Read Dictionary of Contemporary Slang Online
Authors: Tony Thorne
Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (100 page)
Try not to lose your cool even if the guy provokes you
.
lose one's lunch/doughnuts/pizza
vb American
to vomit. Hearty, jocular high-school and college terms.
lose one's marbles
vb
to become deranged or feeble-minded, go crazy.
Marbles
, when referring to male faculties, usually refers to testicles, but in this case one's wits or intelligence are in question. The origin of this phrase is uncertain, in spite of many attempts to clarify the choice of words (marbles have been seen as a synonym for the bearings which allow a machine to operate or as part of a catchphrase based on a story in which a monkey steals a boy's marbles). What is undisputed is that the expression originated in the USA.
lose one's rag
vb British
to lose one's temper, lose control of oneself. This mainly working-class expression is of obscure origin; the word rag has meant variously one's tongue, a flag, to tease and to bluster or rage, but none of these senses can be definitively linked to the modern phrase.
âDon't you go losing your rag â stay cool.'
(
EastEnders
, British TV soap opera, July 1988)
lose the plot, lose it
vb
vogue terms since the later 1990s which probably originated in references to, e.g., a film director whose work became incoherent after an auspicious beginning
âHere are Claudia [Schiffer] and Boris [Becker] losing the plot in the name of fashion.'
(
Evening Standard
, 2 August 2004)
lotion
n British
an alcoholic drink. A now dated middle-class term with the implications of the soothing medicinal effects of (strong) liquor. The word can be countable (âa lotion') or uncountable (âsome lotion').
louie
n American See
hang a louie
Lou Reed
n British
the drug
speed
. Rhyming slang using the name of the New York rock star.
lousy
adj Australian
ill, under the weather. A local synonym for
crook
.
love
adj American
excellent. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.
love bumps
n pl British
female breasts. A schoolboyish euphemism of the 1970s. âLove bubbles' was a pre-World War II synonym.
Love lumps
is an alternative form.
loved-up
adj
1. high
on drugs, especially
ecstasy
2.
amorous or enamoured An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.
love handles
n pl
folds of flesh at the waist or paunch. An affectionate, joky, reassuring or polite euphemism usually applied to the male body by women or by the person himself.
âThe love handles of Jonathan Ross are no strangers to this column, but news reaches us that they are shrinking by the hour.'
(
Time Out
magazine, July 1989)
love-in
n
a gathering involving displays of mutual affection and/or ecstatic âone-ness'. An ephemeral phenomenon and term from the early
hippy
era, seized upon by the press.
love lumps
n pl British
female breasts. A jocular term used by university students and teenagers in the mid-to-late 1980s in keeping with the trend to coin childishly coy expressions as alternatives to established or taboo terms.
Love bumps
is an alternative form.
love sausage
n
the penis. Probably American in origin, the usage was adopted in the UK from around 2000.
love scope
n British
a speed detection device, âspeed gun'. The nickname, used by the police, was featured in the Channel 4 TV documentary series
Coppers
in 2010.
love-truncheon
n British
the penis. This joky euphemism was employed by the comedians Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in the stage performance of their TV comedy
Bottom
and subsequently occurred in student slang from the later 1990s.
love-tunnel
n British
the vagina. A vulgarism in use among adolescents in the 1990s and listed in
Viz
comic in 1994.
low-flyer
n British
a
liar
. An item of rhyming slang heard in the 1990s.
low-heel, low-wheel
n Australian
a prostitute. The term refers to someone who is literally down at heel from walking the streets. The second form of the expression is based on a mis-hearing of the true phrase.
lowlife
n American
a disreputable and/or contemptible person. A fashionable term of the 1970s which was adopted by some British speakers to refer to those considered socially unacceptable.
Jesus, Katy, what are you doing with this lowlife?
low rent
adj American
shabby, sordid, inferior. A phrase referring to lodgings, extended first to denote a poor district, then to signify anything or anyone considered distasteful or third-rate. âLow budget' is a near-synonym in British English.
lubricated
adj
drunk. A politely jocular euphemism on the same lines as
well-oiled
.
luck out
vb American
a.
to âstrike it lucky'
b.
to have bad luck
This term with its contrary senses is occasionally used by British speakers.
lucoddy
n British
the body. Part of the
parlyaree
lexicon used, e.g., by the
gay
and theatrical community in the 1960s. The precise derivation of the term is unclear, apart from the obvious rhyme.
'lude
n American
a Quaalude (pronounced âkway-lood') tablet. A widely prescribed and misused Methaqualone (hypnotic sleeping pill), equivalent to the British Mandrax or
mandie
. The drug was taken, particularly in the 1970s, for its relaxing and disinhibiting effects and to mitigate the after- and side-effects of other drugs.
lug
n British
an inhalation of smoke, a
drag
. The term is used in this sense in British and Irish speech.
âDidn't any of them enjoy a lug on the herbals?'
(
Q
magazine, March 1997)
lughole, lug'ole
n British
ear. A common term of the 1950s and 1960s which now sounds folksy or dated. Lug has been the commonest colloquialism for âear' outside London since the 16th century. It originated in Middle English meaning flap or ear-cover, from an older Scandinavian word
lugga
, meaning to pull.
luka, lookah
n British
money, wealth. This word, spelled in a variety of ways and which was recorded among London schoolchildren in the mid-1990s, is in fact from the much older term â(filthy) lucre' and has been adopted as a vogue term, probably in ignorance of its origin. (
Lucre
is Middle English from the Latin
lucrum
, meaning reward or booty.) In American slang
ducats
is another archaism which has been revived in a similar context.
âHe got bare
bollers
, man,
innit
!' The cry goes up and fellow pupils turn jealously on their suddenly wealthy friend. For many young people money, though an occasional necessity, may be tantalisingly unattainable, something exotic; one of the most ambivalent of adult inventions. Fashionable nicknames for money among younger teenagers in Britain include
bollers
, probably a playful changing of âdollars', and
boyz
. Slightly older students refer to pound coins as
beer-tokens
and cash dispensers as
drink-links
. A borrowing, according to users, from older siblings in the OTC (Officer Training Corps), is
shrapnel
for small change, which is also known by teenagers as
snash
. Terms in use among black British street gangs for denominations are, surprisingly, not very exotic at all:
papes
is paper money in general, a
brown
is a tenâpound note, a
blue
is a fiver. More interesting are the derivations of some words that younger speakers claim for their own generation, but which are really much older.
Wonga
or
womba
are well-established Britishisms
and used by all age groups, but few are aware that they derive from an old Roma word for âcoal'. When interviewed, teenagers often take for granted that such words are recent and have been coined by their contemporaries âsomewhere else in the country'; either that, or they guess at an exotic origin âin Africa, maybe, or in an old, lost language'. One of the commonest slang terms for money among teenage schoolchildren in the south of England is another example of a misunderstood exoticism. When users are asked to write it down it appears as
luka
or
lookah
, which does have an African or South Asian appearance, but is of course one half of that hoary and often facetious cliché âfilthy lucre', presumably overhead one day in an adult conversation and transmitted across the network of peer-groups and playgrounds. Lucre in fact was adopted by English in the 14th century from the Latin
lucrum
, meaning âgain'.
In the USA younger speakers may refer to plenty of cash as
bokoo
(French
beaucoup
)
duckets
, many guessing that the second word may be something to do with ducks. It is actually another venerable coinage (pardon the pun), âducats' being the gold or silver currency used in Renaissance Italy and the Low Countries and mentioned in Shakespeare. Other more predictable synonyms from North America are
billies
(for banknotes or bills),
fundage
, and in Canada,
rocks
(if you are well-off you are
rocked-up
).
lulu
n
1.
something spectacular, impressive, exceptional. This word was originally an Americanism, in use since the mid-19th century. Many attempts have been made to explain its etymology, which remains obscure. (It is almost certainly unconnected with the female nickname.)
2.
British
an elaboration of
loo
lumber
1
n british
a.
trouble, burdensome difficulties. This sense of the word is usually expressed by the cockney phrases âin lumber' or âin dead lumber'.
b.
a fight or struggle. A word which in working-class, particularly northern, usage is often in the form of an exclamation to signal the start of a street or playground brawl, and is another sense of lumber as trouble.
âTables flew, bottles broke, the bouncers shouted lumber / the dummy got too chummy in a Bing Crosby number.'
(
Salome Maloney the Sweetheart of the Ritz
, poem by John Cooper Clarke, 1980)
lumber
2
vb, n British
(to pick up) a partner of the opposite sex. The usage probably originated in the Lowlands of Scotland but is now heard in other parts of Britain, employed as a synonym for âget off with' or
pull
.
lummock, lummox
n
a large, clumsy and/or stupid person. The word is used in the USA and Australia as well as in Britain, but is originally a rural British dialect form of âlump', in the same way as âhummock' is a diminutive form of âhump'.
âThe awkward lummox of a kid who, though only ten years old, was almost as big as his fifth grade teacher.'
(
Wild Town
, Jim Thompson, 1957)
lumpy-jumper
n British
a female. The term is used by males.
lunatic soup
n
alcoholic drink. A humorous expression on the lines of
electric soup, giggle water
and
laughing soup
.
lunch
adj Australian
defeated, confounded, destroyed. Defined by one surfer in 2002 as âwhat you become after a wipe-out' (i.e. shark food).
lunchbox
n
1.
the stomach, belly or abdomen. A jocular euphemism, used particularly in the context of fighting.
a kick/punch in the lunchbox
2.
the male genitals as visible through tight clothing. The term, an elaboration of the earlier
box
, was applied by the
Sun
newspaper to the athlete Linford Christie in a number of headlines in the mid-1990s and the stand-up comedian Ben Elton drew attention to the usage at the Montreal Comedy Festival in 1992. Synonyms are
packet
and
basket
.
âGym bans a big boys' lunchbox.'
(Headline in the
News of the World
, August 1994)
luncheon truncheon
n British
the penis. The luncheon component of the phrase probably refers to âluncheon meat', a product similar to the âspam' in the synonymous
spam javelin
. Luncheon truncheon was recorded on the Royal Marines website in 2004.