#PARTICULARS IN SLANG MOVIE#
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And yet, after a long day of work, nothing sounds better than just sitting on a couch, watching movies and vegging out. Is there anything more relaxing than vegetating? Well, if you think about that too hard, itвЂ™s kind of a strange state to aspire to. Not all of these variants survived the end of the decade, but вЂњhomeboyвЂќ and вЂњhomegirlвЂќ are still around. вЂњHomeboyвЂќ didnвЂ™t take on its more modern meanings until the 1970s and 1980s, implying something like вЂњold friend.вЂќ And it really started to evolve in 1980s slang, when other words like вЂњhomie,вЂќ вЂњhomegirlвЂќ and вЂњhomesliceвЂќ started to appear. It meant something more like вЂњtownie,вЂќ implying that the person was вЂњsimpleвЂќ or something along those lines. Its original sense was for вЂњstay-at-home boy,вЂќ making it kind of like the young male equivalent of вЂњhousewife.вЂќ By the 1940s, itвЂ™d become part of African American Vernacular English, and it was not a compliment. The word homeboy goes back to the вЂ™80s, but technically the 1880s. Meaning: someone who grew up in the same town as you

#PARTICULARS IN SLANG MOVIE#

The movie also helped popularize a number of other 1980s slang phrases, including вЂњwastoidвЂќ (for someone who uses drugs) and вЂњburnerвЂќ (essentially a burnout). While The Simpsons helped popularize the phrase, it actually was coined by another defining cultural landmark of the decade: The Breakfast Club. The show, and вЂњeat my shortsвЂќ along with it, seems a bit tame by current standards.

#PARTICULARS IN SLANG SERIES#

The show premiered as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman ShowВ in 1987 and branched out on its own in 1989, and itвЂ™s easy to forget that this animated show was originally countercultural and subversive (compared to the other things on mainstream television, that is). Its aging was likely helped along when it became a catchphrase of Bart Simpson, the 10-year-old son on The Simpsons. The insults of yesteryear can often sound ridiculous to modern ears, and вЂњEat my shorts!вЂќ is no exception. Meaning: a crude remark to tell someone to go away, stop bothering you, etc. Terms like вЂњfar out,вЂќ вЂњtubularвЂќ and вЂњradicalвЂќ all became part of a youth dialect that made liberal use of 1980s slang. It can be difficult to really separate Val-speak and surf slang, because they closely intermingled. The word вЂњgnarly,вЂќ for example, was used in the 1970s to refer to waves that were particularly difficult to surf, and it spread to non-surfing teenagers by the mid-1980s. While the popularity of surfing culture really peaked in the 1960s, the lingo made it big later on. Val-speak wasnвЂ™t the only linguistic phenomenon coming from California. Specific slang like вЂњgag me with a spoonвЂќ always goes out of fashion after a while, but Southern Californian Val-speak really changed the way Americans talk forever.

No, not everyone sounds like a Californian, but many traits of Val-speak - the constant use of вЂњlike,вЂќ the вЂњoh my godвЂќs, and the up-speak - are now everywhere. And yet despite certain people rolling their eyes, Val-speak won in the end. ItвЂ™s pretty common for the way young women to speak to become a constant source of ridicule. Some parts of Valley Speak were really cemented in the 1982 Frank Zappa song вЂњValley Girl,вЂќ in which ZappaвЂ™s 14-year-old daughter played the character of the Valley Girl, sprinkling in phrases like вЂњoh my god,вЂќ вЂњtotallyвЂќ and вЂњgag me with a spoon.вЂќ

The stereotype of the Valley Girl really began in the 1970s, but it started to spread in the вЂ™80s. These were the mostly white, mostly upper-middle-class young women who lived in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles. One of the defining linguistic phenomena of the 1980s was Val-speak, a dialect of English spoken by Valley Girls. 1980s Slang Words And Phrases Gag me with a spoon! LetвЂ™s look at just a few of the words and phrases that became popular during this decade.

ItвЂ™s mostly used by young people - women and Black people especially - and the 1980s were the heyday of Gen Xers, a generation too often overlooked. Slang can reveal the cultural undercurrents of a time period. There are countless different angles to take when looking at a period of 10 years, and here weвЂ™ll zoom in on just one: 1980s slang. You canвЂ™t boil down the AIDS crisis, the Reagan presidency, the Challenger explosion, hair metal bands, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the war on drugs down to a single symbol (though the RubikвЂ™s cube might get us close). Even after 30 years have passed, the 1980s are difficult to distill. It can be hard to really understand a decade until itвЂ™s long over.

Particulars in slang