Trying to keep up with – or even make sense of – your grandkids’ ever-changing vocabulary can be challenging. Slang is updated by the minute, so don’t feel hopelessly behind if you’re not up on all the latest lingo. But becoming familiar with some of it can be fun; and may help you understand what’s being said. Much of the slang depends on the age of your grandkids and where they live, so you may or may not come across all of the following expressions:
- LOL (Laugh[ing] Out Loud) and other shorthand acronyms have become increasingly popular due to text messaging on cell phones. In many ways, these are a language in and of themselves.
- Awesome, and superlatives in general, have been replaced by many new variations. Some of them, such as “That’s sick” or “That’s ill,” use irony. So, if you give your granddaughter a pretty new sweater, and she responds with, “Oh Grandma, this is sick!” don’t be offended.
- Other ways to say awesome/cool/great: “ballin,’” “crunk” or “off the hook.”
- Chill means cool, but it can also mean to calm down or to hang out. Similarly, chillin’ (or its variation: chillaxin’) means to relax.
- “Tool,” as in “He’s such a tool,” means a not so smart person – someone decidedly not cool.
- “Hater” means pessimistic person who is constantly talking negatively about his or her friends.
- “Emo” is short for emotional. It describes a genre of punk music and also a certain look in terms of what they wear and how they do their hair.
- “My B” means totally my fault. This is a shortcut for the earlier slang “My bad.”
- “Bounce” means to leave in a hurry. If your grandson is visiting, and you ask if he’d like to stay for dinner, he might reply: “No thanks, I’ve gotta bounce.”
- “Salty” is used to refer to someone who is angry or embarrassed, as in “Don’t get all salty on me now.”
- Kids may also substitute an animal for the word friend, as in: “Don’t say things like that about Noah. He’s my dog!”
- Combining parts of words is also popular, as in “ginormous” (larger than gigantic or enormous), “absotively” or “posilutely.”
- “Beast,” as in “You’re a beast at _____(verb)” means to be very good at something.
- “Dumb” can be used as a substitute for very, as in “That music is dumb good!”
- “Straightedge” is someone who doesn’t do drugs or drink. As in: “Want to party?” “No, I’m straightedge.”
If your grandkids use other expressions not listed here, you can also look them up on www.urbandictionary.com. Don’t try to use the terms yourself though, as that is frowned upon. But gaining an understanding of the “slanguage” is a plus. Who knows, you just might become a totally chillin’ grandparent.
-BFN (Bye for Now)
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