Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (12 page)

banana
n

1.
a foolish person. This childish term of mild abuse is now obsolescent in Britain, but predictably is still heard in post-colonial English in the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia, the Caribbean, etc. The 1950s term
nana
was a shorter form.

2.
the penis. The mock nursery term
tummy banana
is more common.

3.
American
a light-skinned black woman. A term used by black men which is both appreciative and offensive.

4.
an Oriental person who affects white manners or collaborates with the white establishment. A term used by both white and Oriental-language speakers, e.g. in Hong Kong and on US campuses.

bananas
adj

crazy or berserk. This now common colloquialism originated either in the notion of ‘softness' (in the head) or from the archaic ‘banana oil', ‘soft soap' or ‘balderdash'.

bandit
¹
n British

1.
a homosexual. A dismissive or derisory term used by avowedly heterosexual males and deriving from longer expressions such as
trouser bandit
,
arse bandit
,
chocolate bandit
, etc.

2. -bandit
an ironic or jocular combining word, added to suggest a desperate or reprehensible character or, in police jargon, literally a criminal. In his
Field Manual for Police
(1977) David Powis cites ‘milk bandit' as an ironic term for penniless milk-bottle thieves; ‘gas-meter bandit' is self-explanatory.

bandit
²
vb Caribbean

to steal or borrow without permission. The term was recorded in Trinidad and Tobago in 2003. Synonyms are
raf
and
sprang
.

bang
¹
vb

1.
to have sex (with),
fuck
. The association with striking (as in the origin of the word ‘fuck' itself) is said to suggest the masculine role in sex, but in practice the unaffectionate term can also apply to women, especially in Australian usage where it is more common than in America. In Britain ‘bang' in this sense has only been widely understood since the late 1960s. It was introduced via the phrase
gang bang
and the following expression.

‘You're banging a major witness in a case you're trying?!'
(
The Last Innocent Man
, US film, 1987)

2.
American
to be an active gang member. From the parlance of Los Angeles street gangs of the late 1980s, derived from the specific sense of
gangbanger
.

He's been banging for two years now.

3.
to do something stupid. An item of street slang in London since 2000.

bang
²
n

1a.
a sexual act. An unaffectionate term used more often by men. In this sense the word does not seem to be older than the 20th century.

a quick bang

1b.
a person rated as a sexual partner

a good bang

2.
Australian
a brothel. The word is now rather archaic, but is still heard among older speakers.

3a.
an exciting experience, a thrill. In this sense the word goes in and out of vogue, particularly among schoolchildren in many parts of the English-speaking world.

3b.
a great success, a very popular person or thing

3c.
an injection of illicit drugs, especially heroin, morphine or amphetamines, or the resulting jolt of pleasure. From the lexicon of drug users and addicts, originating in the 1940s or earlier and related to the more recent verb
bang up
.

bang bang
n American

an imitation or counterfeit item. The term, probably deriving from the idea of illegality as in an armed hold-up, is in use among gang members, some teenagers and on campus.

Him wearing bang bang sneakers and a bang bang top.

bang-bang
n American

sex

banged-up
adj British

imprisoned, shut away. From the second sense of the verb to
bang up
.

‘A banged-up man's no good to me. I want to enjoy life, not spend it in prison waiting-rooms.'
(Recorded, drug-dealer's girlfriend, London, 1984)

banger
n

1.
a sausage. The word has been common in this sense since the 1940s. It derives of course from the explosion of the skin during frying.

2.
an old and/or decrepit vehicle

bangers
n pl British

female breasts. The term was popularised by TV fashion-show presenter Gok Wan in 2010.

banging
¹
adj

exciting, powerful. Like its contemporaries
kicking
and
slamming
, this term was in vogue from the early 1990s, especially among devotees of
rave
culture.

one banging gig
I tell you, it was banging
.

banging
²
n American

a shooting. An item of black street slang of the 1990s.

bangin' weights
n British

working out as physical exercise (not necessarily referring only to weight-training). An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003.

bangles
n pl

a.
female breasts

b.
the testicles. By association with the idea of adornment, as in
family jewels
, and with ‘dangle'.

Both usages are most often heard among teenagers and schoolchildren all over the English-speaking world.

bang on
vb British

to nag, harangue or talk incessantly and boringly. A popular term since the 1980s in ‘respectable' usage.

She's been banging on about her bloody job all evening
.

bang to rights
adj
,
adv British

caught red-handed, without hope of escape. This 19th-century expression (paralleled in American English by
dead to rights
) is usually heard in the form ‘caught bang to rights' or ‘we've got him/her bang to rights' (i.e. helpless, indefensible). Until the 1970s the term was part of the restricted codes of the police and underworld; since then the phrase has been
given wider currency, particularly by the realist plays of G. F. Newman.

bang up
vb

1.
to inject oneself (with heroin or another hard drug). One of many drug-users' terms with overtones of bravado. Popular in Britain in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

2.
British
to imprison, shut away. A working-class, police and prisoners' term.

‘Being banged up's no joke, even in an open prison.'
(Recorded, remand prisoner, 1986)

bang-up
adj American

excellent, exciting. The term occurred particularly in campus usage in the later 1990s, but was also recorded in British slang in the early 19th century where it was a shortening of phrases such as ‘bang up to the mark'.

banjaxed
adj Irish

defeated, overcome or overwhelmed. A humorous term from the early 20th century, often used ruefully by husbands floored or humiliated in a domestic dispute. This Irish word, probably formed by association with ‘banged', ‘bashed' and ‘smashed', has been popularised in Britain by the Irish broadcaster, Terry Wogan, who used it as the title of a book in 1980. It can now be extended to mean stunned, flummoxed, amazed, drunk, etc.

banjo
vb British

to force entry, break in, especially by means of the battering device to which the name has been given, based roughly on its shape. (Previously, shovels were known as banjos.) An item of police slang heard in the 1990s.

‘We're going to go round and banjo the house.'
(Police officer,
Network First
, ITV documentary, February 1996)

banjo'd, banjoed
adj British

a.
hopelessly drunk or under the influence of drugs. A jocular invention, perhaps influenced by
banjaxed
and sometimes heard among students and schoolchildren in the 1970s and the 1980s.

‘…stupid how they strut, smoking Woodbines till they're banjoed smirking at the Swedish smut'
(
Psycle Sluts
, poem by John Cooper Clark, 1978)

b.
defeated, beaten. An armed-forces term of the late 1970s and 1980s. There may be a connection with
banjaxed
or with the archaic use of ‘banjo' to mean a shovel or weapon.

bank
¹
n American

money. A teenage vogue word of 1987 and 1988. The term was picked up by British
rap
,
hip hop
and
acid house
enthusiasts and was still in use in the noughties decade.

Got any bank?

bank
²
adj American

1.
inferior, unpleasant. A fashionable pejorative in black street slang since the 1990s, the term may be a blend of, or inspired by, terms such as
bunk
and
rank
, but the noun ‘bank' was used to mean ‘toilet' in black slang of the 1940s and 1950s. Yet another proposed derivation is from ‘bankrupt'.

2.
good, pleasing. In this sense the term was in use on campus in 2012.

That feast last night was bank.

banked
adj American

drunk. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

banker's dozen, a
n

eleven items or less, an act of short-changing. The business slang was coined by analogy with the colloquial baker's dozen which is actually thirteen.

bants, bantz
n British

verbal banter or other teasing behaviour. UK police talk approvingly of a team ‘having good banter', while student journalist Lizzie Porter used the adjective ‘banterous' in an April 2013 article in the
Daily Telegraph
.

‘Bants. Top bants. Is banter just “boy talk”? Is banter – classless, bruising banter – simply the sound of men being funny at each other?'
(Eva Wiseman, Observer, February 2012)

banty
n British

an obnoxious person or thing. The word is of uncertain derivation but in dialect as an adjective can denote ‘small and aggressive', in slang it is typically applied to a supposed sexual pervert, or person of otherwise revolting habits.

BAP
n American

a ‘black American princess'. A coinage based on the earlier
JAP
.

bap-head
n British

a foolish person. An item of playground slang in use since the later 1990s, possibly borrowed from an older generation.

baps
n pl British

female breasts. The expression, used typically by young males in the Midlands and north of England and Scotland, borrows the name of the small, round bread bun sold in various regions of the UK.
Muffins
is an equivalent North American usage.

bar
n British

a.
one million pounds or one million dollars in the argot of London City traders. Used in this sense the word is probably a revival of the Romany
bar
or ‘
baur(o)
' which used to mean one sovereign or one pound and was still heard among street traders and prison inmates in the 1960s.

b.
one pound.

See also
half a bar

bar!
exclamation British

an exclamation of dismissal or refusal, synonymous to its users with the colloquial ‘no way'. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

Barack Obamas, Baracks
n pl British

pyjamas. Rhyming slang in use, e.g., in families in 2010.

barb
n

a barbiturate. A shortening employed by drug abusers since the late 1950s.

‘We did a load of barbs and spent the rest of the day nailed to the floor.'
(Recorded, student, Faversham, Kent, 1974)

barbie
n Australian

a barbecue. A common term since the late 1960s, now spreading via Australian TV soap operas to Britain where it has been adopted by
yuppies
in particular.

‘Australia was full of easy-going characters like Paul Hogan, who spent the day drinking Fosters and putting a shrimp on the barbie.'
(Michael Parkinson,
Daily Mirror
, 17 April 1989)

Barbie (Doll)
n

a vacuous, passive and/or conformist young woman. Barbie is the trademark name of the well-known plastic doll originating in the USA.

bare
adj Caribbean

1.
only

There's bare wiggas here!

2.
very

She woz bare fit.