Where New Slang Comes From | Hacker News Reader

Where New Slang Comes From

pudding.cool

66 pointswellokthen19 comments

This reminded me of an article a couple of years back showing how deaf people would come up with signs for internet slang. It'd be neat to see it updated.

http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/internet/168477-inter...

Pretty interesting attempt. The idea of catching where a word pops out of the primordial psychosocial ooze and becomes a signifier is a compelling idea.

Cant help but feel that "Using Google searches for words’ definitions" is catching these things when Memaw is looking them up not the kids...

The generation of slang that I have seen in life gets defined in practice. When something is google search mainstream it has ossified to some extent.

I remember the first time I heard 'mansplain' and since i am an old dude (older even than 'elder millenials' which is a term from the article that I liked) - I am sure it was old when I heard it back in 2014 on twitter. At the time I got it in the context of Lucille Ball saying 'splain me' in the way that she did on her show...

In the context I didn't need to do a google search - I just laughed my head off and found other examples on twitter and tumbler, reddit etc

For me at the time this was new and very funny. I would see it grow into other variants 'x-splaining',etc. Occasionally I use it in speech, sometimes in an ironic way when I am tasked with explaining something to a group.

I guess the point is that this is really intersting but i more phenomenology than ontology. I think peak google searches are when this has reified into something - first step into making it into the OED. When it is peak google the word would get . disgusted eyeroll from your typical teenager.

Anecdotally I heard 'triggered' in a google social media (what was that called again) discussion and mistakenly thought it was a joke. I got all kinds of blocks and hate and learned that this was something that had actual currency in certain circles and I should be aware of this in future conversations...

We coin these things all the time - most of them become private jokes, some take off and become viral. Most dry up and blow away. Some make it to a headline or a list of "10 words to knwo when you check your teens chats..." But the actual origin is probably in some subredit , twitter exchange, etc. These things dont pop up with definitions, and what is more interesting are the connotations - the way something like 'deplorable' got whipped around social media or a while and became a badge in opposition to 'sjw'.

That would be really interesting research - show clouds of meaning where these things bounce around and get the secondary meanings and associations for the brief flaring up before they become dank...

The author of the article tries to identify "who" coined a particular slang word. Some researchers believe this question is mistaken because, they posit, these words evolve through a process similar to biological natural selection. See for instance, "On the Origin of Tepees: The Evolution of Ideas" by Jonnie Hughes.

Whatever process ultimately describes the evolution of language, I find it interesting to consider it as possibly due to impersonal, natural forces. This avoids the agency detection bias; one of our many cognitive biases (i.e., bugs in our mental machinery).

Similar to inventions and discoveries: is it the "great man/woman" theory, or just an idea whose time has come in the historical process?

Some work is simultaneous, like the discovery of pluto. Several ideas in maths/science are named after independent developers. OTOH, sometimes classified ideas still haven't been independently invented when declassified many years later.

So, I guess it's the safe, boring answer: some is, some isn't.

Even when we credit individuals, and rightly so, as we do, for example with Einstein, ideas don't spring ex nihilo into existence. Rather, as I like to think of it, they grow and emerge out of a certain intellectual environment. There is a reason Pythagoras didn't discover the Theory of Relativity.

My point was simply that asking "who invented (discovered, created) X" is almost always the wrong question. We have a strong tendency to assign credit (and especially blame)to a person because that is what we are wired to do. One thing science has showed us is that the world isn't that simple.

This reminds of the current Motel 6 radio spot where Tom Bodett tries to speak millennial lingo.

https://audioboom.com/posts/5551957-motel-6-millennials

Language is fascinating. I grew up in the deep south with both southern redneck slang and hardcore ebonics which makes for some interesting slang. I haven't lived in the US for a long time now though so I barely knew any of the slang words in the article.

Anyways, some of the best redneck/ebonics stuff I remember were:

1. I'm fixin' to take a shower. == I'm going to take a shower.

2. She's a yappin == She's talking all the time.

3. I got a hankerin' for some ice cream == I'm craving some ice cream.

4. I didn't get a lick of that inheritance money == I didn't get any inheritance money

5. I done talked to hime == I talked to him (done can be placed before just about any past tense verbe)

6. What it is? == whats up

7. I axed him == I asked him.

Anyone else got some great slang?

Not sure if it qualifies as slang, but when listening to some ppl from the UK I keep noticing that they replace the 'th' sound with the 'f' sound. I'm tellin' ya it's the truf!

Just to narrow that down a little more, I associate that with more of a London accent/locale. You don't hear it much here in Scotland.

The use of "be" to indicate action instead of state. (Often followed with the word "like" which is another case study in meaning. Maybe "like" indicates the speaker is aware the portrayal isn't exactly as represented but close enough for the conversation?)

"I be like, you crazy".

"Bitch be all up in his face".

"He be walking home from school".

I don't think it's an error, but rather possibly a subtle meaning with this use of the word "be". Something like at that time, the subject "is" their action. And tense doesn't matter so much.

This is an "aspect marker" that is distinctive of Ebonics/AAVE, and is grammatically distinct from other dialects of English. IIRC it either doesn't occur, or is rare, in Indo-European languages

I remember reading an article about this. I think the "be" form distinguishes between current and habitual/regular action.

He working. ==> He is working right now.

He be working. ==> He works regularly./He has a steady job.

Or maybe it's the other way around; I read the article a long time ago.

Yes you are right on with your examples. That is the way be is used.

My favorite regional slang term is "jawn" (Philly region). It's a general-purpose noun (more general-purpose than "thing" because you can use it for any entity at all, even a person).

I'm from the Bay where we hyphy and go dumb

From the soil where them rappers be getting their lingo from

The etymology of broccoli to mean weed, at least amongst my family/acquaintances, comes from the practice of trying to persuade children to eat broccoli by referring to florets as "trees"

The Splendid Source and The Jokester just wouldn't work as stories anymore...

Disappointed to not find "Cuck" in the list

Slang is everywhere. Even the university I went to had their own slang.

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