Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (10 page)

a paedophile. The usage comes from the rhyming-slang phrase ‘bacon bonce' for
nonce
and was recorded by the English Project at Winchester Prison in 2010.

bacon band
n British

a bulging midriff as displayed e.g. between abbreviated top and low-cut trousers/skirt. A synonym for
muffin top
recorded in 2006.

bad
¹
adj

good. Originally from the terminology of the poorest black Americans, either as simple irony or based on the assumption that what is bad in the eyes of the white establishment is good for them, this usage spread via jazz musicians in the 1950s to teenagers in the 1970s. It is still primarily a black term, although it is occasionally used, rather self-consciously, by white teenagers in the USA and, under the influence of
rap
and
hip hop
, in Britain since the early 1980s. This use of bad is normally distinguished from its opposite, literal meaning by a long drawn-out pronunciation. The superlative form is ‘baddest'.

‘In hip hop slang “that's bad” can mean “that's good”, depending on the tone of voice.'
(
Evening Standard
, 11 November 1987)

bad
²
n American

a fault, mistake. A key item of black street slang that was adopted by white adolescents in the 1990s, usually in the form ‘my bad!', an acknowledgment of guilt or blame.

bada-bing!
exclamation American

the expression, signifying the successful or triumphal completion of an act or process, has become a cliché of business-speak. It originates as New York ‘tough-guy' slang as imitated in, e.g., movie dialogue (in
The Godfather
, for instance), where it occurs in the catchphrase ‘bada-bing, bada-boom'.

badass
n
,
adj American

(a person who is) aggressive, antisocial or worthless. The word, first popular among black Americans, is almost always now used with an element of approval or admiration, albeit sometimes grudging. The ‘ass' component simply signifies ‘individual'. In the 1970s the term came into use among whites, but has not spread to Britain or Australia.

their badass biker style
He's been a badass since he was a kid
.

bad-boy
n British

a youth, especially a tough or admirable male. A 1990s synonym for
rude-boy
or
roughneck
first used by black gang members before being adopted by other teenagers and younger schoolchildren. Like those terms, it is typical of the tendency among transgressive subcultures to adopt for the purposes of irony and bravado the pejorative language of their critics (as in
bad, wicked
, etc.).

badger
n British

the vagina. The vulgarism is used by male speakers.
Growler
is a contemporary synonym.

badinkadink
n American

a female's small posterior. The jocular expression, used e.g. by
hip hop
devotees and on campus, was coined by analogy with
badonkadonk
.

badmash
n
,
adj

(someone who is) naughty, dissolute. A term used by Hindi speakers and by other Asians in the UK.

bad mind
adj

malevolent, malicious. An Afro-Caribbean usage which has been picked up by UK
wiggas
, etc. since 2000.

badmouth
vb

to insult, denigrate or disparage. An Americanism, probably originating in black speech, which was imported into British usage during the 1970s.

badonkadonk, badunkadunk
n American

a female's prominent posterior. The appreciative or humorous nonsense term was popularised by Trace Adkins'
Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
released in 2005.

baff
vb
,
n South African
(to)
fart

baffed, baft
adj British

baffled, confused, incapable. This abbreviation of baffled has been a vogue word among teenagers and some young adults in the London area since the mid-1990s.

bag
¹
n

1.
an unattractive and/or unpleasant woman. This usage originated in the early 20th century with the idea of a shapeless, heavy or burdensome female, previously expressed as ‘baggage'.

2.
one's special interest or current preoccupation, sphere of activity. This usage came into vogue in Britain among the
beatniks
and later the
hippies
in the 1960s. It was derived from black American jazz terminology, where it meant a ‘category' or ‘style'. By the early 1980s the term had become distinctly dated.

‘Papa's Got a Brand New Bag.'
(Song title, James Brown, 1965)

3.
American
a package or some measured amount of marihuana or another drug. The custom of American street dealers of
grass
was, and is, to sell small amounts in paper envelopes or cellophane bags, typically ‘dime bags' or ‘nickel bags'.

See also
bagger
; double-bagger

4.
British
the sum of £1,000 in the slang of city traders. Unlike
bar, pony
and other similar terms, this seems to be a fairly recent coinage. It is said to be based on the rhyme ‘bag of sand':
grand
.

It'll cost you at least a bag
.

bag
²
vb

1a.
to arrest or catch. This subsense of the word is encountered in police usage, from the terminology of hunters.

1b.
to have or take. In this sense the word is used as a synonym for ‘grab' or ‘cop' in such instances as ‘let's bag some beers'. The usage also occurs in American adolescent argot, which includes phrases such as ‘bag some z's/rays'.

2a.
American
to conceal or suppress

2b.
to give up or abandon

‘Maybe I should bag this tugboat business and go into politics.'
(
Legwork
, US TV series, 1986)

2c.
to dismiss, fire

These usages, popular especially among teenagers, are all related by their suggestion of discarding someone or something with the trash. Similar meanings of bag were heard occasionally in Britain before 1950.

3.
Australian
to criticise. A ‘bagging' is a verbal attack or strong criticism.

4.
also
bag up
American
to divide marihuana into small amounts and/or packages before selling it

5.
American See
bag one's face/head bagaza
n South African

a gun, especially a handgun. Recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the
Cape Sunday Times
, 29 January 1995.

bagel
n British

an attractive male. A term, possibly from Jewish usage, employed by young women since 2000, it was recorded in Kent in 2003, defined as denoting ‘
fit
men'.

Compare
baigel

bagel-bender
n

a Jew. A derogatory nickname, used principally in the USA, based on the name of the baked bread rings that are a Jewish culinary delicacy.

Compare
spaghetti-eater; taco-bender

baggamanz, bag
n British

a large number (of people or things). Explained by one teenage user in 2007 as ‘lots, as in “a bag of people”' The terms are used in street-gang code and its imitations.

bagger
n American

an ugly, repellent person. The term is a shortening of
double-bagger
and, like that phrase, was in use among adolescent and pubescent speakers in the 1990s.

baggies
n pl

long, wide shorts as worn by surfers since the 1960s

‘We'll be wearin' our baggies, huarache sandals, too.'
(
Surfin' USA
, the Beach Boys, 1963)

baggy
n British

1.
(a devotee of) the Manchester music scene of the early 1990s. The so-called ‘baggy scene' probably took its name from the very loose clothing affected by devotees of
rave, acid house
and
indie
subcultures.

For a while we were really into baggy.

2.
an unfashionable, unattractive individual. In this pejorative sense the word, recorded among students and young adults since the later 1990s to refer to a supposed frump or
drabbie
, is either an elaboration of the colloquial ‘(old) bag', influenced by the homely images of baggy cardigans and tweeds, or possibly by
bag lady
.

baghead
n British

a drug user. An item of youth slang, often used to register disapproval, recorded in London in 2009.

bag job
n

a theft or burglary. An underworld term heard in Britain but more widespread in the USA; not to be confused with a
paper bag job
.

bag lady
n

a female vagrant, specifically one who through obsession or necessity collects junk and carries it in bags. The term originated in the USA in the early 1970s; by the late 1980s it was occasionally also being used, there and elsewhere, to denote any excessively scruffy female.

bag man
n

1.
someone who collects or looks after money made illegally. An underworld and police term originating in the USA between the world wars and first applied to those sent by gangsters to collect extortion payments, illicit revenues or bribes.

‘Before I got promoted I used to be a bag man for Kellom – just nickel and dime stuff.'
(
The Big Easy
, US film, 1986)

2.
a (male) tramp or vagrant, specifically one who collects and carries garbage in bags

bag off
vb British

a.
to have sex

b.
to be sexually promiscuous or unfaithful A working-class usage heard particularly in the north of England since the late 1990s.

bag of fruit
n Australian

a
suit
(of clothes). An item of native rhyming slang.

all done up in his best bag of fruit

bag on (someone)
vb American

to insult or deride. A term from black street slang from the 1990s, it is probably adapted from earlier slang senses of
bag
as in to dismiss, abandon, etc. but is unlikely to be related to the similar Australian use of ‘bagging' to mean criticism.

bag one's face/head
vb American

to hide one's face or oneself. Invariably used as an imperative, as in ‘Go bag your face!'. This expression was popular among
Valley Girls
and other middle-class teenagers. It implies that the person in question is too hideous to contemplate and should put a bag over their head.

See also
bag someone's ass

bagpipe
vb

to engage in sexual stimulation using the armpit rather than the usual orifices. A term whose rarity presumably corresponds to that of the practice.

bags
n pl

1.
trousers. The word has had this meaning since the mid-19th century and survives, usually in a humorous context.

2.
American
female breasts

bag someone's ass
vb American

to leave, go away, ‘get lost'. The expression literally means to thrust into a garbage bag and throw away.

‘She had no intention of having lunch with him and that was that… Why couldn't she simply tell him to bag his ass?'
(
The Switch
, Elmore Leonard, 1978)

bag some zees
vb American

to sleep. An alternative version of
cop some zees
.

bagsy!
exclamation

a schoolchildren's term that indicates the speaker's choice of seat, cake, bed, etc.

Bagsy the one with the chocolate icing!

bahookie
n British

the anus. The term, of unknown derivation, was used by the comic Scottish character Rab C. Nesbitt in the BBC 2 TV comedy of the same name in 1994.

baidie
adj British

bad-tempered, aggressive, provocative. An obscure term which is probably a dialect version of
batey
.

baigel
n South African

a spoilt young male. The term, which is derived from Yiddish (‘bagels' are the baked bread rings often taken as emblematic of Jewish exiles' culture), has a female counterpart, which is
kugel
. Both refer to the notion of young Jewish people epitomising chic urban circles in South Africa since the 1990s.

bail
vb American

to leave (in a hurry). A teenagers' shortening of ‘bail out'. The word has been fashionable among
Valley Girls
and others since the late 1970s.