booya
interj.— «Awaiting trial on grand theft charges, Thomas allegedly flashed a gang hand sign at the deputy and said, “It’s the last thing you’ll see in the back window of your car before you hear ‘booya, booya.’” “Booya” is gang slang for gunfire.» —“2 Charged Under New Terrorist Threat Law” by Howard Blume Los Angeles Times Jan. 6, 1989. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...