bootleg
adj.— «“You guys need to get new headphones. Most of them are so bootleg! They don’t work and kill my ears. Please.”…”Libby admits that until hearing from you, she’d never used a pair of headphones in the library. Yuck. We’ll replace them. Libby was also puzzled by your choice of words, and had to ask for help with the phrase ‘so bootleg.’ Libby, being a tad on the old-fashioned side, associates bootleg with illegal liquor or Chinese knock-off CDs. She never considered bootleg headphones. So for all of you really un-hip readers, Libby asked a very with-it librarian for help. She defined bootleg as ‘totally skanky.’”» —by Libby Musselman Library (Gettysburg College, Pa.) Jan. 25, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What’s it like to hike the Pacific Crest Trail all the way from Mexico to Canada? You’ll end up with sore muscles and blisters, and great stories to tell. Along the way, you’ll also pick up some slang, like NoBo, SoBo, Yo-yo and...
Jim in Columbia, South Carolina, has noticed sportscasters’ use of the phrase on the season with reference to a period of time. This construction shows up in the sports pages as early as the 1880s, first referring to a team’s revenue and...