Street Lingo 104 - Mastering Your Son and Daughter's Language

It’s been a while since I’ve discussed street lingo on the blog. I used to discuss common words, and phrases that I hear on daily to monthly basis, put them in useful sentences, and so on. So here is the latest installment of Street Lingo:

The word “shit” seems to have a tremendous amount of usage, for example, consider the phrase…

“you must be shitting me”

This usually said in a casual conversation with a friend when he/she tells you something you weren’t expecting. It’s the same as saying “you must be kidding me.” The “shitting” part makes the phrase stronger, and implies a greater surprise.

While we’re on the surprise category, girls often say

“Shut UP!” when they hear something that takes them by surprise. My friend told me that a girl in her class loudly said “Shut up!” after the prof. said that “some of your neurons could stretch from your head to your toes”

On a different note, this phrase is not as common, but I have heard it a few times:

“Shoot the shit”

If used in a sentence it would sound like:

“so me and John were shooting the shit when Mary came in”

To “shoot the shit” means to be involved in a conversation. Generally the conversation is not serious in nature, and usually it’s between acquaintances.

“I give that major props” is a widely used phrase among university, college and high school students. The phrase denotes happiness or acceptance of something. For example someone could say “I give that prof major props for delaying the due date” a variations to the original phrase is:

“props to that!”

And as an added touch I would like to introduce my own spin on “prop” and coin the phrase “propable” which simply indicated that something is worth giving major props to. “Propable” could be used to say “that’s a propable proposition” meaning the proposition is worth considering.

On the sexual side of things there’s an increasingly popular phrase indicating the sexual interest of a male in a female. The phrase is of course “I’d tap it!”

Of course, tap is used as metaphor in this phrase. If you’re having trouble seeing the metaphor I suggest you read this article. I foresee this phrase to be widely used among females in the next few years, as the pattern has shown for the phrase “I’d do him/her.”

I hope this informative lesson was of value to you. I think it’s important to understand street language, and I certainly encourage older people to learn these phrases. Just think of the all things your sons and daughters are saying, and you’re oblivious to. By learning these phrases not only are you connecting to your teenage sons and daughters, but you’re also viewed as a hip parent.

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