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We were all teenagers once, just for some of us it was a little longer ago. Do you remember thinking that your parents didn’t talk right? That is because parents don’t understand or use the current slang that teenagers are using. It has gotten worse because of internet use and text messaging. Now the teenagers have their own abbreviation slang as well. If you have a teenager that you raised from a baby then she might tell you some of the slang. If you have a newly adopted teenager, or a new teen in your foster home, good luck. Chances are, your new teenager wants some privacy and doesn’t want you to understand what he is saying.
At least that was the case in our home. When our 15 year old moved in four years ago, she purposely spoke in her slang so we wouldn’t know what she was actually saying. In the beginning, I remember her constantly talking about squares. Well, a year later I found out that squares were cigarettes. It is almost like having friends who speak in another language around you so you won’t understand. They can talk about you, and you won’t even know it. It is one of those control issues.
Do you have any idea how many teenage slang words there are for money? The list includes cheddar, grain, dead presidents, bones, grip, and paper. We used to say cool, great, or awesome. Here are some words that are the equivalent: crunk, off the chain, tope, butter, spun, ill, phat, and sweet.
How would you even know if your teenager was using drugs with all this slang and abbreviating. Our teenager was. If your teens are talking about a guide watch out, that is a drug dealer or experienced drug user. A co-pilot is the designated driver. Bagging means they are using inhalants. Bacon is a reference to the police. Bait is an unsafe location that the police know about and so is hot. If you are baked then you have gotten stoned on marijuana. If your teenagers are, going to get their swerve on, then they are headed out to get drunk. To get crunk is to get drunk and high at the same time.
Over-the-counter cough suppressants become a hallucinogen after 900 milligrams. Synonyms for DXM include Candy, Dex, DM, Drex, Red Devils, Robo, Rojo, Skittles, Tussin, Velvet, Poor Man’s X, and Vitamin D. People using cough syrup are syrup heads, dexing, robotripping, or robodosing.
What about those abbreviations your teenagers are using on the computer. Even if you happen to walk up and look at the screen, you probably won’t have a clue what they are writing to each other. Have you ever noticed your teen writing or randomly saying any of these POS, MOS, or DOS? Well that is because you are there looking. It is a warning to be careful what you write because there is a parent over shoulder, mother over shoulder, or dad over shoulder.
AFK – Away From Keyboard
ASL – Age/Sex/Location?
BF/GF – boyfriend/girlfriend
BTW – By The Way
CTN – Can’t Talk Now
JAS – Just A Second
IDC – I Don’t Care
ILY – I Love You
JW – Just Wondering
LYLAS – Love You Like A Sister
NVM – Never Mind
POS/”9″ – Parent Over Shoulder
SRY – Sorry
YTB – You’re The Best
Thought you might like to know.
Photo Credit: 2007 Julia Fuller.
WOW I’m only 23 and while I knew some of them these, a few were new to me.