Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (112 page)

norks
n pl Australian

female breasts. This word is said to be inspired by the wrapper design for butter produced in the 1950s by the Norco Cooperative Dairy Company, which showed a cow with a full udder. The word was introduced to British speakers by the
Barry McKenzie
cartoon series, running in
Private Eye
magazine in the 1960s. ‘Norkers' and ‘norgs' were earlier forms.

Norman no-mates
n British

a rarer version of
Billy no-mates

Norman Normal
n British

a very conventional, conformist person. The mythical Norman (supposedly an especially dull, typically bourgeois or petit bourgeois Christian name as well as resembling ‘normal') was invoked by the last
beatniks
and, after them, the
hippies
as a term of light-hearted contempt.

Norris
n American

a misfit, outsider, clumsy and inept person, usually male. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

north and south
n British

the
mouth
. A piece of Victorian London working-class rhyming slang that is still heard, always in the full form.

‘What a mouth, what a mouth/What a north and south/Blimey what a mouth he's got!'
(Lyrics to
What a Mouth
, recorded by Tommy Steele, 1960)

nosebleed
n American

an obnoxious person

nose candy
n American

cocaine. Another euphemistic use of
candy
in particular and sweet imagery in general to describe drugs. This term was widespread among users following the adoption of cocaine as a middle-class fashion in the late 1970s.

nosh
¹
n British

1.
food. In Yiddish, the noun (deriving from the verb form, itself from the German
naschen
) signifies a snack or tidbit eaten between meals. In English usage it has been generalised to encompass all sizes of meal.

‘Hey look at all that lovely nosh going to waste.'
(
Biff
cartoon, 1986)

2.
a promiscuous and/or disreputable female. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

nosh
²
vb

to eat. The word is a later alteration of
nashn
, a Yiddish version of the German word
naschen
, meaning to snack or eat surreptitiously.

After he'd noshed everything on the table, he started in on the fridge.

no shit, Sherlock!
exclamation

an ironic riposte to a statement of the obvious. Probably originating in American speech, it is also an item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

nosh (someone) off
vb British

to have oral sex with someone, perform fellatio or cunnilingus. A 1980s invention in self-conscious imitation of cockney forms of the 1950s.

nosser
n British

a homeless person, vagrant

not(!)
exclamation
a contradiction of the previous statement. The usage, which some linguists claim to have originated in Celtic languages, was popularised by the cult US film
Wayne's World
in 1992 and the comedy sketches on the US TV programme,
Saturday Night Live
, on which it was based. It neatly replaces the older mechanism whereby the phrase ‘I don't think!' was appended.

She's my favourite person. Not!

no-tail
n British

a female. The term, used typically by males, is probably inspired by its usage in the black comedy TV series
The League of Gentlemen
, but may be earlier in origin.

notch
n American

the female sex organs

not many!
exclamation British

an allpurpose term of dismissal, derision, etc., in London working-class speech. Its precise derivation is unclear, but it may be a replacement for the earlier use of ‘not much!' as an ironic riposte to a statement of the obvious.

not the full shillin'
adj British

slow-witted and/or distracted, eccentric. A folksy expression dating from the pre-decimalisation era, still heard in 2004, perhaps due to its use in the TV soap
Coronation Street
.

nouve, nouveau
n
,
adj British

alternative renderings of
noov
,
noovo

novel
adj British

pretentious, unoriginal, unappealing. The standard term has been used ironically in this way by students and others since 2000.

nowhere
adj

worthless, inferior, hopeless, uninteresting. A dismissive term which formed part of the
beatnik
vocabulary in the USA in the 1950s and later in Britain. When the Beatles recorded
Nowhere Man
in 1965, the word was in vogue in very limited circles; it was subsequently heard among
hippies
, particularly in the USA.

nowt
n British

nothing. A northern English dialect version of the archaic or literary ‘naught'. The word is sometimes appropriated by southern speakers for emphasis, irony or familiarity.

nuddy, nuddie
adj British

nude, naked. A schoolchildren's humorous or coy mispronunciation of the standard English term, usually in the phrase ‘in the nuddie'.

nudger
n

a
gay
male. This pejorative term is a shortened form of
fudge-nudger
.

nudnik, noodnik
n American

an irritating, boring or stupid person. This Yiddish word is derived from the Czech adjective
nudny
, meaning tiresome or boring.

'nuff
n

a humorous rendering of ‘enough' reflecting its pronunciation in rapid or childish speech. The word is usually seen in this form in the cliché ‘'nuff said'. Vogue expressions also employing the word were ‘nuff-tuff', meaning bold or daring, and ‘nuff carn', meaning enough money, both used by teenagers from the late 1980s.

nuff!
exclamation American

possibly a contraction of the phrase ‘enough said'

nug
n American

a girl(friend). The term is probably a shortening of the word
nuggy
which is equivalent to the British
nookie
.

nugget
n British

1.
a one-pound coin. From its gold colour and thickness.

2.
a fool, worthless person. The term was recorded in Scottish use in 2003 and later elsewhere in the UK.

‘Greg Searle, 35, was jailed for two years for threatening police …during an eight hour stand off in his home town of Chepstow, South Wales. At one stage Searle updated his Facebook page to say: “I've left my grenade somewhere, I think it's still in the car.… There's nothing to see here you nuggets LOL.”'
(
Daily Mail,
4 April 2012)

nuggets
n pl American

the testicles

Man, it was so cold my nuggets nearly froze off.

nuggy
n American

an alternative spelling of
noogie

nuke
vb

a.
to attack with nuclear weapons. The verb was coined by ‘hawks' in the USA in the early 1970s. During the Falklands War of 1981, T-shirts and car stickers were produced in Britain with the exhortation ‘Nuke Buenos Aires!'.

b.
to devastate, defeat, overwhelm. By extension the verb is now used with this general meaning, particularly by teenagers and students.

We nuked them in the inter-college playoff
.

c.
to cook in a microwave oven. The colloquial verb for a nuclear attack has been used in this sense throughout the English-speaking world.

number
n

1.
a marihuana cigarette,
joint
. A vogue term of the late 1960s originating in the USA and deriving from the use of number to mean item, piece or unit. The word remains in use among cannabis smokers.

‘Roll another number for the road.'
(Song title, the Holy Modal Rounders, 1969)

2.
an act of betrayal, a confidence trick, a scam. Most often heard in the phrase
do a number on (someone)
: make a dupe of someone. Related is the phrase ‘to get someone's number': to see through someone's deception.

3.
a sexual partner. An unromantic term of the 1970s and 1980s denoting a casual or anonymous pick-up. (American author John Rechy published a novel with the title
Numbers
, dealing with
gay
liaisons, in 1970.)

‘She goes to singles bars to pick up what she calls “numbers”.'
(Recorded, London, 1986)

number (someone)
vb

to identify, single out, denounce someone

They numbered him as a prime suspect. I got numbered.

number-crunching
n

the activity or practice of handling complex calculations and large quantities

number one(s)
n
urination. A nursery term dating from the Victorian concept of personal hygiene as a drill. The idea is usually expressed in the form ‘do number ones'. In the USA it is occasionally a verb, in the form ‘to number one'.
See also
number two(s)

number two(s)
n

defecation. A children's term often used humorously by adults. It occurs in both British and American speech.
See also
number one(s)

numb-nuts
n

an ineffectual, stupid or contemptible person, invariably male. A term of abuse popular for instance with college students in the USA; since the mid-1980s it has been heard in other English-speaking areas. (Nuts refers to the testicles, although the epithet has no sexual connotations.)

numero uno
n
,
adj American

(something or someone considered) superlative or supreme. A borrowing, from Hispanic American speech, of the Spanish for ‘number one'.

numptie, numbty, numshie
n British

a fool, buffoon. This Scottish term became more widespread from the early 1990s. It has been derived from the unfortunate children's character Humpty-Dumpty, but is equally likely to be based on ‘numb(-skull)'.

nunnie, noonie
n American

the backside,
butt
,
ass
. An invented inoffensive euphemism.

‘You're gonna freeze your nunnie.'
(
M*A*S*H
, US TV comedy series, 1981)

nunu
n

an alternative spelling of noonoo

nurd
n

an alternative spelling of
nerd

nurdling
n

an alternative spelling of
nerdling

nurk
n

an alternative spelling of
nerk

nut
¹
n

1.
the head. A predictable metaphor which had become established slang by the mid-19th century (see the verb form).

2a.
a crazy, eccentric person. The word was used in this sense in the USA for about thirty years before its adoption by British speakers in the late 1940s, from
nut-case
.

2b.
a devotee, fan(atic) or
buff
. The word is used as a combining form or suffix, as in ‘health-nut'.

nut
²
vb British

to butt someone with one's head, usually in the face, a common form of assault among street fighters and practised brawlers. The concept is also expressed by phrases such as ‘stick the nut on (someone)' or ‘give someone the nut'.
Gorbals kiss
,
Glasgow kiss
and ‘Glasgow handshake' are colourful alternatives.

‘Millions of TV viewers… saw the Wimbledon wildman nut Everton skipper Kevin Ratcliffe.'
(
News of the World
, 12 February 1989)

nut-case
n

a crazy person. A slang version of ‘mental case' which spread from American speech into British usage at the end of the 1950s. It is now a fairly mild term, usually denoting harmless eccentricity. A racier, more modern version is
headcase
.

nut-house
n

a psychiatric hospital, mental home. The phrase has been in use since the 1920s.

nut-job
n American

a more recent variation of
nut-case

nut out/up
vb

to go crazy, lose control of oneself, run amok. A recent teenagers' and college students' term.

nuts
¹
adj

1a.
crazy, absurd, insane. An Americanism from the turn of the 20th century, adopted elsewhere before World War II, it derives ultimately from the 19th-century notion of ‘off one's nut', a slang version of the colloquial ‘off one's head'.