Bettys, Barneys, hiddys and grommets, nectars, goddesses and poops, full nuns and full monks alike will be fully stoked for a bodacious school year, armed with the latest in language. It might be weak; it could be sweetness.
If it`s killer, it will be epic, fully to the skull.
Orange County, Calif., with its ”valleyspeak” legacy, proximity to Hollywood and active blend of ethnic groups and cultures-not to mention surf, skate and rock `n` roll-is prime turf for new slang. The halls of high schools across Orange County ring with the frantic slang-slinging of modern teenagers.
Kelly Bratten, 17, of Capistrano Beach, offered a preview of the latest in ”kidspeak,” a lot of which germinated during the summer.
”We use `epic` for a great wave or a great movie: `That was an epic flick.` And `barred,` as in `I got barred`; that`s rejected or turned away.
”Grown-ups don`t understand it at all, but kids get it right away.
” `Awesome` is totally out. I say `weak` a lot, as in, `That`s weak`-
meaning, it does not measure up to any standards whatsoever.
”And `fully,` that means 100 percent, `fully stoked.` I feel like the words start here and they get picked up,” Bratten said. ” `Fully` should be in the dictionary.”
Bratten, who just graduated from Capistrano Valley Christian High School and works part time as a commercial model, still pays attention to what her friends in school say.
” `Sweetness` is used a lot by guys for something great; girls can`t pull it off,” she said. ” `Stoked`-I can`t use that at pageants because it`s so surferish. But my mom even uses `stoked.` It`s the only way to describe how you`re feeling-when you get a good wave, or when you`re really, really happy. When I get something that I don`t deserve, that`s when I use `stoked.`
”In L.A. when you say that,” Bratten said, ”they think you`re a dumb bunny. But here it`s commonly used. When I first moved here, I asked someone to explain it, but they said, `Just say it, Kelly, you`ll get it.` ”
Take 2 aspirins
Do teenagers take these words through the school year?
”Well, they`re in the classroom,” Bratten said. ”When people give their speeches for class president, you hear the slang words. They can be pulled off here. You even hear the teachers say it sometimes. The words you hear at the beginning of the year, they`re not too out by the end.”
Typical to kidspeak are words denoting types of other kids. Bettys are
”cute surf chicks,” which is perhaps soon to be supplanted by ”poops,”
Bratten said, as in a guy saying, ”Goin` out with the poops tonight.”
”The girls go `Ewwwww` when they hear that,” she said.
Barneys (from barnyard?) are last year`s dorks, nerds, even dweebs. Hiddy is mainly an unattractive girl, and comes, brutally enough, from ”hideous,” a formally adult-domain adjective now popular with kids, the same way
”excellent” was appropriated last year from the grown-ups` lexicon.
Students who are obedient are still called goody-goodies, but Bratten and her friends call them ”full nuns” and ”full monks.” ”You know, they`re 17 and they`ve never had a date and they don`t have their (driving) permit-you can just tell they`ll live with Mommy till they`re 30.”
”See ya” is common closure these days, as is ”hasta,” which has been current for a while. ” `Shaka zulu` is popular to say goodbye,” Bratten said, ”but I don`t use it. My boyfriend, John, is from South Africa; he can get away with using that. It`s funny, too; `grommet,` which here means young surfer, means unattractive girl where he`s from. A good-looking girl there is `nice.` But we now say `nectar.` ”
Huh? ”Oh, we use that a lot in Orange County,” Bratten said.
”Slang,” she said, exasperated, ”you can`t explain it. It`s an expression that is more than a dictionary definition.”
Off limits
Here`s what not to use: gnarly, rad, bitchin`, bad-awesome, even. They`re all out. Out, out, out.
”I had friends from Napa come to stay with me,” Bratten said. ”They would say `bad` and `bunk,` and we were embarrassed to be heard with them.”
Hanging out at Huntington Beach and not fully stoked about school, Justin Prior, 15 and in the 10th grade, and his friends Dorian Ardelean, 14 and in 9th grade, and Casey Karpen, 15 and in 10th, all from Magnolia High in Anaheim, said, in unison, ”Howzit?”
”You have to say it fast,” Justin said. ”Same with `hasta` and `hot chicks.` ”
Some words from the `60s are being revived, others forgotten, neglected or scorned. ”Far out” is still out; ”tripped out” is back, as are
”groovy” and ”chick.” ”Boss” remains elusive, ”cool” is perennial
(perhaps the hardiest of the bunch) and ”dig it” has yet to make a comeback.
Ruben Campos, 13 and in the 8th grade at Dwyer Junior High, likes to talk fast.
”You have to scream `pincheway!` It`s from Spanish but it doesn`t translate,” he said. ”It just means fun.” Also, ”rillycool” and ”fully stoked” are still happening for younger teenagers, particularly Hispanic ones, Campos said.
”A `non` is a nerd in my grade this year,” said Ryan McGowan, 13, and a 7th-grader at El Robles Junior High.
Words by `Heather`
Teenagers also cultivate slang words from movies, though Bratten was disgruntled with the movie ”Bill and Ted`s Excellent Adventure.” ”I was expecting after it came out to hear everyone saying, `Excellent, party on, dude.` But it did not catch on. It was almost an insult. It made teenagers look stupid.”
Screenwriter Daniel Waters understood, though. Responsible for creating many a memorable line in last year`s critically acclaimed black-comedy film
”Heathers,” described by one critic as a ”teenage fantasy run amok,”
Waters avoided the trap many aspiring scribes fall into when researching teen life, he said.
While some writers might hang out in high school cafeterias hoping to overhear juicy bits of bonafide teen slang, Waters, 26, freely admits that he made a lot of it up.
The film`s quippy buzz phrases, such as ”What`s your damage?”
(translation: Got a problem?) and ”Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast?” (Why so grouchy?) were not slang before Waters put them into the mouths of Heathers.
Otherwise, he figured, if he had gone the standard research route, ”by the time my movie had gone through production and was released, the slang would be outdated. Slang does not have a long life expectancy.
”Look at `Parenthood` (Ron Howard`s film),” Waters said. ”It`s a good movie, but you can tell it was written by 40-year-old men.
”Slang comes from a love of language. You want to have fun with it. It`s always good. Teens want to separate themselves from the adult world by creating a language of their own that the enemy-parents and authorities-doesn`t understand. It`s like a password.
”I make a point not to use the words,” Waters said, ”but producers tell me they hear it, and someone told me their whole office was using `What`s your damage?` Seventeen magazine ran a feature called `Dressing Very.`
” (`Very` is used by the cool teens in ”Heathers” to denote something so intense that it transcends good and bad.)
Educating the Big Guy
Despite the encoded aspect of most slang, some teens are tickled, contrary to popular notion, when their parents pick up their words.
”My mom is 41, my dad is 39,” Marko Chase, 19, said. ”They are very hip and use some of these words. My dad calls me `Junior` and I call him `Big Guy.` He says `heads` and `killer.` (”It was killer” means great or rad.)
You need charisma to pull it along.”
At Santa Ana High, ”wild” and ”smooth”-the former used for boys, the latter for anything nice (”That dress is really smooth”)-are going to be big this year, said Yolanda Serrano, 16. ”All the kids use the same slang,” she said, regardless of their race or ethnic backgrounds.
Santa Ana High`s principal, Andrew Hernandez, echoed that.
In a school with a student population that is about 78 percent Hispanic,
”vocabularies occur revolving around certain groups,” he said. ”Then outsiders adopt or appropriate significant sayings from that group.
”A lot of people in business suits might use `radical` and mean the same thing that a kid here would,” he said. ”I see no difference between how slang develops and how the overall language develops.
”If you take a long look, you`ll see that some words get adopted and others fade away. My son, now 13, said a couple of years ago that he wanted me to build a ramp for skating. I did, and he said, `Dad, that doesn`t have enough vert.` I asked him if he knew what `vert` meant. He said, `It`s just vert.` So I gave him a lesson about vertical and horizontal.
”As long as humans have imagination and make ideas with which to identify groups, there will be slang.” –
