Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (89 page)

2.
British
a
slash

johnson
n American

a.
the penis

b.
the backside, buttocks

‘He can kiss my johnson.'
(
The Boss's Wife
, US film, 1986)

Both senses are personifications used humorously or straightforwardly, especially in black speech. They date from the late 19th century and are elaborations of the use of
john
to designate anything male.

John Thomas
n British

the penis. A hearty and/or affectionate personification in use since the mid-19th century. It was used by D. H. Lawrence in
Lady Chatterley's Lover
, written in 1928 and first published in an unabridged edition in Britain in 1959. The phrase now seems to be used particularly by women.

joining
n British

flirting. The term is used in this sense in, e.g., student slang.

joint
n

1.
a marihuana cigarette or a cigarette containing a mix of hashish and tobacco. Joint supplanted
reefer
as the universal term for a cannabis cigarette in the early 1960s. The precise dating and etymology of the word are obscure.

‘Several large joints passed along the room before someone suggested it was time to go outside and play with the Kalashnikovs.'
(
Tatler
, April 1990)

2. the joint
American
prison. A specialisation of the colloquial sense of ‘joint' as a place, building or premises.

3.
American
the penis. A metaphor based on images of meat and (an imaginary) bone.

4.
American
any object or person

joker
n

a.
a foolish, irritating or unfortunate person

b.
any unnamed individual

jokes
adj British

funny, enjoyable. A widespread term of appreciation in youth slang.

one jokes party

jollies
n pl

gratification. The expression can cover indulgences ranging from innocent enjoyment, through thrills, to more sinister and/or sexual stimulation. The word usually occurs in the phrase
get one's jollies
.

jolly d.
adj British

‘jolly decent'. A public-school or upper-class term of approbation, often used ironically or sarcastically. It is usually an interjection, rather than a description.

jonah
n Australian

a
shark
. This is not a reference to the whale but a contracted form of the rhyming slang
Joan of Arc
.

jones
n American

1.
the penis. Now predominantly a term used by black speakers and their imitators. It may derive from a 19th-century personification of the male member as ‘Mr Jones'.

2.
a drug habit

They said they had to knock over a couple of stores for money to support their scag jones
.

jook
vb

1a.
to stab

1b.
to physically assault

2.
to steal or rob

The term is an important component of multiethnic youth slang in the UK and is also heard in street slang in the USA. It derives ultimately from an African root (in Mende it means to enter or go in, in Fulani to poke or spur), probably via Caribbean patois.

jooky jam
vb

to have sex. A phrase originating in black usage:
jook
is said to derive from an African word for jab or poke, used since at least the 19th century in the USA as a euphemism for sex.
Jam
is a slang synonym in its own right.

Jordan
n American

an attractive male. The use of the term either refers to Michael Jordan, a US sports star, or to a first name thought to typify a rugged, glamorous male.

josser
n British

a foolish or obnoxious person. Used as a less offensive version of
tosser
, the term was heard particularly in the north of England in the 1980s. The word, in fact, has had a separate existence since the 19th century, during which time it has designated a simpleton, a codger, a fop and a parasite, among other senses. Its ultimate origins are obscure, although joss is said to have been a dialect term for bump or jostle.

journo
n Australian

a journalist. A characteristic Australian shortening which has been heard among British speakers.

jousting
n British

having sex. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000. A synonym is
lancing
.

joy pop
vb

a.
to take illicit drugs on an infrequent and casual, rather than habitual, basis

b.
to inject a drug intramuscularly, to
skin-pop

joystick
n

a cannabis cigarette, a
joint
. A fairly rare euphemism.

jub
n British

a menial or junior worker, a
gofer
. The word, of uncertain origin, was used in the City of London financial markets from the late 1990s to refer, often dismissively, to messengers and ‘back-office' underlings.

Get a jub to do it
.

jubbies
n pl British

female breasts. This childish-sounding term was used by (predominantly middle-class) teenagers and adults from the 1980s and is probably a blend of
jugs
and
bubbies
.

jubbly
n British

money, wealth. The word is used in London working-class speech, especially in the phrase ‘(lots of) lovely jubbly'. Jubbly was the trade name of an orange drink sold in a triangular carton. Especially when frozen, it was popular with school-children in the 1950s and 1960s. ‘Lovely Jubbly!' was its advertising slogan.

jubnuts
n pl British

a southern English rural term for
dags
(fragments of dung clinging to the rear of sheep and other shaggy animals)

judy
n British

a girl or woman. A very common word in working-class use in the north of England in the 1950s and 1960s. Judy was a popular 19th-century Christian name, seen as typical of common women (as in, e.g., Punch and Judy). The word is also used in Australia as an alternative to
Sheila
.

jug
¹
n

prison. This term from the beginning of the 19th century is usually part of the phrases ‘in jug' or ‘in the jug'. It probably derives from 18th-century dialect
jougs
, meaning stocks or pillory (from the French
joug
, meaning yoke), rather than from jug as a container of liquid. In modern usage the term is jocular.

jug
²
vb

1.
also
jug up
British
to imprison. From the noun
jug
.

2.
also
jug out
or
jug up
American
to drink, usually to excess. The phrases are probably influenced by the categorisation ‘jug wine', denoting cheap wine bought in large containers, e.g. by students and other drinkers of modest means.

jugged
adj

1.
imprisoned. From the noun
jug
.

2.
drunk. A rare but recurrent term.

jugglin' bone
n

dealing
crack
. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

jug handles
n pl British

the ears, particularly large prominent ears.
The term is used by all ages and social classes for poking fun.

jugs
n pl

1.
female breasts. Originally an Australian vulgarism, inspired by milk jugs and probably influenced by the much older term
dugs
. This expression has also been used in Britain and the USA.

2.
the ears, particularly large prominent ears. The word used in this sense, primarily in Britain, is a shortening of ‘jug-ears' or
jug handles
.

juice
¹
n

1.
American
alcohol,
booze
. A pre-World War II American term still in widespread use.

2.
American
electricity, power

Give it some more juice
.

3.
American
gossip, interesting news. A teenage term of the late 1970s and 1980s which is probably a back-formation from ‘juicy'.

4.
semen

juice
²
, juice it
vb

to have sex. A term used, transitively and intransitively, by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

juiced, juiced-up
adj

drunk. Unlike other slang terms deriving from
juice
, this is not exclusively American.

‘Howard you never used to talk to me that way
.

I'm just juiced, that's all.'
(S. Clay Wilson cartoon in
Head Comix
, 1968)

juicer, juice head/freak
n American

an alcoholic, drunkard or habitual heavy drinker. These terms probably originated in black slang of the 1940s.

J.U.L.F.
n British

an arrogant and/or presumptuous person. The initials stand for ‘jumped up little fucker'. The phrase was identified by Salman Rushdie, describing the slang used by his Special Branch bodyguards, in the
Independent
, 11 February 1993.

jumbo
n

1.
British
a fool, a slow, large and/or dimwitted person. A mainly working-class term, used for instance by the CID to refer to uniformed police officers. (Jumbo as applied to elephants derives from the African word
jamba
, anglicised as a name for P. T. Barnum's famous animal exhibit.) In this case the image of a slow, ponderous person is probably also influenced by
dumbo
.

2.
British
the backside, buttocks

3. crack
. This is one of many probably ephemeral nicknames used on the American streets for this powerful drug. Jumbo in this sense was recorded in 1986.

jump
¹
vb

1.
to have sex with. This term implying male assertion, domination or assault has been in use in English since the 17th century. It is paralleled in many other languages (the French equivalent is
sauter
). The word is now often used by street-gang members etc to refer to indecent assault, influenced by the term's colloquial meaning of to attack unexpectedly.

2.
Jamaican and British
to trick, outwit, swindle, defraud. Multiethnic youth slang recorded in London in 2010.

jump
²
n

an act of sexual intercourse. This old vulgarism has been revived since 2000, and was defined by one user (a London student) as ‘a comedy term for sex used to embarrass mates in innocent situations, i.e. “they're going for a jump” when they are just going for a walk'.

jump off
vb American

a.
(of a person) to become aggressive, lose one's temper

b.
(of a situation) to happen or escalate suddenly. The phrase probably arose in black slang where jump was a component in a number of obsolete expressions evoking rapidity and/or violence and the contemporary
jump salty. Step off
has similar meanings.

jump salty
vb American

to become angry. A well-known item of black argot which was included in so-called
Ebonics
, recognised as a legitimate language variety by school officials in Oakland, California, in late 1996. The phrase, which seems to date from pre-World War II
jive talk
(it was listed in Cal Calloway's famous Hepster's lexicon in 1938), became part of street slang in the 1970s. It is now in widespread use and is sometimes heard among younger white speakers describing a key behaviour pattern, also expressed by
jump off
and
step off
and the British
kick off
.

jump someone's bones
vb American

to have sex with someone. The expression, first heard in the 1960s, has rough-and-ready, crass overtones. It invariably refers to the sex act from the male point of view.

I guess she realised I just wanted to jump her bones
.

jungle
n South African

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

jungle bunny
n

a negro or other dark-skinned person. A racist epithet which is usually applied to Afro-Caribbeans, and is also used by Australians to refer to Aboriginals and South Sea Islanders. It has been heard from at least the 1950s.