Back to School : What’s In, What’s Out : A Majorly Dope Glossary of Way-Cool Slang

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work. --Carl Sandburg

Whatever! They come and go like the tide, these words and phrases that become a kind of second language for many children. Yesterday’s grody becomes today’s whack. What was once tubular and def is now dope and righteous. Below is a list of some current slang.

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as if, exclamation. “To the contrary,” “No way.” audi, exclamation. “I’m leaving.” baldwin, noun. An attractive male. barney, noun. An unattractive male. betty, noun. An attractive female. da bomb, adjective. Really great. dope, adjective. Cool. fine, adjective. Very attractive. hang, verb. To align with. hottie, noun. An extremely attractive female. hurl, verb. To vomit. loqued out, adjective. Extremely accessorized. majorly, adverb. Very. monster, adjective. Very good or very large. monet, adjective or noun. Something deceptively attractive. parlay, verb. To relax or hang out. player, noun. Person with a lot of companions. props, noun. Kudos. pump ya brakes, exclamation. “Stop that!” rad, radical, adjective or adverb. Cool. snag, verb. To acquire or steal. toast, noun. Doomed. tscha, exclamation. “No kidding.” wassup, inquiry. “What’s up?” whack, adjective. Very bad.

Hair

Maybe it was the haircut.

Tom Hanks won his second Oscar as lovable simpleton Forrest Gump and according to Agoura Hills stylist Jan House, Gump’s close-cropped head is suddenly a popular look among boys.

Yvonne Dodds, owner of Kinder-Kuts in Tarzana, agrees.

“The big thing lately is buzz cuts,” she says.

For girls, shoulder-length hair is the cut du jour , both say, although some still prefer the short, pageboy look.

So what’s out?

Ponytails “kind of went past,” House says.

Hangouts

Sure there’s the mall, but kids have found another place to congregate since the demise of pinball parlors and video arcades: the coffee house.

“It’s friendly,” says Star Irvine of Eagles Coffee Pub in North Hollywood. “Homier.”

According to Irvine, shops like hers offer kids a safe, relaxing environment where they’re free of the hassles of mall security guards.

Not only that. She notes that they have one distinct advantage over shopping centers.

“We’re open later.”

Music

It all changed with Nirvana, Bob Say says.

The vice president of Reseda-based Moby Disc Records says the Seattle trio’s 1991 “Nevermind” album rang the death knell for the heavy metal “hair bands” like Whitesnake, Warrant and Skid Row that rose to fame in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Say predicts the success of “ska-punk” groups like Sublime and the Skeletones and the inevitable clones of proto punkers Green Day and Offspring.

“You’re going to see a lot of punk records come out on major labels” this fall, he says.

Elsewhere on the charts, look for more “funk-driven rappers” like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Warren G.

Trouble

In the past, it was spitwads and gum-chewing.

Today, it’s drugs and weapons. True, the gentler forms of student rebellion haven’t gone away, but educators often struggle with greater threats in the classroom nowadays.

Hobart Cress, assistant principal of Sun Valley Middle School, says that recent infractions at his school include clothing and jewelry with drug and alcohol symbols, designer water bottles filled with booze and students using oversized belts as weapons.

Still, Cress says they’re all variations of the same themes.

“I’ve been around so long I can’t think of anything that’s truly new,” he jokes.

Researched by DAVID E. BRADY / Los Angeles Times

Sources: Paramount Pictures’ “Clueless,” Valley teen-agers; Researched by DAVID BRADY and