Vigorish on Slang This!

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

It’s time for another round of Slang This, our weekly slang challenge.

Grant, today’s contestant from the National Puzzlers League is Todd McCleary from Denver, Colorado.

Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant.

Todd, what’s going on?

I’m having a great afternoon, and I’m just really excited about playing the slang quiz.

Do you have a favorite slang word you’d like to share with us?

Yeah, I do a lot of game creation and presentations, and I like the slang term Vanna, V-A-N-N-A.

Vanna, like Vanna White or Zanna?

Exactly, and it basically means a person who is an assistant to a game moderator, somebody who would help keeping score, passing out materials.

And I also sometimes ask people to Vanna for me, so I’ve sort of made it into a verb.

Very nice.

I don’t think I’ve heard that one, but it makes perfect sense.

She’s such an institution on that show.

That’s right.

Well, Todd, are you ready to play the game?

Yeah, if you’ll be there to help me, Martha.

I will be here vanaing and vamping and helping you as much as I can, okay?

Wonderful.

All right.

Well, let me tell you how we play.

Grant will give you a sentence with a blank in it, and then he’ll give you three slang words that might fill in that blank.

So your job is to figure out which of those slang words fits best.

And I haven’t seen these, so as I said, I’ll be joining you and we’ll figure it out together.

All right?

Okay.

I think I got it.

All right.

Here we go.

I’ve got two puzzles for you today.

Here’s the first one.

Remember, I’m going to read a sentence with a blank in it.

You fill in the blank with one of my choices.

Okay.

When I was 10, I was rocking my Wranglers, my Reeboks, and my flannel shirt.

That’s how we blanked in the early 1980s.

So is it we rolled in the early 1980s, we stooped in the early 1980s, or is it duded in the early 1980s?

Wow.

So I guess looking for how you styled yourself or how you dressed.

That’s right.

You know, the last one, duded.

I love the sound of that.

Martha, do you do that?

Does that sound like it’s a good view?

D-O-O? D-E-D?

Yeah.

Is that what you said?

That’s how I spelled it.

That’s how we dude it?

That sounds like how we did it, sort of.

I guess it sounded like dude, like D-U-D-E, so that’s why it appealed to me.

-ha. Okay, dude.

Can we hear the sentence again?

When I was 10, I was rocking my Wranglers, my Reeboks, and my flannel shirt.

That’s how we blinked in the early 1980s.

So is it that’s how we rolled in the early 1980s, that’s how we stooped in the early 1980s, or that’s how we duded in the early 1980s?

And I do spell the third choice D-O-O-D-E-D.

Okay. Well, with that clarification, maybe rolled. Maybe that’s how we rolled?

Yeah, I think that just sounds more mellifluous. That’s how we rolled, rather than that’s how we duded.

Oh, sure. Absolutely. 100%. It is roll.

You know, when you say that’s how we roll, you’re saying that’s how we behave.

That’s how we style ourselves. That’s our nature, you know?

Okay.

All right. Here we go. Here’s your second choice. Are you ready for this?

I’m ready.

All right. Yeah, I know you won 10 grand, but I get my blank C, and that comes out of your end.

So do I get my gherkin, do I get my vigorous, or do I get my hip clip?

Gherkin, vigorous, or hip clip?

Yes.

Well, let’s see.

Is anything jumping out to you, Martha?

Well, I’m thinking vigorous.

I think of like a drink or something, you know, something you’d have in a shot glass.

I don’t know why.

Am I vigorous?

But I wonder if that could be just like a little sip of, yeah, I might go with vigorous.

Hip clip sounds too.

Well, I’m willing to go with vigorous then.

I think that I can see where you’re coming for.

That sort of, again, it’s sort of mellifluous.

It sounds edible, does it?

Yeah.

Well, you guys are exactly right.

Your logic is completely wrong, but your answer is 100% right.

Vigorous is the cut, for example, that the loan shark takes off the top of whatever transaction they do with you.

So, for example, yeah.

Or when you’re bookie, actually.

If you place a bet with your bookie and you make a lot of money, let’s say you make $10,000, he gets a percentage of that as his fee for placing the bet.

And in the illegal gambling world, that vigorous, V-I-G-O-R-I-S-H, can be a substantial sum of money.

And sometimes in the really crooked games, it can be everything that you win.

And, you know, you need to have a relationship with your bookie in order to not have that happen.

So the answer is vigorous.

And you almost always phrase it that way.

Somebody gets their vigorous or I get my vigorous.

It comes from Russian or Ukrainian, probably via Yiddish, where it means winnings or profit.

Oh, really?

Interesting.

Well, Todd, great work.

You didn’t have to buy a vowel or anything.

Well, my instincts, I think, were a little off, but I’m glad that you brought me down to earth, Martha.

Well, who was that masked woman anyway?

No, I’m glad I could help.

Well, thank you for playing today, Todd.

It was great fun.

I really enjoyed it.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

Okay, thanks, Todd.

You can find out more about the National Puzzlers League at puzzlers.org.

And you can join us here on the show with your questions or comments about slang or anything else language related.

Call us at 1-877-929-9673 or email us at words@waywordradio.org.