Informant Context: Otis’ parents immigrated separately to America from South Africa in the 1980’s, during apartheid. Otis’ extended family now lives in the Bay Area, California and near Johannesburg, South Africa. Otis often visits his family in South Africa. Transcript: OTIS: I can think of like, some slang that my family uses a lot. Um…… Continue Reading »
Main Piece: “One of my favorite expressions that we use in my industry… It’s a common phrase that’s used in chemistry, in a chemistry classroom. Because I work with a lot of scientists, they use it for our projects, and it’s the expression ‘rate-limiting factor.” So, a rate-limiting factor in chemistry is, you know, whatever… Continue Reading »
Main Piece: The informant provided examples of ballroom slang which are all used in situations with positive connotations: “the category is” “fierce” “werk “that was a serve”“boots” “the house down” “sissy that walk” “work that pussy out” “slay” “queen” “And like another slang trend is assigning everyone feminine pronouns, and even assigning feminine identify to… Continue Reading »
Context: When you’re playing competitive online games, one of the most important things to learn is how to most effectively show off to the enemy. You won’t always have the time to curse them out or otherwise eloquently explain your skill to them. For this reason, different kinds of slang have been adapted to meet… Continue Reading »
Main piece: There are a lot of terms in rowing that are kind of – I wouldn’t say “outdated” but they are kind of outdated, and they don’t really make sense – um, especially in a modern context, and with the technology we’re using now. Because a lot of the terms we use come from… Continue Reading »