Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (99 page)

locko
adj

angry. In use since 2000, the term probably originates in Caribbean speech.
Loops
is a contemporary synonym.

loco
adj

mad, crazy. This word, popularised worldwide by its use in western movies and cowboy fiction, is the standard informal Spanish word for crazy, deriving from the Latin
ulucus
: owl (which is incidentally related to the English ‘ululate').

lodge (someone)
vb British

to reject or eject a person, especially a partner. This item of London working-class speech was recorded in the BBC documentary
Forty Minutes
on 30 November 1993.

He was taken completely by surprise when Debbie lodged him
.

log
n

1.
Australian
a lazy, inert person

2.
a piece of excrement, a
turd

3.
a surfboard. The term was defined in
Just Seventeen
magazine in January 1994.

log-rolling
n

unofficial or dubious collaboration for mutual advantage, especially in the word of politics. This expression has been in use since the 19th century when it referred to lumberjacking, where pioneer neighbours would help each other move the timber required for building by physically rolling the logs to their destination before cutting them up; it has recently become popular in British journalistic circles under American influence.

loke
n American

an unattractive thing and/or unattractive person. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000. The origin of the word is uncertain. It might conceivably be related to
local
as used in black British speech to denote a slovenly or promiscuous person.

LOL, lolz
phrase

‘laughing out loud'. One of the most ubiquitous of internet and texting abbreviations, allegedly first written in a message typed by one Wayne Pearson in the 1980s on Usenet. On 24 March 2011, LOL entered the Oxford English Dictionary. (Some older speakers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, have misunderstood the initials as meaning ‘lots of love'). Elaborated forms include
lolocaust, lolcopters, lollerskates, lolympics
.

lollapalooza, lolapaloosa
n American

something wonderful, outstanding, enormous and/or spectacular. This invented term is a synonym for words like ‘whopper',
lulu
or
humdinger
, depending on the context. (Like ‘whopper' it can sometimes refer to an outrageous lie.) The word is used in particular by schoolchildren and parents.

lollipop
vb British

to inform on someone, betray (to the police). This is London rhyming slang for the term to
shop
. It is sometimes shortened to
lolly
.

It wouldn't be like Smoky to lollipop his mates
.

If you ask me they were lollied
.

lolly
n British

money. A well-established, lighthearted word which was popular in the 1950s and
1960s and enjoyed a revival, significantly, in the ‘Thatcher years' (the mid- and late 1980s), when many obsolescent euphemisms for money had received a new lease of life. It is said to originate in the Romany word
loli
, meaning red, used by gypsies to mean copper coins, and hence money in general. It is perhaps easier to derive the word from lolly, meaning sweet or candy, which itself originated in dialect with the meaning of tongue. (The sense of lollipop is later.)

Lots of lovely lolly – that's what we want
.

lombard
n British

a wealthy but stupid and/or unpleasant person. A late 1980s acronym from ‘loads of money but a real dickhead', coined by
yuppies
to refer particularly to young moneymakers in the City of London, on the lines of expressions such as
dinky, nimby
, etc. The word's resonance is enhanced by the role of London's Lombard Street as the home of banking and insurance companies.

‘If they were not Sloanes or yuppies they had to be dinkies (dual income no kids), lombards (lots of money but a real dickhead) or even swells (single women earning lots of lolly).'
(
Evening Standard
magazine, May 1988)

long
adj British

tedious, time-consuming, oppressive. The word has long been generalised in youth slang since to 2000 to denote anything distasteful.

longbeard
n

an old person. A quasi-folksy term from science or fantasy fiction adopted facetiously by rock-music journalists to describe members of the older generation (or themselves when reminiscing).
Greybeard
is a slightly more widespread alternative.

long green
n American

money (dollar bills of all denominations in America are coloured green). The euphemism is old, dating from the turn of the 20th century, and is still in use.

‘We'll soon have enough of that long green to choke a horse.'
(
Knight Rider
, US TV series, 1981)

long/longage/long flex
n British

in the words of one user; ‘something that is far to get to/time consuming'. Sometimes the keyword, from multiethnic youth slang, is generalised to refer to anything disliked or disapproved of.

long streak of misery
n British

a tall, thin person who may or may not be morose, gloomy or habitually pessimistic. This expression, like the less common ‘long drink of water' and the more vulgar
long streak of piss
, is normally part of the working-class catchphrase announcement ‘here he comes again – the long streak of misery!' which may indicate affectionate recognition or genuine dislike. The phrase can refer to women as well as men.

long streak of piss
n British

a tall, thin person. An expression of contempt or dismissiveness, usually implying weakness or insignificance as well as an ectomorphic body shape. The expression is almost always applied to males.

long ting
n Caribbean

something or someone who wastes time

ain't no long ting

loo
n British

a toilet. The most widespread and socially acceptable euphemism for lavatory, privy, etc. This word, which became firmly established in the mid-1960s, is a favourite of amateur etymologists who derive it variously from
lieu
(‘place', as in the French euphemism
lieu d'aisance
, ‘place of ease'); from
l'eau
(water) or
gardez l'eau
(mock-French for ‘watch out for water', said to be the cry of someone emptying a chamberpot from an upstairs window into the street below in 17th-century British cities); from
bordalou
, a type of travellers' chamberpot; from an abbreviation of the name of Lady Louis Hamilton (apparently affixed to a lavatory door) in Dublin in 1870; or, least convincingly of all, from leeward (the side of a boat from which one would logically urinate). It may be significant, however, that this rather refined euphemism for water-closet was not recorded until well after the battle of Waterloo and the naming of the London railway station.

‘And a bit about doing up the loo in chintz is sure to do the trick.'
(
About Town
magazine, June 1962)

looka(h)
n See
luka

looker
n

an attractive person. The word can now be applied to either sex; formerly it was invariably used appreciatively (if sometimes patronisingly) by men of women. It originated as a truncated form of ‘good-looker'.

loon
¹
n

a.
British
a bout of uninhibited and eccentric behaviour. In this sense the noun is derived from the following verb.

b.
a crazy, eccentric or silly person. This word is, in its modern usage, a convergence of three sources. It is both a shortening of lunatic and the name of an American diving bird with a cry like a demented laugh. In addition, it probably also recalls an archaic Middle English and later Scottish dialect word,
loun
, meaning a rogue. The late Keith Moon, drummer with the English rock group The Who, who was notorious for his wild and outrageous behaviour, was dubbed ‘Moon the loon' in the late 1960s by acquaintances and the press.

loon
²
, loon about, loon out
vb British

to behave in an uninhibited, light-hearted and/or outrageous manner. The expression was coined at the end of the 1960s to describe a bout of high-spirited, anarchic play typical of those liberated from convention by drug use and/or progressive ideas.

‘Gone is the rampaging looner of old, the very sight of whom would strike fear into the hearts of publicans and club owners throughout the land.'
(
Record Mirror
, 26 August 1967)

loony, looney
adj

crazy. An adaptation of ‘lunatic' (see the noun
loon
for other influences) which is now a common colloquialism.

loony bin
n

a hospital for the insane or mentally subnormal, an ‘insane asylum'. The most common slang expression for such an institution in the English-speaking world since the end of the 19th century. In modern British parlance it is usually shortened to
the bin
.

loony tune/tunes/toons
n, adj

(a person who is) mad or eccentric. Originally an Americanism derived from
Looney Tunes
, the name of a series of cinema cartoon comedies in the 1940s, the term has become fashionable since the 1980s in Britain and Australia.

‘I've been hit twice in the face this morning and now some loony tune is breaking up my aircraft.'
(
The Flying Doctors
, Australian TV series, 1987)

‘That is it, Mork! He's got to go, or I'll end up as loony-tunes as he is.'
(
Mork and Mindy
, US TV series, 1979)

looped
adj American

a.
exhausted

b.
intoxicated

‘It was just crazy. We were all so looped by the time we left.'
(
Valentine
, US film, 2001)

loops
adj British

angry. A term used by young street-gang members in London since around 2000.

loopy
adj

a.
crazy, eccentric, silly

b.
illogical, out of control

A fairly mild pejorative, often said in bemusement or disbelief rather than disapproval. The word has been in use since the early years of the 20th century, but its origin is obscure.

loose cannon
n American

a dangerously uncontrolled ally or associate; a member of one's team who is liable to run amok or cause havoc. This piece of political and journalistic jargon has become fashionable in the late 1980s. It continues the nautical image evoked by such vogue clichés as ‘take on board'. In this case the person in question is seen as an unsecured cannon careering unpredictably and dangerously across a deck with the pitching of a ship. The phrase was used of General Haig during the Nixon administration and of Colonel Oliver North under the Reagan administration. It has since become well-known in other anglophone areas.

‘Danko is the perfect weapon Charlie – a loose cannon. If he helps us find Victor Rosla, great. If he screws up, breaks rules… he's a Russian.'
(
Red Heat
, US film, 1988)

loot
n

money. A predictable extension of the standard English sense of booty. The word is an anglicised spelling of the Hindi word
lut
which sounds and means the same as the English derivation.

‘I tell you what though, Zackerman can recruit the very best because he's got the loot.'
(
Serious Money
, play by Caryl Churchill, 1987)

Lord Muck
n British

a man thought to be ‘putting on airs' or behaving high-handedly. This expression from the turn of the 20th century is now probably less prevalent than the female equivalent,
Lady Muck
.

Well, won't you just look at them – Lord and Lady Muck
.

lorg
n American

a foolish, clumsy person. The word is probably a deformation of
log
, as used to denote an inert individual.

lose it
vb

1.
to lose one's temper or control over oneself

2.
See
lose the plot

lose one's bottle
vb British

to lose one's nerve, have one's courage desert one. A vogue term of the late 1970s, when it crossed from the jargon of marginals, criminals and the lower working-class into general currency. (For the origins of the expression see
bottle
.)

lose one's cool
vb

to lose one's composure or one's temper. A phrase from the 1950s American
hip
vocabulary, usually heard in the form of an admonition. It was adopted in Britain, first by jazz fans and then
beatniks
, in the late 1950s.