Sometimes Local High School Slang Doesn’t Make It Beeg, but It’s Still a Part of Us

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lisa Rose Riley. I live in Columbia, South Carolina.

Hi, Lisa. Welcome.

Hi, Lisa. What’s up?

Thank you so much. Hi. I’m originally from Brockport, New York. It is a small college town in western New York, right on the Erie Canal.

And there is a word that we use when we were in high school to describe a very specific kind of student, classmate. And the word is not something that anybody else, apparently even from outside of our town, knows, and definitely not in the South.

I came down in 1992 to go to the University of South Carolina, and nobody knew the word. And the word is Beeg. I’m not sure about the spelling. I think it’s B-E-E-G or maybe even B-E-A-G.

And so we call these students Beeg or Beegers. And it described a student that kind of, I guess the best way to describe it would be like if you went back to the 50s times, it would be kind of like a greaser. So they were the kids that listened to like Iron Maiden and had mullets and smoked cigarettes and things like that.

So nobody else knows the word. And it’s funny, there’s a Facebook group called Remembering Brockport, which is really nice. Because of people that live in the town, people that have lived there their whole lives, and alumni of the high school.

I went onto this Facebook group and posted the question about if anybody knows the origin of the word. And I just looked at it a minute ago, and they’ve gotten 185 responses. There was also another post previously about the word, and there are some theories.

So, of course, I thought you guys might have some. At least you guys might be my best option to find an answer if there is one.

Oh, Lisa, this is wonderful. Martha and I are big fans of high school clique names because they tend to be so specific or regional at least. And they often take on the flavor and the tone of the community that they belong to.

Yes. But big. I never heard that one. I’m looking at these Facebook posts that you’re talking about here. The Rivering Rockport, and I see these. And there’s a lot here, but I’m looking particularly at the one by Michael Farrell, or Farrell, F-A-R-E-L-L, and he’s talking about this fellow, William Byrd or Bill Byrd, who keeps coming up.

And this is the theory that I think that makes the most sense, that it was derived from beagle because people who tended to bum cigarettes kind of begged like a beagle. So it’s a short term of the word beagle.

Beagle. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I did see his name come up. Yep. William Byrd. But he keeps coming up again and again and again, although it does look like there is some an alternative theory that it had something to do with people who were kind of boring and beige. So it’s an intentional mispronunciation of beige.

I did see that one come up a couple of times. I think that one was started by a few teachers that had said a student was trying to describe that they would come into school if they had, you know, done a little too much drinking or, you know, some other things they shouldn’t do and came into class. And a student described them as looking beige but mispronounced the word.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah, so they’re pale because they’re like sick or hungover, right?

Yes, exactly. And that’s what I saw, you know. There’s so many of these terms. I remember once a long time ago we took a call where there was somebody where it sounds like a very similar type of person. They called them Hessians. Am I remembering this correctly, Martha?

Yeah, Hessians and Heshers. Hessians and Heshers. And I think that actually was more widely used than one school. And, of course, a lot of people just use metalheads or gearheads or just whatever, like, the particular kind of group was.

It’s just so funny because it definitely is so specific that anybody, you know, who graduated around the time I did, you know, obviously there seems to be about a 15 year span or so, just knows that word. And then when they’ve used it and, you know, nobody else knows what they’re talking about.

But I just love the fact that, you know, it’s unique, obviously, it seems to our high school. And it’s just it brought up a lot of conversation, which I love. It’s fun.

Yeah. And you just broadcast big to the entire world. You never know, man. It’s gone way beyond your high school now. At least they’re hearing it if they don’t use it.

All right. Thank you so much for sharing your memories with us, Lisa. And I’m sure this is going to start a great conversation with everyone else’s local terms for their particular cliques and groups.

Thank you so much for having me on. Our pleasure. Rock on. Take care.

Okay. Yep. Take care. Bye-bye.

Well, Martha and I do want to hear about your high school cliques or your college cliques and what you call them. What was the name for all those special groups, the kids who listened to this music or played that sport or went to this particular class or played in band or did theater or belonged to that club or were from this neighborhood or were on the outside or were on the inside?

We love all that stuff. We’re really interested. And we also want to hear your high school slang. 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org.