Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (133 page)

saga-louts
n pl British

a facetious term for badly behaved older people, especially tourists, by analogy with the older journalese term ‘lager-louts'. Saga is the name of the over-50s travel and insurance company.

salad-dodger
n British

an overweight, obese and/or greedy person. The term of mockery or abuse evokes an individual who is avoiding healthy food.

How could he go for a salad-dodger like Monica Lewinsky?

salami, salam'
n American

1.
the penis. A teenagers' term almost always heard in the phrase ‘hide the salami' (a euphemism for sexual intercourse).

2.
a fool. A high-school and campus term.

salamite
n British

a male homosexual. Part of the language of teenage London schoolchildren in the 1990s, this term, usually used derogatively, is probably a deformation or misunderstanding of ‘sodomite', perhaps blended with ‘catamite'.

‘Kayleigh said Keith was a salamite and he completely lost it.'
(Recorded, London schoolgirl, May 1995)

salmon
n British

1.
a cigarette. This usage, which is probably from the older rhyming-slang phrase ‘salmon and trout', meaning
snout
, was popular among London schoolchildren from the mid-1990s and was featured in the Shamen's controversial 1995 hit
Ebenezer Goode
.
Biff
was a contemporary synonym.

2.
See
on the salmon

salty
adj American See
jump salty

sambo
n

a black person (usually male). This derogatory racist term comes from
zambo
, the Spanish American designation of those (slaves) with three-quarters negro and one-quarter Amerindian or European blood. The word was picked up by English speakers in the early 18th century and its use was reinforced by the 19th-century children's storybook character, ‘Little Black Sambo'. The term has fallen out of use in the USA since the 1950s but is heard in Britain and Australia.

sandbag
vb American

1a.
to attack unexpectedly, stop (someone) dead, incapacitate or thwart. A sand-filled bag was formerly used as an improvised cosh or blackjack. The word was taken up into business jargon in the 1980s. (
Handbag
has been coined as a feminine counterpart.)

‘You sandbagged me on Blue Star!'
(
Wall Street
, US film, 1987)

1b.
to obstruct or outmanoeuvre, especially by feigning weakness. The word is a gambling term now extended to other contexts.

2.
to drive at full speed, in the jargon of ‘hotrodders'

sandlz
n
,
adj British

(something) of poor quality, disappointing. Recorded among 16-year-olds in the Eastbourne area in 2008, and defined by a user as ‘cheap, rubbish, bad'. The origin is obscure but may relate to the notion of sandals as inadequate and/or unfashionable footwear.

S. and M.
n

sado-masochistic practices, in the code of pornographers and prostitutes

sanga, sanger
n British

a sandwich. The term is popular in the north of England and the Midlands.

sap
n American

1.
a fool, simpleton or dupe. Originally a British term, the word is now more often heard in the USA. It was in origin a shortening of the word ‘sapskull', meaning wooden-head, dating from the late 17th century. In the 19th century schoolboy
swots
were known as ‘saps', from the Latin
sapiens
(wise or knowledgeable), and this meaning applied ironically may have converged with the older sense of the word.

2.
a blackjack, cosh. This sense of the word is probably based on sap meaning a hoe or shovel in archaic speech.

saphead
n American

a fool, simpleton or dupe. A version of
sap
.

sarnie
n British

a sandwich. A diminutive form which has spread from the north of England.

sashay
vb

to walk proudly, stride, flounce or ‘mince'. Sashay originated as an Americanisation of the French
chassé
(in this case a rapid, gliding movement; a term used in square dancing).

She sashayed up to the bar and ordered a daiquiri.

sass
¹
vb American

to speak or behave irreverently or insolently (towards), to cheek (someone). The verb is from the earlier, but now rarer, noun form.

Don't you sass me, boy.

sass
²
n American

impudence, insolence. Sass is a folksy or dialect form of ‘sauce', in the sense of sauciness. It is now rare in the noun form, although the verb is still used.

I don't need none of your sass.

sauce
n

alcoholic drink. In Britain this is a mainly middle-class euphemism employed particularly by heavy drinkers; the implication is that alcohol is liberally dispensed. There may also be a subconscious identification with
soused
.

‘I couldn't stop – I got on the sauce real good.'
(
The Dancer's Touch
, US film, 1989)

sauced (out)
adj

drunk. A usage based on
sauce
as a slang term for alcoholic drink (and influenced by
soused
). The ‘-out' version is a racier modern variant.

saucepan lids
n pl British See
dustbin lids

sauny
n
,
adj British

(someone) insincere, untrustworthy, ‘slimy'. The term was used by teenage girls in 2001.

sausage-fest
n British

‘an event or gathering dominated by males'. The expression is heard on campus.
Cock-fest
is a contemporary synonym.

sausage jockey
n American

a
gay
male. A pejorative term used by heterosexuals in the 1990s. The British equivalent is
sausage-rider
.

sausage-rider
n British

a male homosexual. The term was one of many supposedly comic synonyms in use among heterosexuals in the 1990s.

savage
adj

excellent. Like many similar terms (
brutal
,
evil
,
tough
, etc.), the standard word has been appropriated for use in adolescent slang in both Britain and the US.

sawbuck
n American

a ten dollar bill. The Latin X for ten was thought to recall the wooden cross-struts of a saw horse.

sawn-off, sawed-off
n American

a person of restricted stature, a ‘runt'

saying!
exclamation British

a synonym of
safe
and
seen
heard among adolescents in the late 1990s

scads
¹
n pl British

underpants. The term, often referring to male underwear, was recorded in 2005.

scads
²
,
scad
n American

a great deal, large quantity (particularly of money). This colloquialism is of uncertain origin; it probably derives from a British dialect form of ‘shed(full)' or from a dialect word ‘scald', meaning multitude.

scaffer, scuffer
n British

a homeless person, beggar or tramp. The term is heard in Scotland and the north of England. It is probably a version of the archaic dialect word
scaff
, related to ‘shuffle' and denoting a vagabond or idler.

scag, skag
n

heroin. This word entered American usage in the later 1960s, probably from black street slang in which skag and
skank
were used to refer to anything inferior or
unpleasant. The word presumably first referred to low-quality narcotics.

‘The ladies kept a couple of grams [of cocaine] in the refrigerator. Ordell said he would not tolerate any scag, though.'
(
The Switch
, Elmore Leonard, 1978)

scally
n British

a.
a young man, lad

b.
a criminal, delinquent or hooligan,
chav

c.
a male inhabitant of the Liverpool area

The word has overtones of ‘cheeky', ‘smart' and ‘one of the boys'; it is a regional shortening of ‘scallywag', a word meaning reprobate or rascal first used abusively in the USA before the Civil War. Scallywag itself is probably a form of an older expression from English or Scottish dialect meaning something like ‘scurvy wretch'.

scalper
n

a ticket tout or other form of ruthless (though small-scale) profiteer. The term comes from the verb to scalp, which was 19th-century stock-exchange jargon for buying cheap and selling at an exaggerated price (from the notion of ‘taking a cut off the top').

scalping
n

profiteering, particularly by re-selling tickets at an inflated price

‘This is a shrewd and practised Londoner trading in what the Americans call “scalping”. We call the business “touting”, and this summer ticket touts are set for a final beano.'
(
Evening Standard
, 9 May 1988)

scam
¹
n

a deception, fraud, swindle or confidence trick. This Americanism entered fashionable British usage around 1977, subsequently becoming fairly widespread, particularly in business parlance. ‘Scampery' was British slang for a highway robbery in the 18th century, a word later used by vagrants, showmen, etc. This, via American adoption, may explain the modern term (the similarity with ‘scheme' is probably fortuitous). By the late 1980s scam had come sometimes to be used to mean merely a ‘dubious scheme or display'.

‘“You know, I think there are a million people running scams out there”, said Suzanne McGuire, the tournament's director of corporate marketing. “But what can you do? This is New York”.'
(
Sunday Times
, 10 September 1989)

scam
²
vb American

to perpetrate a fraud, deception or devious scheme. The verb is derived from the noun.

scan
vb British

to be vigilant, watch out. The standard term has been appropriated for the language of adolescent gangs. It was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994. ‘Scan out' is a variant heard in black American speech since the 1990s.

You stay here and scan while we check out the shop.

scarf (up/down)
vb

to devour greedily and completely, eat and/or drink voraciously. Perhaps a humorous alternative, tinged with onomatopoeia, of
scoff
, the term originated in the USA where it was adopted by adolescents from ‘low-life' milieus in the 1960s. (‘Scarf out' is another derivative; a synonym of
pig out
.)

‘Harvey watched Joan scarfing down Milanos, biting them in half with her even teeth.'
(
The Serial
, Cyra McFadden, 1976)

scarfing
n British

practising auto-asphyxiation as sexual stimulus. The term came to prominence after the death of Conservative MP Stephen Milligan in 1994. Practitioners are known as
gaspers
.

scarper
vb

to leave hurriedly, run away. The word was adopted by cockneys at the turn of the 20th century, from
parlyaree
, the Italianate pidgin used by peddlars, showmen, actors, etc.
Scappare
(to escape) is the original Italian term. Since World War I many have assumed that the word is rhyming slang from ‘Scapa flow':
go
.

scatty
n South African

a weak or irresolute person

scene
n

1. the scene
the fashionable,
hip
or currently favoured milieu. A favourite word from the
beatnik
and later
hippy
vocabularies, often used in such phrases as ‘make the scene' (to be present or active in the currently hip environment) and ‘on the scene'. ‘It's not my scene' was a common dismissal of an undesirable activity or place. In colloquial usage the word simply means environment or ‘world', as in ‘the music scene'. The word is now dated but is still used by some journalists and, self-consciously
or ironically, by the fashionable young.

2.
a state of affairs, situation. In this generalised sense the word is now dated.

‘“It was a very emotional time, a lot of yelling and screaming, a really bad scene”, Bolker remembered.'
(
Sunday Times
, 24 September 1989)

3.
a loosely defined subculture identified in the mid-noughties decade, involving young people favouring music styles such as indie, hardcore, metal, retro, 80's new wave, or classic rocker. One young commentator defined the genre(s) as ‘happy
emo
'.