Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (122 page)

(to) stink. The word is of uncertain origin but may derive from a similar Romany (gypsy) verb.

pong
²
n Australian

an Oriental person. A racist epithet, either based on
Pongo
, or imitating the sound of East Asian speech.

Pongo
n

1.
a black man, a coloured person, a foreigner. A patronisingly derogatory middle-class term used, e.g., in public-school and army speech.

2.
an English person. An Australian and New Zealand slang term derived from the previous sense of the word.

Pongolia, Pomgolia
n Australian and New Zealand

the UK, Britain. Jocular terms based on
Pom
and
Pongo
and punning on Mongolia (evoking the notion of a distant and barbaric country).

ponies, the
n pl British

horses, in the context of horseracing and betting

I lost it all on the ponies.

pony
¹
n

1.
British
the sum of £25 or, more recently, £25,000, in the jargon of the racetrack, underworld, market traders, etc. In its traditional sense the word was probably adopted to reflect the small size of a £25 bet

2.
American
a promiscuous female. Equivalent to the male
player
, it is probably from the euphemism/song lyric ‘ride the pony'.

pony
²
adj British

of poor quality, disappointing, worthless. In this sense the word is a shortening of the rhyme ‘pony and trap':
crap
.

‘If we don't take our time, it risks being utterly pony.'
(Recorded, theatre director, London, July 2003)

pony up
vb American

to pay. A synonym for ‘pay up' or ‘fork out', the phrase was first recorded in the early 19th century and was said to derive from the earlier British use of the Latin form
pone
, meaning put (money down or forward).

‘At 100,000 tax dollars a pop the American people ponied up for one reason; it was the future.'
(
Philadelphia Project
, US film, 1993)

poo
¹
n British

1.
a nursery term for excrement that has passed into standard colloquial English

2.
champagne. A
yuppie
and
Sloane ranger
abbreviation of
shampoo
.

‘You're getting good at this. Extra poo tonight.'
(
Serious Money
, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

poo
²
adj British

bad. The adjectival use of the word has been recorded since 2000.

a completely poo bike
That film was so poo!

pooch
n

a dog. This well-known term, particularly well-established in the USA, is of mysterious origin. Possible etymologies are from a dialect version of pouch (alluding to a dog's insatiable desire to ‘tuck away' food) or from a term of endearment, possibly the German
putzi
.

‘Podgy Chas Clark, son of ex-Chancellor Nigel Lawson's financial guru Sir William Clark, called his pooch Charlie – a nickname for cocaine.'
(
News of the World
, 29 October 1989)

poodle-faker
n

an effete, over-refined or offensively genteel young man, specifically a young man in attendance on older ladies. Faker here implies insincerity and poodle the attitude or appearance of a lapdog. The word appeared in Britain in the second decade of the 20th century.

poof, pouff, poove, poofter, pooftah, puff
n

a male homosexual. The most common slang term in Britain and Australia. The variations of the word go in and out of fashion. Poof and poove were popular in the 1960s, poofter in the 1970s. The origin of the epithet is obscure and the subject of argument. Possibilities include ‘pouff!' as a supposedly affected exclamation of disdain, or a northern English pronunciation of ‘puff', which itself could be a dialect exclamation of disgust, a reference to puffed-up with pride, or a Victorian term for a sodomite. It might equally be inspired by the ‘puff' of ‘powder puff', or the French words
pouffe
: a stuffed seat and
pouffer (de rire)
: giggle.

poofer
n

an unspecified or unnameable thing. An item of middle-class slang recorded in 2002.

pool
See
pocket billiards/pool

poom
n Jamaican

the vagina

poomplex
n Jamaican and British
a worthless and/or weak effeminate person, in the slang of gang members and their imitators. The term featured in lyrics by London
grime
rapper JME in 2006.

poon, poontang
n American

1.
the female pudenda

2.
women in general, seen as sexual objects. The word is from Louisiana French in which it is a corruption of
putain
(the standard French term for
whore
), first applied to black women.

‘I guess this means my poon days are over.'
(Remark widely attributed to John F. Kennedy following his inauguration as US president, 1960)

poona
n American

marihuana or hashish. A word of uncertain origin (Poona is an Indian city but is not renowned as a source of narcotics) recorded in adolescent usage in the 1990s.

poonanie, punany, punani
n

a.
the vagina

b.
females, when considered as sex partners

This formerly obscure item of Caribbean patois was popularised by the comedian Ali G at the end of the 1990s. It is variously derived from the Ashanti
oponaani
, meaning keyhole or the Hawaiian
punani
, meaning heavenly flower.

poonanny
n See
poonanie

poop
¹
n
,
vb

excrement, (to)
crap
. A nursery word used humorously by adults and in the phrases ‘poop-scoop', a small lidded shovel used to clear up dog-droppings, and
hot poop
, the latest news or gossip, the newest fashion. Poop is heard all over the anglophone community but is particularly prevalent in the USA. It has existed since the time of Middle English and the same word has been used with the same meaning in Dutch.
Poo-poo
is a synonym.
poop
²
adj
bad. Since the later 1990s the noun has been used adjectivally, e.g. by UK school-children, in the same way as
poo
.

poop-chute
n

the anus

pooped, pooped out
adj

exhausted, out of breath. The word is probably an imitation of the sound of puffing and blowing, although there is a theory that it derives from British sailors' slang for a ship being swamped by a ‘poop' wave. In its current sense it was originally a North American term, spreading to Australia and Britain in the 1960s.

too pooped to pop

pooper
n See
party pooper

poo-poo
n
,
vb See
poop
¹

poor
adj

1.
bad

2.
good

The standard word has been adopted into adolescent slang in the same way as
bad
,
tragic
, etc. since 2000.

poot
¹
vb
,
n

(to)
fart
. Originally an echoic nursery word, probably originating in the USA, poot has achieved prominence in the vogue for references to flatulence in adolescent humour since the late 1980s (epitomised by
Viz
comic). In American usage poot may also mean excrement.

poot
²
n See
get some poot

poove
n British

a version of
poof
which was current in the early 1960s

pop
vb

1.
British
to pawn. The word has had this meaning since the 18th century.

2.
See
pop one's clogs

3a.
to take (an illicit drug) orally. The expression refers particularly to amphetamines or barbiturates rather than hallucinogenics such as LSD or hard drugs such as heroin.
3b.
to inject a narcotic. The word is used more often in connection with intramuscular than intravenous injection, often in the specific forms
skin-pop
and
joy pop
.

4.
to hit, punch

He popped him one in the eye.

5.
to give birth

Has she popped yet?

6.
to have sex with or to achieve orgasm. This usage of the word is long-established, pre-dating for instance
pop one's rocks
.

7a.
to shoot

7b.
to kill. An underworld euphemism.

pop a chubby
See
chubby

pop a squat
vb American

to sit down or to take a seat

Right in, bruv, and pop a squat over here.

pop a vein
vb American

to become apoplectic with anger. A children's equivalent of ‘burst a blood vessel', applied to and about furious adults.

pop it
vb

to die. The phrase is heard in Britain and Australia.

po-po, po
n American

a.
a police officer

b.
the police force in general

An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000 and recently by UK teenagers, too.

pop one's clogs
vb British

to die. A humorous, sometimes incongruously light-hearted phrase popular e.g. with TV presenters, disc jockeys and other entertainers. ‘Pop' here is probably the old slang word for pawn, the suggestion being that when the family member dies, his or her clogs are sold.

pop one's rocks
vb

to achieve orgasm, ejaculate. A version of
get one's rocks off
which was briefly a vogue expression in the early 1970s. Pop has been used in a sexual sense at least since the 19th century. (An American synonym is ‘pop one's cookies'.)

popper
n American

a gun. In this sense the word was first recorded (referring to a revolver) in the 1940s and was still in use among street gangs in the 1990s.

poppers
n pl

amyl nitrite capsules. This strong stimulant drug, prescribed to relieve angina pectoris, comes in glass phials which are broken under the nose and sniffed. The drug was taken for pleasure in the 1960s and 1970s and later specifically for its supposed effects as an enhancer of sexual pleasure by the
gay
community in the 1970s and 1980s.

porcelain
n See
point percy at the porcelain
;
pray to the porcelain god porch monkey
n

a black person. The racist phrase, adopted by some adolescents in the 1990s from their elders, is intended to evoke a slave or child asleep on a porch or ministering to its white superiors.

porg
n British

a small person. From the initials of the euphemistic ‘person of restricted growth', this is usually a term of abuse, e.g. in playground usage.

pork
vb American

to have sex with. A college students' word that was widely used in films in the 1980s. It probably derives from the earlier
pork sword
and
dork
.

He claims to be porking her.

porker
n

1.
a fat person. From the use of
pig
to mean glutton.

2.
a police officer. This is a later development from
pig
, used for instance by anarchists, squatters and late-1980s
hippies
.

pork out
vb

to eat to excess. A variant form of the colloquial
pig out
, recorded since the early 1980s.

pork pie, porky-pie, porky
n British

a
lie
, an untruth. A piece of rhyming slang from London working-class speech that surfaced suddenly in the playground and the media and became widely popular at the end of the 1970s.

‘I think you'll be finding that William's been telling porky-pies again.'
(Recorded, secretary, London, 1986)

‘You wouldn't be tellin' me porkies would you, son?'
(
Minder
, British TV series, 1987)

pork sword
n

the penis. A term used particularly by American college students on the same lines as
mutton dagger
or
beef bayonet
.