Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (65 page)

2.
smelly, fetid. This is the original sense of the word, dating from the early 17th-century British noun funk, meaning a stink or ‘fug' of tobacco smoke. This in turn probably derives from the Latin verb
fumigare
(to smoke or fumigate), via French. Senses
1a
and
b
originate in this meaning.
funny farm
n

a psychiatric hospital or home for mental patients

‘They're coming to take me away, ha ha, to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time.'
(“They're coming to take me away, hahaaa!”, song by Napoleon XIV, 1966)

funny money
n

a.
counterfeit money

b.
worthless denominations

c.
foreign currency

d.
excess or unearned wealth. The words in this sense express disbelief or resigned acceptance in the face of ‘unthinkably' large amounts of money.

furburger, fur-doughnut, furry hoop, fur pie
n

the vagina. Expressions which have been part of the male repertoire of vulgarisms since the 1960s. In the USA, furburger and fur pie are sometimes used to refer to a female or females in general.

furphy
n Australian

a lie, malicious rumour, tall story. The term is said to originate in Irish usage, but has also been derived from a person of the same name, the contractor who supplied garbage disposal wagons for the army camps in Australia during World War I. An alternative eponymous source is the writer Joseph Furphy.

furry monkey
n British

the vagina. A jocular euphemism as used by presenter Daisy Donovan on the late night review
The 11 O'clock Show
on UK TV in 2001.

furry muff!
exclamation British

‘fair enough'. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

fusion
n British

a state of unhappiness, irritation or agitation. This term became popular among
teenagers in the 1990s, who had probably picked it up from an older generation among whom this shortening of the word ‘confusion' had become almost obsolete. The usage was recorded among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

She's in a fusion again.

futz
¹
n American

1.
the vagina

2.
a disreputable and/or unpleasant male These noun forms are related to the verb form.

futz
²
vb American

to mess or fool around. The word is a deformation of a Yiddish verb
arumfartzen
, meaning literally and metaphorically to
fart around
.

fuzz, the fuzz
n

the police. A 1960s buzzword nowadays only likely to be used by a hopelessly out-of-date adult attempting to communicate ingratiatingly with young people (who will either not understand at all, or regard the dated term with contempt). It derives either from the likening of a worthless person to mould, fluff or dust, or it is a black reference to white men's ‘wispy' head and body hair.

‘You're more likely to be damaged permanently in a tangle with the American fuzz though, if you see what I mean.'
(Terry Reid, interviewed in
Oz
magazine, February 1969)

FWIW
phrase

‘for what it's worth'. The abbreviation is written rather than spoken.

f-word, the
n British

a coy reference to the taboo word
fuck
. By 2013 ‘f-bomb' had become a more fashionable alternative.

‘He was very coarse, always scratching himself and saying the f-word.'
(Recorded, middle-aged female bus passenger, London, 1989)

G
¹
n American

a friend, peer. This allpurpose greeting used among black speakers (usually, but not necessarily, male) is probably an abbreviation of
guy
, although
gangsta
has been suggested as an alternative.

G
²
, g
n

1.
a gram (of some illicit substance). The abbreviation is typically used in referring to cocaine, which is sold in grams.

2.
a thousand, a
grand

It cost me two g's.

3.
British
boss, leader. The usage was recorded in East London schools in 2008.

gadger
n British

a male friend, unnamed male. A term of address or affection between males, heard predominantly in the north of England.

He's a good gadger.

gadgie, gadgy
n
,
adj British

(an) old, infirm or senile (person). A schoolchildren's word mainly heard in the north of England. The source is in dialect of the 19th century or earlier but the precise original meaning is lost.

gaff
n British

a home or house. In 19th-century slang a gaff was a fair, fairground or any place of cheap entertainment. These notions were expanded in the argot of actors, tramps, market stallholders, criminals, etc. and the word came to be used to describe any place or location, hence the current meaning which was racy underworld jargon from the 1920s to the 1950s when
spivs
,
teddy boys
, etc. gave it wider currency. (It is still mainly used by working-class speakers.)

Nice gaff you've got here.
‘If I was you I'd go round his gaff and pour brake fluid all over his paintwork – see how that goes down.'
(
The Firm
, British TV play, February 1989)

See also
blow the gaff

gaffer
n

a.
a boss. A rustic term of address or descriptive word for an old man or master current in Britain since the 16th century, gaffer is a contraction of ‘grandfather'. It is still widely used, particularly by working-class speakers.

If I were you I'd go and fetch the gaffer; he's the only one who knows what's going on.

b.
an old man. This is probably the most common sense of the word in the USA, where it is also used to refer to a father (but rarely specifically a grandfather), and to a foreman as in the first sense.

c.
British
a police officer. The term was recorded among London criminals in 1993.

gaffle
vb American

1.
to confound, defeat, cheat. A term heard in black street slang in the 1990s, perhaps derived from the use of ‘gaff' in black slang to mean a swindler or crooked betting scheme.

2.
to steal, take without permission. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

Hey, who gaffled my smokes?

gag
vb

to vomit. A teenager's specialised use of the colloquial term for choking or retching. Its use is not entirely restricted to the speech of teenagers.

gaga
adj

senile, crazy, besotted. The word has come into world English from French, via upper-class or educated British English of the 1920s. In French it was probably originally a nursery word, influenced by
grand-père
(grandfather) and
gâteux
(feeble-minded, infirm).

‘She's gone completely gaga over this appalling creep.'
(Recorded, wine bar habituée, London, 1986)

gage, gauge
n

marihuana or hashish. Gauge is a now obsolete slang term for an alcoholic drink and later also for a pipe or a pipeful of tobacco, coming presumably from the idea of a ‘measure' (of something intoxicating). The survival of these senses in American and Jamaican English led to the use of the same word for cannabis.

‘You want to blow that gage this way? We'd love it.'
(Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders rock group, shouting from the stage at Glastonbury music festival, 25 June 1994)

gagging
adj British

desperate (for relief, typically in the form of sex or alcohol). Like its synonym
choking
, gagging (literally, retching) became a popular vulgarism in all social circles during the 1990s. The phrase ‘gagging for it' refers specifically and invariably to sex.

gag me with a spoon!
exclamation American

a favourite
Valley Girl
expression of exaggerated or thrilled disgust or astonishment

Wow, gag me with a spoon! How gross can you get?

gak
n British

cocaine. Probably the most widespread nickname for the drug in use from the mid-noughties. The word, which has occasionally been used for other illicit drugs in powder form, may be an imitation of a gagging reflex or sudden swallowing and/or snorting as a dramatic reaction to ingestion.

galah
n Australian

a fool, a silly, empty-headed person. The galah is a species of Australian cockatoo which characteristically congregates with others and ‘chatters'. A rural catchphrase in currency before World War II was ‘as mad as a (gum)tree full of galahs'. The word is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.

‘Let's forget the whole thing, I feel like a right galah.'
(
The Flying Doctors
, Australian TV series, 1987)

galdem, galsdem
n British

a.
a girl or girls

b.
a female clique, group or
crew
. The term, from black usage, has been heard in street-gang code and its imitations since around 2000.

Compare
mansdem

gallis
n

a group of females, girls. In black British speech since 2000 the term is the female counterpart of
mans
. It may derive from the Scottish
gallus
.

gallus
adj Scottish

cheeky, assertive,
feisty
. A Scottish dialect term applied particularly to women, it was used specifically to refer to TV presenter Muriel Gray in 1995. It is said to derive from the observation that someone was ‘fit for the gallows'.

gam
vb British

to perform oral sex. A shortening of
gamahucher
, a 19th-century French term for this practice which was adopted into the specialist jargon of prostitutes, pornographers and their customers.

game
¹
adj British

working as a prostitute, available for sex. The word in this sense is a back-formation from the earlier ‘on the game'. It is used by
punters
and those involved professionally in prostitution.

She's game.

game
²
n American

a male's presence, charm, charisma, social or other competitive skill(s). The specialised use of the word, often referring to achieving rapport with females, comes from the colloquial sporting usages ‘improving/perfecting one's game'.

He's sure got game.
Jerry's just got no game.

game on!
exclamation British

a cry of enthusiasm or encouragement. Since the late 1990s the phrase has been used in association with competition and merrymaking, or as a euphemistic reference to sex. It was the title of a TV comedy series.

game over!
exclamation

an assertion that an attempt has failed or that an activity has been definitively terminated. The expression, first featuring on pinball machines, has been a catchphrase since the mid-1990s.

gamer
n American

an irritating, foolish and/or inept person. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. The word first described a devotee of video games, thus someone despised by would-be sophisticates.

gammon
n Irish See
cant

gams
n pl

legs, especially a woman's legs when considered shapely. A jocular word which
now sounds old-fashioned, unsurprisingly in that it originates in the medieval heraldic term for leg,
gamb
, which in turn comes from Old Northern French dialect
gambe
(modern French is
jambe
, Italian is
gamba
).

‘Oo Nudge, check out those gams.'
(
Beach House
, US film, 1981)

gander
n

a look. The word, which is usually part of phrases such as ‘take/have a gander at this', comes from the bird's characteristic craning of the neck.

Gandhi
adj See
Mahatma (Gandhi)

ganef, gonef, gonof
n American

a thief, petty criminal. A word from the Hebrew
gannath
; thief, via Yiddish. In the 19th century variant forms of this word were heard in Britain and South Africa, but are now archaic.

‘I'm curious, what do you remember about the man who robbed you…I want to know what the ganef looked like.'
(
Hill Street Blues
, US TV series, 1986)

ganga, ganger
adv American

extremely. A campus synonym for
hella
and
grippa
recorded in North Carolina in 2002.