A High School Slang Field Report from Huntsville

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. As we mentioned earlier, we just got back from doing appearances in Huntsville, Alabama, at the invitation of the local public radio station WLRH. We spoke at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center there to WLRH listeners, but one of the highlights of our trip was a return visit to Lee High School, where we talked with students about the language that they use.

And, Grant, one of the things that struck me was, coming there four years later, was to find that some of them were still using the slang word FORF, F-O-R-F. As a verb, to FORF means to fail to follow through on your commitments. And as a noun, a FORF is somebody who flakes out on you. You know, they say they’re going to be there, and they’re not going to be there. And it wasn’t as widespread as the last time we went to Huntsville, but some of the kids were still using it.

Yeah, slang tends to move a little faster than that, but yet it is a local word, not much spread beyond the Huntsville region. So there’s something of a bit of local pride. So maybe they’re hanging on to it with more ferocity than they would otherwise. The other thing about that is we had a different group of students this time. We had podcasting and creative writing students this time, where last time it was just general students, I think, from English composition.

And so maybe we had a different cross-section. Maybe if we’d had English composition students again, there would have been more people saying fourth. I don’t really know. So our sample needs to be checked. Our fieldwork is suspect. From a linguistics fieldwork point of view, we have to look at this carefully.

Well, you collected a lot of other cool words, too. It was so nice to return to our friends at Lee High School and to do the slang thing and just see the energy that these kids have. As I told the group at the Rocket Center, the kids are all right. The future is in good hands.

And so we talked to them about slang, and they shared a lot of their slang with us. And a few of these, which I love and didn’t know, one is to touch grass. This is something you tell people who are out of touch with reality, that maybe they’re fantasizing about a future with one of the members of BTS. They think they’re going to marry a K-pop star.

Or they’re thinking about the online world all the time and not the real world, the meat space. And she says, look, you need to really touch grass. You’ve got to touch reality.

Right. Get away from that computer screen and go outside, literally.

Another one is dog water, which is an adjective.

You just describe something bad as dog water.

This comes from video games.

You’re like, I am not eating that.

That is a dog water.

Because you think about a dog’s dish filled with dust and dog hair and whatever the dog is like.

Slobber, yeah.

Dog bowls.

And the dog doesn’t care.

The dog’s like, mmm, yum, dog water.

And you would not touch it, except if desperate.

And then a really nice one, which can be funny but can be good.

It’s giving as an adjective.

And so I might say, did you see Martha’s outfit?

She is really giving Bilbo Baggins today, which means Martha looks like Bilbo Baggins today.

That you’re dressed like Bilbo Baggins.

You look like a hobbit.

You know, somebody once went to a Halloween party dressed as me.

How did you find out I did that?

You were so cute.

I was giving Martha Barnette that day.

But you might also say that someone is giving a vibe.

And that’s where it comes from, that somebody’s giving.

It’s a shortening of the longer expression, to give off a vibe or to give a vibe.

And which really excites me because it’s that whole idea of having a vibe or a vibration,

Which goes back many decades in a new form.

So slang lasts, and it generates new forms, and it continues.

So giving is still that old notion of a vibe without the word vibe attached.

Well, you can tell that it gives us excitement to learn new things from our listeners, whether we come to your town or whether you give us a call.

So call us with your language questions and stories or send them to us an email.

The number is 877-929-9673.

And the email is words@waywordradio.org.