flagging n.— «The boy with the photo on his cell was now in trouble for having pulled a girl’s pants down in class (another teen phenomenon known as “flagging”).» —“My Students. My Cellphone. My Ordeal.” by...
flogger n.— «Floggers tend to look like teen ravers in the US, usually wearing jeans, athletic shoes and colorful T-shirts, with a hairstyle that includes a fringe that tends to cover the eyes completely or partially, listen to electronic...
sexting n.— «The teen engages in “sexting,” a term for a kind of text messaging that often involves sending erotic, nude pictures. Young says, “I don’t pose nude, but I do send pictures and get pictures and my brother he...
This week’s language headlines include the publication of new slang dictionary, and an entire book devoted to that tiny piece of punctuation, the period, and a tip-off about audio recordings of famous authors whose voices would otherwise be...
cutter t-shirt n.— «Levine recalled a teen patient from a middle-class family. She was wearing what is known as a “cutter t-shirt,” a long-sleeve t-shirt with a hole cut into the end of the sleeve to slip over the thumb and...
When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. This is part of a complete episode.