Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (40 page)

cocoa-shunter
n British

a male homosexual. One of many vulgarisms (
fudge-nudger
, etc.) playing on the notion of sodomy and faeces, this expression was used in the TV comedy spoof
Brass Eye
in March 1997.

coconut
n

1.
British
a non-white person who collaborates with the white establishment, an ‘Uncle Tom'. This expression, used by young Asians and blacks since the 1980s, refers to the idea that such people are, like the coconut, black on the outside but white on the inside.
Bounty bar
is an alternative.

2.
one's head. An obvious, but probably obsolescent usage.

3.
American
a dollar

cocooning
n American

staying at home with one's partner and children (as opposed to going out or socialising in the evening). A
yuppie
term from the late 1980s.

co-D, codie
n British

accomplice, fellow-criminal, companion. The term, from the official designation ‘co-defendant', was in use among teenage gang members and their imitators in 2009.

code brown
n

an instance of faecal incontinence or diarrhoea in medical slang, given wider currency by its use in the US TV series
ER
. Sometimes extended to refer to a moment of panic.

cods
n pl British

the testicles. The singular form ‘cod' is an archaic word for the scrotum; it is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning ‘bag' (seen in the obsolete terms pease-cod and codpiece). Since the era of Middle English the plural has had this meaning in British and, later, Australian usage, although not in the USA.

He got kicked in the cods for his efforts.

codswallop, cods
n British

nonsense, worthless rubbish. A dismissive term, typically applied to something purporting to be true. There is more than one theory as to the origin of the word; the most fanciful is that it referred to the ‘wallop' (gassy drink) produced by Mr. ‘Codd' (inventor of a patent ginger-beer bottle). Alternatively, it may refer to the testicles (
cods
) as in
balls
.

‘Equal opportunities? That's a load of old codswallop!'
(Recorded, office worker, London, 1986)

coffin-dodger
n British

an elderly person. A sometimes humorous pejorative.

‘My four sons and their friends, all in their mid-twenties, refer to the likes of me, a mere 60 year old, as “nearly-deads” and “coffin-dodgers”.'
(Reader's letter to the
Independent
, 4 September 1992)

coffin nail
n

a cigarette. The jocular term pre-dates the public concern over the effects of smoking on health in the last three decades.

cog
¹
n British

a.
a gear, in the jargon of motorcyclists and other drivers

Drop down a cog and rev up.

b.
power, acceleration

Give it some cog.

cog
²
vb British

to move, go, act energetically. The word also occurs in the verbs
give it some cog
and ‘get cogging'. The term, used in this way, particularly in working-class speech, is derived from subsense
b
of the noun form.

coinage
n

money. A vogue term among younger speakers since 2000.

cojones
n pl

a.
courage, ‘guts'. A word (pronounced ‘co-honays') introduced to many English speakers by Ernest Hemingway, it is the Spanish slang word for
balls
in both the literal and metaphorical senses.

b.
the testicles. The word sometimes has its literal sense in American English, especially when spoken by Hispanics.

She kicked him in the cojones.

coke
n

cocaine

‘If somebody come and sell coke on our street we kill 'em or beat 'em up bad.'
(13-year-old US dealer,
Independent
, 24 July 1989)

cokehead, cokie
n American

a (habitual) user of cocaine.

See also
head

cold
adj

1.
untraceable. The opposite of
hot
in its criminal sense, often applied to weapons or cars.

It's OK, these guns are cold.

2.
British
bad. A vogue term in black speech and club-culture usage since the late 1990s. An intensified form is
arctic
.

3.
good

cold turkey
n

a sudden withdrawal from hard drugs, typically heroin, with the attendant hot and cold flushes, goose-pimples, discomfort, etc. The expression is originally American, from the 1940s or earlier, and in the late 1980s was increasingly used, often ironically, to describe a sudden withdrawal from any habitual activity. The phrase refers either to ‘goose flesh' or to the general pallor and consistency of cold turkey meat.

to go cold turkey/go through cold turkey They gave him cold turkey treatment.

collar
n
,
vb

(to) arrest (someone). The noun form is a later coinage from the verb, meaning to ‘catch', and the idiomatic expression ‘to feel someone's collar', meaning to arrest them. Collar is another police jargon term which has passed into general use.

‘Forget it Friday, this is our collar.'
(
Dragnet
, US film, 1987)

colon crusader
n British

a male homosexual. In playground usage since 2000, often used as a nonspecific insult.

come
¹
vb

to experience an orgasm. A Victorian euphemism for a physiological fact that has no other name (apart from the also euphemistic ‘climax') in standard English; this use of the word in fact dates back at least as far as Shakespeare and occurs subsequently in the (now archaic) form ‘come off'.

come
²
, cum
n

semen. A later derivation from the verb to

come
.

come a gutser
vb Australian

a.
to have an accident

b.
to commit a blunder, fail

The phrase functions similarly to the colloquial ‘come a cropper', the ‘gutser' originally denoting a heavy fall onto one's stomach.

come out
vb

to reveal oneself as a homosexual, declare one's homosexuality. The expression is a shortening of ‘come out of the closet', dating from the period in the early 1970s when liberalisation encouraged more openness among
gay
men and women in their relations with each other and the
straight
world. Subsequently the term has sometimes been extended to mean ‘to declare one's real position' in nonsexual contexts.

come the pork chop
vb Australian

to become agitated. The expression derives from the jocular and racist notion of ‘as uncomfortable as a pork chop at a barmitzvah/Jewish wedding'.

come the raw prawn
vb Australian

to try to take advantage of or deceive someone. This colourful expression probably originated in the 1940s and is still heard. The precise connection between the uncooked crustacean and deceitfulness is not clear, but the suggestion is of cadging by feigning innocence or naïvety.

come untied
vb See
untied

commodore
n British

the sum of £15. The item of financial slang is inspired by the Commodores' hit single ‘Three Times a Lady' (a
Lady (Godiva)
being £5 in rhyming slang).

compo
n Australian

(unemployment) compensation. A typical Australian shortening.

Compare
arvo

con
¹
vb
,
n

(to perpetrate) a swindle or fraud, obtain money by false pretences. This venerable colloquialism (regarded as slang in the 1950s) is simply a shortening of ‘confidence-trick'.

‘A crazy au pair girl planned to con super-star Eric Clapton out of a fortune by claiming another couple's baby was THEIR love child.'
(
News of the World
, 1988)

con
²
n American

a convict or ex-convict, felon or prisoner

conch
n American

a
swot
. A
preppie
shortening of ‘conscientious'.

cone-head
n American

a.
an intellectual or
swot

b.
a stupid, socially inept person. The term is a more recent version of
pointy-head
. Its latter sense, as used in adolescent speech, was adopted as the title of a comedy film starring Dan Ackroyd in 1993.

cones
n pl

female breasts

conk
n

1a.
the nose. The generally quoted origin for this comical word is the conch shell (often collected as a curio since the 17th century), or a learned play on the Latin
concha
, meaning shell in general, or a trumpet.

‘This face, embossed as it is with a vast fleshy conk.'
(
Observer
magazine, 15 May 1988)

1b.
the head. A less common use of the word.

2.
American
a ‘process' hairstyle (one where the hair is straightened by the application of chemicals and/or heat) as worn by

hip
young blacks from the 1930s until the 1960s when it was superseded by the racially affirmative
afro
styles

conkers
n pl Scottish

balls
(in both the literal and figurative slang senses). Like its contemporary synonym
clackers
, the expression borrows the name of a children's game.

connection, connexion
n

a drug supplier, a
dealer
or
pusher
. Originally from the language of American drug users of the late 1950s and 1960s, the term has become part of the international jargon of illicit drug users. It particularly refers to a source of heroin. (‘Connection' was used ambiguously as the title and in the lyrics of a 1967 song by the Rolling Stones.)

conniption
n

a fit of irritation, agitation. The geographical origin and derivation of the word is obscure (it is fairly common in Australian and North American speech) but it is most often heard among middle-aged speakers.

to have/get into a conniption

content
adj

attractive, pretty. The term has typically been used by younger males for describing females since 2000. It is probably a transferral of the idea of pleased from subject to (pleasing) object.

contrasexual
n

a person, usually female, who prefers domestic comforts to sexual display or activity. The semi-technical term from psychology and anthropology (originally denoting someone who displays traits of the opposite sex) was borrowed in 2004 for this jocular social categorisation on the lines of
metrosexual
and
retrosexual
.

coo
¹
n

gossip, news. The term, usually in the form ‘What's the coo?', has been used in London since 2000. Its origins are obscure, but it may be the same word as
ku
, or derive from the adjectival sense. It has also been suggested that it is inspired by the cooing of congregating birds.

coo
²
adj American

a deliberately lazy pronunciation of
cool
in the sense of relaxed, congenial, etc.

coochie
n American

a.
the female sex organs

b.
a female or females as sex objects This item of black slang is probably a shortening of
hoo(t)chie-coochie
, which has denoted sexual activity since the 19th century.

cookie-pusher
n American

an unmanly man, an effete or sycophantic male (the word never seems to be used of women). The image is of someone who spends his time passing cookies at tea parties, either because he enjoys such ‘effeminate' activities, or in order to curry favour or further his career.

some little State Department cookie-pusher trying to persuade them all to play ball

cooking
adj American

going well, moving fast, succeeding. Originally from pre-World War II street language, this usage spread, especially via jazz musicians, to young whites. It is still often used to refer to musicians who are performing well and generating excitement. A stronger form is ‘cooking with gas'.

cool
¹
adj

a.
unflappable, imperturbable

b.
excellent, admirable, acceptable One of the key items in the vocabulary of jazz musicians,
hipsters, beatniks
and
hip-pies
, cool, with its original suggestion of calm disinterested serenity, is a word which has not dated. It is as much in
vogue with teenagers in the early 21st century as it was among the 1930s jazz musicians who probably coined it (to denote gentler, progressive jazz, as opposed to ‘hot' jazz).