Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (66 page)

gang bang
¹
vb
,
n

(to take part in) sex involving several males sequentially with one woman; group sex. The word received publicity in the 1960s, largely as a result of articles describing the rituals of Hells Angels and others.

gang bang
²
vb American

to take part in the activities of a street gang. A term from the 1980s which is a play on the well-known sexual term, and bang in the sense of gunshot. The word has been brought to public attention by TV documentaries describing the activities of such gangs in the era of
crack
. (The phrase is now sometimes shortened to
bang
.)

gangbanger
n American

a loyal and committed member of a street gang. This 1980s term is used by and about the members of street gangs in Los Angeles. The bang in question is a gunshot; shooting a victim is often part of the initiation process.

gangbusters
n pl
,
adj American

(something) superlative, excellent, impressive. A schoolchildren's word which is a shortening of the jocular adult phrase ‘like gangbusters', meaning very strongly, energetically or dynamically. The terms originate in the violently heroic actions of the anti-mob law enforcers (nicknamed gangbusters) of yellow journalism and crime fiction.

Hey you know, that set they played was gangbusters!

gangie
n Australian

a
gang bang
or
group-grope

gangsta
n
,
adj American

(someone) belonging to black street-gang culture. The term, which denoted an admirable gang member, became generalised as an allpurpose categorisation in street-gang,
hip hop
and
rap
culture.

ganja
n

marihuana. This is one of the many names for cannabis which has been heard in various milieus over the last fifty years or so.

gank
vb American

1.
to steal or borrow without permission. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. It may be a blend of grab and yank.

I can't believe she ganked your boyfriend.
Stop ganking my clothes.

2.
to harm, murder

When I see that fool, I'm gonna gank his ass.

gannet
n British

a person who eats greedily, someone who bolts their food. Gannet is a 1970s and 1980s term derived, possibly via comics' adaptation of navy argot, from the voracious habits of the fish-gorging seabird.

‘If you've got any sense you'll keep the best stuff away from those gannets.'
(Recorded, teacher, York, 1981)

gantin'
adj British

disgusting, repellent. An item of youth slang recorded in 2010.

gar
adj

a.
macho, powerful. The term, said to have originated as a mistyping of
gay
, referring to an extremely masculine character in an online anime series and video game, was in conversational use among London teenagers in 2010.

b.
inspired or attracted by another's machismo or powerful charisma. In this sense the term is often used facetiously or ironically, especially by online gamers.

garbo
n Australian

a garbage man, dustman. The word's first use seems to have coincided with the height of the fame of the Swedish movie actress, Greta Garbo.

garbonzas
n pl American

female breasts. One of many invented terms used lightheartedly by males (
gazungas
is another version). This may conceivably be influenced by the Spanish
garbanzos
: chickpeas.

gargle
n Irish and British

(an) alcoholic drink. A joke on the lines of
lotion
and
tincture
which is at least 100 years old and is still commonly heard in Dublin, for instance.

‘Fancy a gargle, John?'
(Posy Simmonds cartoon,
Guardian
, 1981)

‘I'll have some gargle, if you don't mind, sir.'
(Recorded, Irish pub habitué, London, 1987)

garms
n pl

clothes. The clipped form of ‘garments' was an important part of the
hip hop
and
rap
subculture's lexicon from the 1980s, later crossing the Atlantic and eventually heard among UK adolescents. Older synonyms were
rags
,
threads
and
vines
.

‘Grab your flash garms!'
(
Touch
magazine, September 1993)

gary
adj Australian

‘unpleasant, annoying or importunate'. The definition was posted online in August 2012.

Gary Glitter
n British

the anus. The vulgarism uses the name of the disgraced 1970s rock star as rhyming slang for
shitter
. (Previously the name of the cowboy star of the 1950s, Tex Ritter, had been employed.)

‘What male priests can do – give choirboys one up the Gary Glitter.'
(Comedienne Jo Brand, Christmas 1994)

gas
¹
n

1.
something which is exhilarating, stimulating or highly enjoyable. In the phrases ‘it's a gas' and ‘what a gas!', this word became one of the clichés of the
hippy
vocabulary. It probably originated in American black street slang of the late 1950s, inspired by the exhilarating effects of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), although the same word, with the same meaning and origin, already existed in Irish speech.

‘But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas… I'm jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas, gas, gas.'
(
Jumping Jack Flash
, Rolling Stones, 1968)

2.
an idle conversation, a period of empty chatter

gas
²
n
,
adj British

(someone or something that is) extremely fast, quick thinking. In youth slang
raps
is an adjectival synonym.

gas guzzler
n

an uneconomical car. A term originally applied to American non-compact cars of the 1970s.

gash
¹
adj British

1.
spare, available. This now almost obsolete use of the word was common in the armed services in the 1950s and probably has the same origins as the following senses.

2.
attractive, impressive. The origin of this subsense of gash is obscure, but may be inspired by the attractiveness of ‘spare' or available women. It was heard among working-class Londoners until the late 1960s.

3.
useless, worn out, broken. In this sense gash is still heard, especially in London, among workmen, technicians, musicians, etc. and in the armed forces.

‘There's nothing in there but a pile of gash tapes.'
(Recorded, video technician, London, 1988)

The various meanings of the term probably all derive from a 19th-century adoption of the French word
gâcher
(to waste or spoil) or
gâchis
(mess) for rubbish on board ship. The meaning was ironically extended to cover extra portions, then anything spare. The original French is preserved in the third sense above.

gash
²
n

a.
a woman or girl. A male term of sexual origin but not necessarily used with sexual connotations. The term existed in the argot of the streets in the 1950s, both in the USA and in working-class Britain (where it usually occurred in the phrase ‘a bit of gash'). It was revived in the 1980s by aficionados of
rap
music and
hip hop
as a fashionable synonym for girlfriend. The origin of the word lies in
b
, which is unknown to many users.

b.
a woman's genitals, or women as sex objects. The fearful or dismissive male image of a woman's external sex organs as a wound is an ancient one. Gash in this sense was a widespread vulgar euphemism in the 19th century.

gasper
n

1.
a cigarette. An ironic witticism from the days before the anti-smoking lobby, when shortness of breath was still a possible subject for levity. (It is probably
unconnected with the more recent British cliché ‘gasping for a fag'.) The word was at its most popular in the 1950s in the language of
spivs
,
cads
, etc., but is not yet obsolete.

2.
British
a devotee of self-asphyxiation as a sexual stimulus. The term, from the lexicon of prostitution, received publicity at the time of the death in 1994 of the Tory MP Stephen Milligan while indulging in this practice (known in slang as
scarfing
).

gat
n

a pistol, revolver. A piece of obsolete underworld slang from the early 1900s derived from ‘Gatling' gun (an early revolving-barrel machine-gun). The word is occasionally resurrected by writers invoking the atmosphere of the gangster era, and was the trademark name of a cheap British air pistol of the 1950s.

gata
n South African

a police officer. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

gate fever
n British

terror at the prospect of release from prison. An item from inmates' jargon describing a familiar condition.

gatted, gattered
adj

drunk, possibly from the notion of ‘gunned down' from
gat
, a gun. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

‘Last night I was well gattered!'
(Recorded, student, Eastbourne, East Sussex, May 2010)

gavvers
n pl British

the police. The nickname, coming from Romany, was featured in the Channel 4 TV documentary series
Coppers
in 2010.

gay
adj

1.
homosexual. In late-medieval English gay often had the sense of showy or affected as well as happy and lighthearted. In British slang of the 18th and 19th centuries it was a euphemism for sexually available or living an immoral life, and was invariably applied to women, usually prostitutes. In the early 20th century it was adopted as a code word by the British and American homosexual community, an innocent-sounding term which they could use of themselves and each other. The word had the secondary purpose of reinforcing homosexuals' positive perception of their sexual identity as opposed to the derisive or disapproving terminology of the heterosexual world. Gay was widely used in the theatrical milieu by the mid-1960s and, when homosexuals began to assert themselves openly in the later 1960s, it supplanted all alternatives to become the standard nondiscriminatory designation.

2.
bad, in poor taste, socially inept or unsophisticated. This nonhomophobic use of the term has been in vogue among teenagers in the USA since the 1980s and in the UK since 2000. It was given prominence by its use in 2006 by British radio DJ Chris Moyles.

That show was, like, so gay.
Don't be gay!

gaydar
n

the (supposed) ability to detect homosexuality in others. The blend of
gay
and ‘radar' suggests an instinctive appreciation of invisible qualities.

gaylord
n British

an effete or homosexual male. A school-children's term of the late 1980s. The word, which is an embellishment of
gay
, may derive from Jamaican argot.

gazillion
n American

a very large number or quantity. An alternative form for
zillion
,
squillion
and
bazil-lion
.

gazing
n British

relaxing. A fashionable term among adolescents from the later 1990s, the word may be related to ‘shoe-gazing', a phrase earlier used to describe the posturing of
indie
musicians who would slouch almost motionless while performing staring down at the stage.

gazump
vb British

to cheat (in a house purchase) by raising the price at the last moment, after agreement has been reached but before contracts have been formalised. An old expression from the language of swindlers, revived to denote a practice which became widespread during and after the dramatic rise in property prices in 1972. The word formerly existed in several forms (gazumph, gazoomph, gazumf, etc.) and is from Yiddish.

gazumped
adj British

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

gazunda, gazunder, gazunta, gozunder
n

a chamber pot. A perennial humorous euphemism heard in Britain and Australia, based on the fact that the un-nameable article in question ‘goes under' the bed. By extension these words are sometimes
used to refer to other un-named gadgets, containers, implements or contraptions.

gazungas
n pl

female breasts. A male term.

gazzin', gazzlin'
n British

staring. The teenage usage may be an alteration of the standard word gazing.