Slang
-
What is slang in language?
Slang refers to unconventional words or phrases used to express something old in a new way. It is often flippant, irreverent, and indecorous, with colorful metaphors directed at respectability. Slang includes words used in a special way within a certain social context and often expresses a certain emotional attitude.
Slang emanates from conflicts in values and is produced largely by social forces. New slang terms are widely used in a subculture before appearing in the dominant culture. The processes by which words become slang are the same as those by which other words in the language change their form or meaning.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How is slang different from standard language?
Slang is unconventional language used in a novel way, often to express social criticism with a flippant, irreverent, or witty tone. It's characterized by its unique vocabulary, differing from standard language which is more formal and widely accepted. Slang is more flexible and subject to trends, influenced by age and social groups, while standard language adheres to established norms. Slang often originates within subcultures to express attitudes toward the values of another group and may evolve, fade, or sometimes become part of the standard language.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why do people use slang?
People use slang for many reasons, generally to express an emotional attitude. Slang can be derogatory, ambivalent, intimate, or affectionate. It can bolster self-image, promote in-group identification, or even flatter, though the same term can have opposite effects depending on who uses it.
Sometimes, slang fills gaps in the standard language, providing essential terms for concepts without formal words. In other cases, slang is used simply as a fad. It can express hostility, ridicule, or contempt, and project a group's emotional reaction to ideas or institutions. The use of slang is largely driven by social forces and reflects the values and attitudes of subcultures in relation to the broader dominant culture.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How does slang change over time?
Slang changes over time through social forces and linguistic processes. New slang often starts in subcultures to express attitudes toward ideas, people, or institutions.
These terms can spread through mass media like sports broadcasts or news reports, rapidly entering mainstream use. The terms may change in form, meaning, or both. Some slang words fade quickly, while others become standard language. The constant turnover is fueled by mass media, requiring slang to be increasingly impactful to endure.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How does slang create a sense of belonging in groups?
Slang fosters a sense of belonging by creating a shared language within a group or subculture. When a group adopts a new slang term that reflects their emotions or attitudes, its use spreads, reinforcing their shared identity. This is because slang often emerges from conflicts in values, allowing groups to express their attitudes towards other groups or the dominant culture. The use of slang can crystallize or bolster the self-image or promote identification with a class or in-group. By using slang, individuals signal their membership and understanding of the group's unique perspective, strengthening social bonds.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Can slang influence or become part of mainstream language?
Yes, slang can definitely influence and become part of mainstream language. Slang often originates from subcultures and expresses attitudes toward mainstream values. For example, terms like "uptight" moved from criminal subcultures to mainstream use, shifting slightly in meaning.
The acceptance of slang into mainstream language is a gradual process. Some slang words fade quickly, while others persist and may eventually become standard English. Mass media accelerates the spread of slang. Over time, some slang terms lose their shocking edge and become acceptable for general use.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
News •
Slang, unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. It is flippant, irreverent, indecorous; it may be indecent or obscene. Its colourful metaphors are generally directed at respectability, and it is this succinct, sometimes witty, frequently impertinent social criticism that gives slang its characteristic flavour. Slang, then, includes not just words but words used in a special way in a certain social context. The origin of the word slang itself is obscure; it first appeared in print around 1800, applied to the speech of disreputable and criminal classes in London. The term, however, was probably used much earlier.
Other related types of nonstandard word usage include cant and jargon, synonyms for vague and high-sounding or technical and esoteric language not immediately intelligible to the uninitiate. In England, the term cant still indicates the specialized speech of criminals, which, in the United States, is more often called argot. The term dialect refers to language characteristic of a certain geographic area or social class.
Development of slang
Slang emanates from conflicts in values, sometimes superficial, often fundamental. When an individual applies language in a new way to express hostility, ridicule, or contempt, often with sharp wit, he may be creating slang, but the new expression will perish unless it is picked up by others. If the speaker is a member of a group that finds that his creation projects the emotional reaction of its members toward an idea, person, or social institution, the expression will gain currency according to the unanimity of attitude within the group. A new slang term is usually widely used in a subculture before it appears in the dominant culture. Thus slang—e.g., “sucker,” “honkey,” “shave-tail,” “jerk”—expresses the attitudes, not always derogatory, of one group or class toward the values of another. Slang sometimes stems from within the group, satirizing or burlesquing its own values, behaviour, and attitudes; e.g., “shotgun wedding,” “cake eater,” “greasy spoon.” Slang, then, is produced largely by social forces rather than by an individual speaker or writer who, single-handed (like Horace Walpole, who coined “serendipity” more than 200 years ago), creates and establishes a word in the language. This is one reason why it is difficult to determine the origin of slang terms.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
Creators of slang
Civilized society tends to divide into a dominant culture and various subcultures that flourish within the dominant framework. The subcultures show specialized linguistic phenomena, varying widely in form and content, that depend on the nature of the groups and their relation to each other and to the dominant culture. The shock value of slang stems largely from the verbal transfer of the values of a subculture to diametrically opposed values in the dominant culture. Names such as fuzz, pig, fink, bull, and dick for policemen were not created by officers of the law. (The humorous “dickless tracy,” however, meaning a policewoman, was coined by male policemen.)
Occupational groups are legion, and while in most respects they identify with the dominant culture, there is just enough social and linguistic hostility to maintain group solidarity. Terms such as scab, strike-breaker, company-man, and goon were highly charged words in the era in which labour began to organize in the United States; they are not used lightly even today, though they have been taken into the standard language.
In addition to occupational and professional groups, there are many other types of subcultures that supply slang. These include sexual deviants, narcotic addicts, ghetto groups, institutional populations, agricultural subsocieties, political organizations, the armed forces, Gypsies, and sports groups of many varieties. Some of the most fruitful sources of slang are the subcultures of professional criminals who have migrated to the New World since the 16th century. Old-time thieves still humorously refer to themselves as FFV—First Families of Virginia.
In criminal subcultures, pressure applied by the dominant culture intensifies the internal forces already at work, and the argot forming there emphasizes the values, attitudes, and techniques of the subculture. Criminal groups seem to evolve about this specialized argot, and both the subculture and its slang expressions proliferate in response to internal and external pressures.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
Sources
Most subcultures tend to draw words and phrases from the contiguous language (rather than creating many new words) and to give these established terms new and special meanings; some borrowings from foreign languages, including the American Indian tongues, are traditional. The more learned occupations or professions like medicine, law, psychology, sociology, engineering, and electronics tend to create true neologisms, often based on Greek or Latin roots, but these are not major sources for slang, though nurses and medical students adapt some medical terminology to their slang, and air force personnel and some other branches of the armed services borrow freely from engineering and electronics.
Linguistic processes forming slang
The processes by which words become slang are the same as those by which other words in the language change their form or meaning or both. Some of these are the employment of metaphor, simile, folk etymology, distortion of sounds in words, generalization, specialization, clipping, the use of acronyms, elevation and degeneration, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, borrowings from foreign languages, and the play of euphemism against taboo. The English word trip is an example of a term that has undergone both specialization and generalization. It first became specialized to mean a psychedelic experience resulting from the drug LSD. Subsequently, it generalized again to mean any experience on any drug, and beyond that to any type of “kicks” from anything. Clipping is exemplified by the use of “grass” from “laughing grass,” a term for marijuana. “Funky,” once a very low term for body odour, has undergone elevation among jazz buffs to signify “the best”; “fanny,” on the other hand, once simply a girl’s name, is currently a degenerated term that refers to the buttocks (in England, it has further degenerated into a taboo word for the female genitalia). There is also some actual coinage of slang terms.