become a famous
rapper. Since I don’t believe that is going to happen, I’ll just stick to the
words that are already out, and put a Novi twist to them. But even my twist
seems to go out of style faster than it took me to come up with the word in
the first place.
It’s a mystery to me why certain words stay in style and some fade out. But
it seems like we all know when a new one is needed. One way I know it’s time
to find a new word is if my parents start using it and saying something like,
“That car is bootsy!” or ask me, “What’s up with it?” when I come home from
school. That’s when I know it’s time for some new slang.
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