Read Dictionary of Contemporary Slang Online
Authors: Tony Thorne
âI feel like I can't be fadedâ¦just the hardest nigger around!'
(
Gang War
, Channel 4 TV documentary, August 1995)
faded
adj American
inferior, unpleasant, tedious. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.
fadge
n
the vagina. A vulgarism in use among adolescents in the 1990s and listed in
Viz
comic in 1994.
Vadge
is an alternative reading.
faff, faff about
vb British
to behave in a confused, disorganised or indecisive way. The expression usually indicates exasperation at another's incompetence.
âStop faffing about and play the bloody thing forwards!'
(Recorded, football spectator, North London, 1988)
fag
n
1.
British
a cigarette. In Middle English
fagge
meant, as a verb, to droop or, as a noun, a flap or remnant. These notions gave rise to âfag-end' and subsequently, in the 19th century, to fag as a stubbed-out or limp, low-quality cigarette. In the 20th century the word was generalised to refer to any cigarette.
â“Come on darling give us a fag,” says a brass to an elderly tom. “Have pity on a destitute prostitute!”'
(
Sunday Times
colour supplement feature on the East End of London, 2 June 1968)
2.
American
a male homosexual. This is generally taken to be a shortened version of
faggot
, but may pre-date it. (There is no discernible connection with the British public-school term meaning a junior boy performing servant duties.)
âI'm led into a room where a short fag doctor and a big bull-dyke nurse are waiting for me.'
(Bill Levy's journal in
Oz
magazine, February 1970)
faggot
n
1.
British
an unattractive or disreputable woman. This now outdated term, some three hundred years old, is still heard in the phrase âold faggot'.
2.
American
a homosexual man. It is not certain whether this term is an embellished version of
fag
, derives from the old British sense of the word (above), or is a native American invention. The second alternative appears the most likely.
âYou know I'm a faggot?
Well, congratulations.'
(
Kiss of the Spider Woman
, film by Hector Babenco, 1985)
faggy
adj American
camp
, effeminate. The adjective is formed from the earlier noun.
âJust a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick.'
(“Memo from Turner”, song recorded by Mick Jagger, 1969)
fag-hag
n
a woman who prefers the company of homosexual men. The expression became popular in the late 1960s with increased awareness of the
gay
community among
straights
. The phrase quickly spread from the USA to Britain and Australia. Although originally and usually used pejoratively, it can now be used neutrally, or by a woman of herself.
âShe [Edith Olivier] became the supreme fag-hag of the 1920s and 1930s, the older woman who acts as mother-confessor and salonnière to a group of young homosexual men.'
(Bevis Hillier writing in the
Sunday Times
, 26 November 1989)
fagmonkey
n British
an unpleasant and/or obnoxious person. In playground usage since 2000.
fail!
exclamation
a cry of derision, dismissal or disapproval, popular among teenagers and pre-teens since around 2003.
Epic fail
is a common intensified form.
fains!, fainites!, faynits!
exclamation British
a cry demanding a truce or exemption from something (such as being caught or penalised in a playground game). The various forms of the word are a survival of the archaic âfains' or âfains I' which means forbid and is related to the standard English fend.
âThe air echoed with cries of pax, unpax, fains, roter, shutup.'
(
Back in the Jug Agane
, Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle, 1959)
fair dinkum
adj Australian
just, honest, equable, worthy of approval. This well-known Australianism originated in a Victorian British dialect version of âfair play' or âfair share'. (The exact origin of the âdinkum' component is not clear.)
fair go/goes
phrase Australian
an interjection demanding fair or reasonable behaviour
Come on, fair goes, give us a break.
fair suck of the pineapple/sauce stick
phrase Australian
elaborations of the colloquial âfair crack of the whip'
fairy
n
a male homosexual. The word in this sense probably originated in the American West around the turn of the 20th century. It was commonly heard in Britain by the 1920s.
fake slang
As well as genuine neologisms â new words arising naturally from the flux of language â a trend in the UK has been for cultural commentators to invent their own lists of spoof coinages, designed to reflect ironically on social realities. The satirical magazine
Private Eye
has published lists of fake slang, while recent examples include, from
Guardian
columnist Charlie Brooker, â
crotchdog
(krotch-dog)
n
dismal paparazzo whose career consists of lying in the gutter desperately pointing his camera up the skirts of celebrities exiting limousines,
dwindlethink
(dwin-dull-think)
vb
the process by which a member of the public forms an opinion on a subject of national importance after viewing a
plebbledashed
(qv) news report, then finds themselves passing it on to the nation and
funography
(phun-oh-grafee)
n
television programme which gleefully revels in its own hideousness'. From Caitlin Moran came â
gril-lion
n
accepted, by even the most maths-blind child, as the biggest number there could ever be. Examples: Bob Hope is a gril-lion years old. Kuala Lumpur is a grillion miles from Kent. Caz had grillions more goes on Swingball than I did'.
fall
n See
take a dive/tumble/fall
fall guy
n American
a dupe, victim or scapegoat. A pre-war Americanism deriving from the phrase âto take a fall' (to be caught, arrested or imprisoned).
âI'm the fall guy: I'm the one who'll take the fall if it all blows up.'
(Recorded, security guard, Detroit, December 2004)
falsies
n pl British
a padded brassiere or other padding worn to make a woman's breasts appear larger
fam, famo
n British
a.
family
b.
gang
c.
friend, fellow gang member. In all senses the abbreviation is used by teenagers and gang members.
family jewels
n pl
the male genitals, more specifically the testicles. A jocular expression which may be Victorian in origin. Now sometimes shortened to âjewels'.
family slang
Also known as
kitchen-table lingo
, an expression used by the English Project at the University of Winchester, who have collected and published samples, this language category includes the nicknames, terms of endearment, adopted or invented slang and other coinages used within one household or family and sometimes traded with neighbours and friends. The same sort of vocabulary, which often crosses generational divides, has been collected from members of the public by standup comedian and would-be word-smith Alex Horne as part of his âWord-watching' project. Typical examples include nicknames for the TV remote control, which include
blabber
,
boggler
,
zapper
,
clicky
,
dawiki
,
doobly
,
melly
and
pringer
; words for items for which no standard name exists, like
Blenkinsop
(a comical-sounding but authentic British family name) for the little tab which slides across the top of self-sealing plastic bags for refrigeration, or
trunklements
to describe âbits and pieces, personal possessions'. Words which have moved into wider circulation such as
helicopter
and
velcroid
for intrusive parents or neighbours,
howler
for baby and
chap-esse
for female probably originated in family usage.
fan
n
1.
an aircraft propeller
2.
American
the backside, buttocks. A shortening of
fanny 2
.
She fell on her fan.
fan fiction
Fanfiction (also known as fanfic or FF) refers to stories invented by fans, primarily for other fans and almost never published conventionally, using existing characters taken from TV, movies, books or other media. The practice, which began with amateur science fiction stories in the 1960s, has generated its own jargon or fanspeak.
AU
adj, n
(telling) a fan fiction story which uses known characters but which radically changes original timelines, locations, etc. The initials stand for â(in an) alternative universe'.
drabble
n
a fan fiction story of no more than 100 words
ficlet
n
a fan fiction story of 500 to 1000 words in length
filk
n
a parody of a song, in the jargon of fan fiction
lemon
n
a sexually explicit fanfiction posting
Mary Sue
n
a female character in a fan fiction story who is supposedly 'too good to be true'. The male equivalent is a
Marty-Sam
RPF
n
a fan fiction story featuring real people, typically media celebrities, sports stars, etc.
slash
n
an imagined, invented homosexual relationship between two characters in a fan fiction story. The term comes from the / mark used to separate the names of two associated characters
squick
n
something disgusting, in the jargon of fan fiction
fanny
n
1.
British
the female genitals. This old and relatively inoffensive euphemism is possibly derived from the well-known erotic novel,
The Memoirs of Fanny Hill
, by John Cleland, published in 1749, or is perhaps simply an affectionate personification of the sex organs, using the short form of Frances. The word is used by women as well as men.
2.
American
the backside, buttocks. The American sense of the word probably derives from the earlier British sense. Fanny is sometimes confusingly used with this meaning by middle-class speakers in Britain too.
fanny about
vb British
to
faff about
, dither. The
fanny
element may be present merely for its sound, its proximity to fuss or
faff
, or as a suggestion of femininity, rather than as a direct reference to the buttocks or genitals.
Fanny Adams
n British See
F.A.
fanny-fit
n British
a bout of consternation or agitation. This term, based on fussing as described in the phrase
fanny about
, became popular amongst all age groups in the 1990s.
Hissie-fit
is a similar usage from the same period.
fanny-magnet
n British
an attractive young male. This racier version of the widespread phrase
babe-magnet
was posted on the internet by Bodge World in 1997.
fanny merchant
n British
someone who behaves in an indecisive, weak or supposedly effeminate way
âStop pratting about, Hoddle, and get stuck in. You're nothing but a fanny merchant.'
(Recorded, football supporter, North London, 1985)
fanny rat
n British
a womaniser or seducer. A term used with either contempt or admiration by other men.
âA policeman accused of drowning his wife in a holiday villa's Jacuzzi bath was branded “King Fanny Rat” by his colleagues because of his womanizing.'
(
Daily Mirror
, 15 April 1989)
fanny-toots
n British
an unnamed or unnameable person, so-and-so. The term, recorded in Edinburgh in 2001, is a synonym for colloquialisms such as âthingummybob' and âoojamaflip'.
fantabuloso
adj British
exceptionally good and/or spectacular. An item of
parlyaree
recorded in the TV documentary
Out
in July 1992.
fap
vb American
to masturbate, almost invariably on the part (no pun intended) of males, and often referring to an activity prompted by online material.
Fappable
is a derived adjective and
wap
is a synonym.