What is a buster? As TLC sang, “A scrub is a guy who thinks he’s fly, also known as a buster.” That is, a buster is that guy on the fringe who’s always putting on airs. The word may come from the old term gangbusters, which originally applied to police officers or others who took part in breaking up criminal gangs. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Buster”
I’m on the slang hunt again.
Yay.
I came across a new bit of derogatory language. It’s new-ish. And this is a word, buster. Do you know this one? Buster? Probably not. I think of Buster Brown and his dog. You’re not in a gang with a lot of young men. No. No. That’s not how I roll.
So imagine this. A group of young men, usually, maybe there’s some women in the group, but a gang, and not like the formal mafia sense of gang, but a bunch of kids who are all together like on a block, and they’ve got a neighborhood, and they’re doing stuff together, good and bad, right? And the Buster is the guy on the fringe of the group who always is putting on airs or fronting, right? He’s always acting like he’s all big stuff, and he’s not really, and nobody really respects him. That’s a Buster. The guy who’s just kind of a weasel.
So they say it behind his back? No, probably too. Oh, yo, Buster. Well, you’re a Buster. You can find it in hip—oh, you’re a buster. Yeah, you can find it in lots of hip-hop lyrics, actually, where somebody is ripping on somebody else. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Buster. Buster. Okay.
And it may come from gangbuster, which was the old-fashioned word for these squads of police that would break up the more formal gangs, like the mob. That’s the source of gangbuster. Yes. Very good.
If you’ve got some slang that you’d like to share, maybe it’s something you use or something you heard, 877-929-9673, or email us, words@waywordradio.org.
