Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (111 page)

nightmare homework

nimby
n

an opponent of controversial legislation (typically on environmental issues), only so long as he or she is directly affected. The word is an acronym for the slogan or catchphrase ‘not in my back yard', coined in the United States (where a ‘yard' is a garden) in the 1980s to describe a syndrome whereby a person supports a potentially harmful move or policy in principle but opposes it for selfish reasons. The American expression entered common currency in Britain around 1986. (An unqualified opponent to the same issues is a
namby
.)

‘He thinks working motherhood is a jolly good thing, but he's also a nimby (“by all means let mothers work, so long as it's not in my office”).'
(Sarah Jane Evans,
Sunday Times
, 18 March 1989)

nim nim nim
phrase British

in the words of one teenager ‘what is said when someone is speaking rubbish'. The phrase indicates annoyance and/or indifference to another's pontificating or criticism. ‘My rents were telling me off… nim nim nim'.

nimrod
n

a foolish, unattractive or unfortunate person. The term was recorded on US campuses in the early 1990s and subsequently in UK school playground parlance.

ning-nong
n Australian

a fool. A now dated, but not altogether obsolete word inspired by
nig-nog
(in the earlier non-racist sense) and nincompoop. It may be unrelated to the synonymous
nong
.

ninny
n British

the vagina. The term was recorded among adolescent girls in 2002.

nip, Nip
n

1.
a Japanese person. (
Nippon
is the Japanese word for Japan.) ‘Jap' has been the preferred term among British speakers, but nip has made headway since the mid-1970s. This term is largely pejorative.

2.
a computer microchip

nipples, the
n
,
adj British

(something) excellent. The phrase, used by teenagers, may be by analogy with, or a euphemism for,
the (dog's) bollocks
.

‘“Just look at that dress,” Emily says with that sophisticated self-confidence 16-year-old girls exude these days. “Isn't that just the nipples?”'
(
Daily Telegraph
, 15 Jun 2012)

nipply
adj American
cold, chilly. The term is derived from the colloquial ‘nippy' and the phenomenon of erect, painful nipples caused by cold. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

nish
n British

nothing. An old alternative form of
nix
, first heard among working class Londoners and in showbiz circles and
polari
. It was recorded in use by adolescents in 2000.

‘How much did you ask her for?' ‘£25 a week.'
‘How much did you get?'
‘Nish.'
(Recorded, secondary pupils, London, March 2005)

nit
n

1.
British
a foolish person. A contraction of nitwit which was popular in the 1950s, especially among radio comedians, but is now almost obsolete.

2.
American
nothing. A variant form of
nix
.

nitso, nitto
n British

nothing. British alternative forms of
nix
, in working-class London usage.

nitty-gritty, the
n
the essentials, small details. This now common phrase was adopted in Britain from American speech in the second half of the 1960s. The expression originated in black slang, in which nitty-gritty referred to the scalp in the context of grooming.

nix
¹
n

no, nothing, none. One of very few German words to enter the thieves' and low-life cant of the early 19th century and remain in occasional use.
Nichts
is the standard German for nothing or not,
nix
being a colloquial version.

nix
²
vb

to forbid, veto. This form of the word is predominantly American, its brevity recommending it to journalese usage.

The governor nixed the proposals.

nizzle
n See
-izzle

Noah, Noah's
n

a.
Australian
a shark

b.
British
a park

c.
British
a
nark
(informer)

All the senses of the word are examples of rhyming slang, from ‘Noah's ark'. The two British instances are now rare if not obsolete.

nob
¹
vb British

to copulate. A working-class usage which became fashionable in the 1970s and early 1980s. It derives from the use of
(k)nob
to mean the penis, and as such is usually, but not invariably, used by and about men.

‘We ate your food and nobbed your tarts.'
(Jools Holland, of the pop group Squeeze, at the end of a tour of Venezuela, 1980)

nob
²
n British

1.
the head. This now old-fashioned usage dates from the 17th century or earlier and is a form of archaic words which survive as ‘napper', ‘nape' and ‘knob'.

2.
an aristocrat or VIP. Nob in this sense may derive from sense 1 (by way of the notion of a famous, prominent or swollen-headed personage), from the use of nob to designate the head on the Jack card in cribbage or, more straightforwardly, as a shortening of ‘noble' or ‘nobility'.

‘A second battle between the nobs and the yobs was a slice of real life, as filmed by BBC2's new documentary series,
“Enterprise Culture”. A builder named Ken King has bought Avebury Manor.'
(Kate Saunders, TV review,
Evening Standard
, 17 May 1989)

3.
the penis. In this sense the spelling
knob
is usually preferred.

nobber, nobba
n British

a fool. Often used as a term of endearment, usually by and between males.

nobble
¹
n British

1.
an act of dishonestly interfering with a process, such as by bribing a member of a jury or drugging a racehorse. From the verb.

2.
a trick, a devious scheme or clever way of doing things

‘I said, look, the nobble is to give me some money and I'll get you some [drugs]. It's just a bit of a nobble really.'
(Rockstars'
minder
,
Guardian
, August 1987)

nobble
²
vb British

to incapacitate or subvert. The term applies specifically to drugging or otherwise distressing a racehorse in order to adversely affect its performance, or to suborning or threatening members of a jury. The word probably originated in rustic use with the meaning ‘knock on the head', perhaps influenced by
nob
, and hobble.

nobbo
n See
knobbo

nob-rot
adj British

bad. A term popular among schoolchildren since the 1990s.

They're a nob-rot band.

noddy
n British

a buffoon, simpleton, clumsy or ungainly person. In modern usage the term has been specifically applied to low-ranking police officers by members of the CID and public. Noddy is an archaic rustic term for a simple-minded or cloddish individual, inspired by such a person's inadvertent head movements. The use of the word for the famous children's storybook character created by Enid Blyton reinforced the image evoked.

no diggety
exclamation

‘no doubt', ‘no question'. An expression from the lexicon of
rap
and
hip hop
.

nod out
vb

to become unconscious or fall asleep. This racier version of the standard ‘nod off' is used especially in connection with drug-induced somnolence or stupor.

noggin
n British

a.
a drink. The word of unknown origin may designate a measure of a quarter pint or simply an alcoholic drink of any size or type.

b.
the head

noid
n

a paranoid person. The clipped form, typical of adolescent slang since the late 1980s, was popular among students in Britain in the late 1990s.

Don't be such a noid, no one's getting at you.

no-mark
n British

an insignificant person, a ‘nobody'. An item of Merseyside slang popularised by the TV soap opera
Brookside
.

nonce, nonse
n British

a prisoner found guilty of sexual offences against children or other acts against the pale of prison morality. Short for ‘nonsense boy' or ‘nonsense case'.

‘Nonce meaning nothing, a non-sense, a no one, a non-thing, a phenomenon existing somewhere between noun and verb, between the most terrible acts and the dreadful word for them: pervert, child molester, sex offender, monster, beast… The nonce is the game in an open season.'
(Ken Smith,
Inside Time
, 1988)

noncey
adj British

affected, pretentious, overly respectable. The word is probably an alteration of
ponc(e)y
, perhaps influenced by
nancy boy
or
nonce
.

‘There was a time in my life when this sort of noncey Robert Robertson thing would have made me puke, but I must be getting old or something.'
(Zoë Heller,
Sunday Times
magazine, 12 November 1995)

nong
n Australian

a fool. The word is of obscure origin; it may originate in an Aboriginal word or as a corruption of
non compos mentis
(meaning ‘not of sound mind'). It is probably unrelated to the synonymous
ning-nong
.

no-no
n

something forbidden, impossible, unwelcome, inadvisable, etc. An American slang term which, since the early 1970s, has become a common colloquialism in all English-speaking countries.

non-trivial
adj

important and/or demanding. A usage originating in the jargon of computer specialists.

noob
n

a more recent form of
newbie
used in internet communication since around 2002

noodle
n

1.
the head. In this sense the word is a variant form of
noddle
.

2.
a fool or simpleton. This sense of the word is probably inspired by the notion of softness.

noodling
n

behaving in an aimless and/or unhurried manner. This use of the word is variously explained as being inspired by the length and consistency of noodles, or as an alteration of ‘nodules' – the object apparently of leisurely ‘fossicking' by Australian miners.

‘The Dead would crank up an old standard… and zone off into extended soloing and noodling as their LSD trips unfurled.'
(
Q
magazine, March 1997)

noogie, nuggy
n American

a.
a kiss or hug

b.
petting or other sexual activity This Americanism, which may possibly be distantly related to the British
nookie
, is a survival of an archaic British dialect term ‘nug', which is itself related to the verb ‘nudge', and which meant to fondle.

nookie
n British

sexual intercourse or sex in general. This coy term became popular in the late 1970s and 1980s, probably due to its use in the media in place of more offensive synonyms. (Nookie also occurs, albeit rarely, in American usage.) The etymology of the word is uncertain. It may be a form of the archaic British dialect verb ‘nug' (which has survived in American speech in the form
noogie
: kiss or hug), or it may alternatively be an alteration of an older euphemism for the female pudenda as a ‘shady nook'. It has been defined recently as ‘70's style slang for sex, now making a bit of a come-back'.

noonie
n

an alternative spelling of
nunnie

noonoo
n

vagina. It may be coincidental that the nonsense word also figured as the name of the Teletubbies' robot/vacuum cleaner companion.

‘…Probably because I couldn't tell what he was saying and the female had the hairiest noonoo I've ever seen.'
(Comment on movie
Last Tango in Paris
posted on Guardian website, 27 March 2013)

noov, noovo
n
,
adj British

(a person who is) nouveau riche. A dismissive term employed by upper-class and public-school speakers and pseudo-intellectuals. Etonian schoolboys applied the term to Harrovians in the late 1980s.

Nora
n British

a drab or unattractive woman. The phrase ‘a right Nora' has been used since the 1990s by students and other adolescents to condemn any female thought to be frumpy, unattractive or shrewish. The term was probably originally inspired by the character of Nora Batty in the TV comedy
Last of the Summer Wine
.