Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (24 page)

an out-of-the-way place, a rural community, the back of beyond,
the sticks
. In Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines,
bundok
means a mountain (area). The word was picked up by US service personnel in World War II.

He comes from somewhere out in the boondocks.

boong
n Australian

a coloured person. An offensive racist epithet based on an Aboriginal word, but used as a catch-all term regardless of nationality.

Compare
choong

boonies, the
n pl

shorter forms of
boondocks

boopsin', boopzin'
See
bupzin(g) boost
vb

1.
American
to steal. Originally from black slang, perhaps influenced by
lift
,
hoist
and
heist
, the term is now in general use among young people. It usually refers to petty theft, often shoplifting.

‘Some gals go in for boosting, or paper-pushing or lifting leathers. Others work the chloral hydrate.'
(
Wild Town
, Jim Thompson, 1957)

2.
South African
to assist or help. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

boosted
adj

pleased, proud. This slang usage, recorded among London students in 2001, may derive from phrases such as ‘boost one's self-esteem'.

boot
vb

1.
American
to vomit. This
preppie
expression is either echoic or is a blend of
barf
and ‘hoot'.

2.
to leave, depart. Like
bail
,
book
,
break
a key term in the argot of street gangs.

booted
adj

1.
American
expelled, ‘booted out' (of school or college). A
preppie
term of the 1970s.

2.
British
ugly. One of a set of terms, including
busted
and
kicked
, in vogue since 2000 and employing a damage metaphor.

bootie call
n

a request or demand for romance or sex. An expression from the lexicon of
rap
and
hip hop
, adopted by UK teenagers from around 1999.

booty, bootie
n

a.
the backside, buttocks

Check that booty.

b.
sex

Get some booty.

Since the late 1990s this US variant form of the Caribbean
batty
has become an emblematic item in the lexicon of
rap
, hip hop, R 'n' B, etc.

booze
vb
,
n

(to drink) alcohol. ‘On the booze' may mean habituated to alcohol or on a drinking binge. The word originated in Middle English as
bousen
, from the Middle Dutch and Flemish
busen
, a word based on the root
bus-
, meaning ‘swelling'.

booze-up
n

a drinking bout or drinks party

bop
¹
vb

1a.
to dance

‘Bop till you drop.'
(Record title, Ry Cooder, 1974)

1b.
to move in a fast but relaxed way. This usage became popular in Britain in the late 1960s and is still heard.

Why don't we bop down to the supermarket and grab some beers.

2.
to hit or punch

Say that again and I'll bop you a good one
.

bop
²
n

1.
a fast,
cool
style of modern jazz introduced in the 1940s; also known as bebop. Bop was accompanied by rapid nonsense lyrics and dancing.

2.
a dance. A word from 1950s America, revived in the 1970s and still popular in
Britain, among teenagers and students in particular.

Are you going to the art school bop?

bop
³
, bopper
n American

a promiscuous female. The pejorative term is applied to girls thought to be generally ‘of loose morals', specifically to those who steal others' boyfriends and/or in the words of one user in 2007, ‘have a reputation for giving oral sex'.

bopper
n

1.
American
a
cool
musician, dancer or devotee of
bop

2.
a
teenybopper
. This shortened form of the word was especially popular in Britain in the 1970s to describe a vivacious, party-loving (usually small or childlike) young girl; a
raver
.

boracic, brassic(k)
adj British

penniless, broke. The word is a shortening of the rhyming slang ‘boracic lint':
skint
. A genuine example of London working-class argot, this term was adopted into raffish speech in general from the early 1970s. (Boracic is an older name for boric acid used as a weak antiseptic impregnating bandages, etc.)

borer
n British

a knife, especially when carried or used as a weapon. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003.

born-again
combining form British

an intensifying phrase used to prefix another pejorative term, the usage (which may have arisen in armed-services' speech) is based on the notion of a ‘born-again Christian' being a particularly extreme or intense example of the variety

‘In my humble opinion he behaved like a born-again bastard.'
(Recorded, executive, Guildford, England, 1995)

See also
ocean-going

BORP
n British

an unattractive person of the opposite sex. The initials stand for ‘big old rough piece', and are typically used by males of a female. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

bo selecta!, bo!
exclamation

an expression of enthusiasm, approval, etc. The phrase, from the garage music scene, literally meaning ‘excellent DJ', was popularised by the comic persona Ali G played by Sasha Baron Cohen and then by its use as the title of an anarchic UK TV comedy starring Avid Merrion.

bosfotick
adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

bosh
¹
vb British

1.
an allpurpose verb which, in club and DJ culture, can replace, e.g., play, consume, go, finish, etc. The term was posted on the B3ta website in 2004

2.
to perform oral sex, hence the noun form. Used in street-gang code and its imitations since around 2005.

bosh
²
n British

a promiscuous female. The highly derogatory term has been used in street-gang code and its imitations in the later nough-ties.

boss
¹
adj

excellent, first-rate, superlative. Currently a fashionable word among teenagers all over the English-speaking community, boss originated in American black street jargon of the early 1960s. It was picked up by other speakers, but it remained an Americanism. (The music industry attempted to promote the ‘Boss town sound' in order to establish Boston as the US equivalent of Liverpool in 1964; Duane Eddy had a 1960s hit with
Boss Guitar
.) In the 1970s and 1980s the usage spread through the language of disco,
funk
and
rap
to the young of Britain and Australia.

boss
²
n

a term of address for a stranger or friend, like
blood
,
bredren
,
cuz
,
bro'
, etc. An item of black street-talk used especially by males, recorded in 2003 in the UK

bostin'
adj British

excellent. The word may be a form of ‘bursting', or derive from
bust
which, since the 19th century, has had the slang sense of a wild spree or party. Bostin' is common in northwest England and the East Midlands.

bot
vb
,
n

a.
Australian
(to behave as) an irritant or cadger. A shortening of ‘bot-fly' (a native parasite) or ‘botulism'.

b.
British
a shortened form of ‘bottom',
arse

bother
n British

trouble, violence, aggression. A typical example of menacing understatement as it occurs in London working-class speech (
spanking
,
seeing-to
and ‘have a word with (someone)' are other examples). The use
of bother by police officers and thugs as a euphemism for violence reached public notice in the late 1960s when it became a
skinhead
rallying cry, usually rendered as
bovver
.

bothered
adj British See
bovvered

botter
n British

a sodomist,
gay
male. The term is typically used pejoratively or facetiously by males of males.
Bottybasher
is a synonym.

bottibasher
n See
botty-basher

bottle
¹
n British

courage, bravery, ‘nerve', especially in the phrases to ‘have a lot of bottle', to
lose one's bottle
and ‘his/her bottle's gone'. It derives from ‘bottle and glass', rhyming slang for
arse
. Most users of
bottle
are ignorant of its derivation (compare the earlier
berk
). The word is long-established in the repertoire of South and East London rhyming slang, but surfaced in widespread usage only in the mid-1970s (probably via television renderings of police or criminal speech) to enjoy a vogue culminating in the adoption of the slogan ‘Milk has gotta lotta bottle' for a nationwide advertising campaign in 1985. The word is pronounced with a medial glottal stop by cockneys and their imitators.

‘If you've got an old PC trained twenty years ago and he's got no bottle, then you have to have somebody chase and get it [a stolen car].'
(
Inside the British Police
, Simon Holdaway, 1983)

bottle
²
vb British

1.
to hit with a bottle. A widespread brawler's tactic which seems to have become less widespread since the 1960s.

2.
to collect money on behalf of a busker or other street entertainer

bottle and glass
n British

arse
. The rhyming-slang phrase, still heard in 2004, probably dates back to the 1960s, if not earlier. It is also the origin of the better-known
bottle
, meaning courage.

bottle it
vb British

a later synonym for the more widespread expression
bottle out
, recorded among London football hooligans in the late 1980s

‘Blair had decided to cancel his reshuffle. After last year's fiasco…he effectively “bottled it”, knowing that the wheels were already coming off.'
(
Sunday Times
, 25 July 2004)

bottle out
vb British

to lose one's nerve. From
bottle
in the sense of courage.

bottler
n Australian

a powerful, forceful or impressive person. It is probably an alteration of
battler
.

‘You're an absolute bottler, you are – the most powerful woman I've ever…!'
(
Let The Blood Run Free
, Australian TV comedy, 1993)

bottom burp
n British

a
fart
. An example of ‘schoolboy humour' not confined solely to schoolchildren.

bottom-feeder
n

an individual engaged in ‘doubtful', sordid or disreputable activities. The image evoked is of a scavenging fish (swimming in murky waters) and the phrase is used in the slang of the workplace, sometimes as a synonym for
bottom-fisher
.

Compare
pond scum

bottom-fisher
n

a trader in cheap and/or disreputable shares or commodities in the jargon of financial traders of the 1990s

‘The bottom-fisher pulled an archer from his bag.'
(
Evening Standard
, 9 December 1994)

botty-basher, botty-bandit
n British

a male homosexual. A term of abuse among
hip hop
aficionados and schoolchildren.

boughetto
adj American

materialistic, fashion-obsessed. A blend of
bourgie
and
ghetto
. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

‘As boughetto as Shannon is, she's still my friend.'
(Recorded, US student, 2002)