Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (127 page)

ramp
vb

to provoke, annoy. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

Don't ramp with me.
She's been ramping him.

ramp up
vb British

to organise or arrange. The phrase presumably comes from the terminology of car mechanics whence it has been extended in working-class usage (by police officers among others) to mean mounting any sort of operation.

rando
n American

an unknown or unfamiliar person,
random
. The abbreviated version was recorded on campus in 2011.

Ignore him, he's just some rando.

random
¹
n
,
adj American

(a person who is) unfashionable, unattractive, mediocre, unwanted or excluded from fashionable circles. The term was popular among adolescents, particularly female, on college and high-school campuses in the US during the 1990s.

‘There's no getting round the style question. If you want to be “do-able”… you cannot afford to dress “random”.'
(
Sunday Times “Style”
magazine, 22 October 1995)

random
²
vb British

to
pull
or
score
with a stranger. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

R and R
n

1.
relaxation. A piece of armed-services shorthand (for ‘rest and recreation') now used by civilians.

2.
rock 'n' roll. A short form used by aficionados and the record industry.

randy
adj British

sexually aroused, lecherous. A word which was formerly considered unsuitable for normal use but which, since the 1960s, has been used in the media and in ‘respectable' conversation. (Mickey Dolenz of the pop group The Monkees heard the phrase ‘randy Scouse git' on the
British TV comedy series ‘Till death us do part' and used it as the title of a single in 1967. This was deemed too offensive for radio and in Britain the song title was changed.) Randy is of uncertain origin. It was first recorded at the end of the 18th century. Two suggested etymologies for the word are: a dialect verb meaning to behave in a wild or wanton manner, and a Hindi word meaning lustful. Of these, the first (the rarely recorded word was related to ‘rant' and ‘random') is the more likely.

‘Girls…showing their arms in thin, thin frocks (good luck to randy grandfathers).'
(
About Town
magazine, June 1962)

ranga
n

a redhead. A derogatory term used mainly by younger speakers, since around 2000, and derived from ‘orangutan'. The term originated in Australia and featured in the TV series
Summer Heights High
.

rang-a-tang
n Caribbean

a belligerent or troublesome person

rang(e)y
adj American

aggressive, oppressive. The term (which rhymes with ‘tangy') is of uncertain origin.

rank
¹
adj

1.
unpleasant. The standard adjective (its original meaning was overbearing or excessively strong) has been adopted as an allpurpose vogue term of disapproval by teenagers in the USA and in Britain, where it probably originated in black usage.

‘This health-drink stuff is just so rank!'
(Recorded, teenage schoolboy, London, 1994)

2.
excellent, admirable. A term of approbation originating, it is said, in the 1960s
pachuco
(Hispanic street-)culture of the USA.

rank
²
, rank out, rank on (someone)
vb American

to insult, taunt or provoke. The terms, which occur in adolescent speech, probably originated in black street slang.

rap
¹
n

1a.
a conversation, especially an earnest and/or lengthy discussion. A word which became an important part of the counter-culture lexicon at the end of the 1960s, rap was originally used by blacks and
beatniks
, deriving from the verb form.

1b.
a rhythmic spoken chant, often to a musical background. This form of (originally) improvised delivery became a vogue first among young blacks in New York and other eastern American cities (inspired by Jamaican ‘toasting'), and then a worldwide pop phenomenon in the 1980s.

2.
an accusation or charge, blame or punishment. An 18th-century British use of the verb ‘rap' was to denote swearing an oath against, accusing of, or charging (with a crime). This sense survives, via American English, in the phrases ‘take the rap' and ‘beat the rap' and the term
rap sheet
.

rap
²
vb

a.
to talk, converse or discuss. A key term from the
hippy
era which usually denoted an earnest or communal exchange of ideas. The word was first heard in this sense in black American speech; it was subsequently adopted by white
hipsters
,
beatniks
and hippies in turn. (Rap was in use in Britain in the late 1960s but in its original sense is now confined to the remnants of hippy culture.) The exact origin of this use of the word is not at all clear; possible etymologies include a shortening of ‘rapid' (speech), ‘rapport' or ‘repartee'. The term might come simply from the similarity between talking and tapping (‘rapping') on a drum or other surface; this might fit an origin among jazz musicians. Alternatively, in archaic slang a ‘rapper' was someone who ‘talked' to the authorities (see the noun form) and this notion may have become generalised in black argot into ‘talk'.

b.
to deliver an (originally improvised) monologue to a musical backing; to perform rap music. This musical form of the 1980s originated as a street phenomenon among black youth in American cities in the 1970s.

rape
vb

to excel in, win at. A widespread usage among students and some teenagers since the noughties decade.

‘I totally raped that test today.'
(21 year-old female, Croydon 2011)

rapid
adj British, Irish

clever, stylish, attractive. In 2000 the term was defined as ‘dead cool, as used by Ronan and Shane from Boyzone'. In Leicester in 2004 the same word was being used as an allpurpose term of appreciation.

He thinks he's rapid, doesn't he?

rapper
n

a practitioner or devotee of
rap
music

raps
adj British

extremely fast, quick thinking. The youth slang usage derives presumably from
rapid
in its standard or slang senses.

We got out of there raps.
Jerry is raps.

rap session
n American

a conversation or discussion. A phrase first used in the 1950s by black Americans,
hipsters
and
beatniks
, later taken up by
hippies
, alternative therapists and teenagers.

rapt
adj

delighted. A vogue term of the late 1980s which seems to have spread from Australia to both Britain and the USA in the
hip
parlance of adolescents. The word is the standard (literary) English term meaning enraptured.

She wasn't exactly rapt when I told her, I can tell you.

rare
adj British

1.
an allpurpose term of approbation, often employed as an exclamation by schoolchildren since the 1980s, especially in the north of England and Scotland. This sense of the word probably originated in black youth-culture in the USA and was transmitted via
rap
, skateboarding terminology, etc. Rare was previously used as a generalised vogue term in this way by
mods
briefly in 1966. It was used as long ago as the 16th century, with sporadic examples in between.

2.
unpleasant, unattractive, inappropriate. Probably a deliberate reversal of the earlier slang usage, since around 2000 this has been a vogue term of disapproval among UK teenagers.

See also
raar

rash
adj

wonderful. A term of high appreciation among American teenagers and aficionados of hip hop in the 1980s. It is nearly always expressed as ‘totally rash' and was coined on the lines of
wild
,
bad
,
wicked
, etc.

rasta
n

a Rastafarian. The word is a shortening of the name of the devotees of Ras Tafari (one of the titles of the late emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie) whose sacrament is
ganja
and who wear
dreadlocks
. The language of the Jamaican movement has influenced English slang mainly via reggae music.

rat (on)
vb

to inform on or betray (someone). An Americanism employing the familiar identification of a rat with treachery or spite. The phrase was imported into Britain and Australia before World War II.

Rule number one is you don't rat on your friends.

rat-arsed
adj

drunk. The terms rat-arsed,
rat-faced
and the milder
ratted
enjoyed a vogue among adolescents and young adults (particularly those from middle- and upper-class backgrounds) from the mid-1980s. Terms employing rat- as a prefix evoking disgust were heard throughout the English-speaking community in the 1980s (
rathole
,
ratshit
, etc.), particularly in Australia and the USA.

ratbag
n Australian

a despicable, disreputable or obnoxious person. This term of abuse originated in Australia where it derived either literally from a bag used by a rat-catcher or from the notion of a bag full of rats as the epitome of obnoxiousness. The word became popular in Britain in the early 1960s (helped in no small part by its frequent use in the popular radio comedy-series
Hancock's Half Hour
) and is now often used with a degree of affection. In Australia it often denotes an eccentric.

‘She's a total ratbag – I don't want to have anything more to do with her.'
(
Neighbours
, Australian TV soap opera, 1987)

ratchet
n
,
adj

a.
(something) awful. Said by some young UK users to be an alteration of wretched, but more probably originating as an alteration of
ratshit
.

b.
excellent, exciting, extreme. A vogue usage among young Americans popularised by the YouTube video
Ratchet Girl Anthem
.

rated
adj British

excellent, admirable. A vogue term of approbation heard among adolescents from the later 1990s, which began as an abbreviated form of ‘A-rated' or ‘highly-rated'.

rat-faced
adj

drunk. A vogue term of the late 1980s among all social classes in Britain (particularly heard among
Sloane Rangers
and
yuppies
).

ratfink
n American

a treacherous, despicable person. The word is a combination of ‘rat' (traitor) and
fink
(informer) and was first used to refer to union blacklegs or
scabs
. It enjoyed a vogue in the 1960s in its more generalised sense and is still used, albeit less widely.
See also
fink

rathole, rat-hole
n

a disgusting, squalid place. A fashionable expression of distaste in the later 1980s. In 1987 the college lecturers' union NATFHE condemned ‘Thatcher's rathole Britain' in a press handout.

rat out
vb

to abandon, betray, cravenly withdraw. An Americanism which is also heard in Australia and, to a lesser extent, in Britain. Usages involving the ‘rat' components have been in vogue since the 1980s.

She ratted out at the last minute.
They ratted out on us.
Don't rat me out.

rat-run
n British

a side street used for fast commuter traffic. A phrase and phenomenon of the late 1980s.

ratshit
adj Australian

worthless, inferior, utterly disappointing. The word (pronounced like ‘ratchet') usually expresses bitter disapproval or disillusion.

ratted
adj British

drunk. A more polite version of
rat-faced
or
rat-arsed
. All three terms were in vogue in the second half of the 1980s.

‘When we were looking for the personification of the Kentucky face, we got so ratted, so drunk… for an entire week.'
(Ralph Steadman,
I-D
magazine, November 1987)

rattle (someone)
vb

a word mainly heard in Scotland meaning to have sex with someone

rattler
n

1.
a surface or underground train. The word has been used in Britain and the USA (where travelling hobos referred to ‘hopping a rattler') since the 19th century. Until the late 1950s the London underground system was sometimes known to workmen as the Rattler.

2.
British
a womaniser, seducer. It derives from the verb form
rattle (someone)
, meaning to have sex with and, like that term, is heard mainly in Scotland.