A few nights ago, my bestie Lynne and I were watching some TV show or the other, and the term ‘thirsty’ was bandied about by one of the actors.
They weren’t craving water, or juice, or one of the world’s many popular soft drinks. No, they were referring to a woman who had posted a shot of herself in a bikini on Instagram.
“Thirsty?” Lynne queried. “What does that mean in this context?”
I turned towards her, causing creases in my SpongeBob SquarePants pyjamas, and said,
“Oh, it’s when someone posts a pic of themselves to make themselves look good so others will want them. They’re thirsty for attention, you see.”
“Ahhhh… ,” Lynne said.
Milliseconds afterwards, I realised we were officially old. There I was, offering my definition of the slang term, in a voice straight out of ‘Masterpiece Theatre’, with no accompanying hand gestures, cap on backwards, or ‘yo’ anywhere to be found.
Is ‘yo’ even still a thing… bruh?
Dropping me into a nightclub setting right now would be like planting a solely-English-speaking person in a Russian stronghold as a secret agent. In no time flat, we’d both be sniffed out. I wonder if there’s an app translation from English to current terms so I could converse with the youngsters without them staring at me blankly. Either that, or is there some way to bone up on words and phrases without having to watch endless hours of TV programmes that employ such language?
I decided to do a bit of research on the Internet; and yes, I used Google – not AOL, or AltaVista (wow – who remembers THAT search engine?), or even Bing. Mama feels more hip already.
I landed on an Oprah-related site that I figured would be a) Legit; and b) Sensitive to my ignorance and age-appropriate. I swear, it was like discovering another world. For example, who knew that “OK Boomer” is a phrase used when a Gen Z person wants to just end a disagreement with a Baby Boomer? And, apparently, when one “Glows up”, one is getting even more fabulous with age (photo proof to follow immediately after). That’s certainly a term I could get on board with.
The vowel-eschewing “Skrt” is onomatopoeic, mimicking the sound tyres make when you whack the brakes to maybe avoid someone or a situation… so I’m told. Another word worth throwing around like you invented it is “Gucci”, particularly when ‘House of Gucci’ starring Lady Gaga is about to open in theatres. Using it in a sentence, as in “I’m Gucci”, means that you’re good, chill, awesome… Being Gucci can only be a rad thing (and if you don’t know what ‘rad’ means, catch up on any 1970s ‘Scooby-Doo’ episode, before that annoying pipsqueak Scrappy-Doo came on the scene).
As I waded through this lexicon of the unfamiliar, it hit me how generations can have issues communicating with one another. No matter what age we are, many of us roll our eyes when we feel people older or younger than us aren’t understanding what we’re saying, plus why we dress the way we do, and how getting a full face tattoo was the best decision we ever made.
As I mentioned in my column last week, my parents have come back to the island and are staying with me. After the first week, it became clear that they’re not huge fans of most of my favourite TV programmes. I dared to mention that I really liked the latest version of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, which recently aired on PBS. My father recoiled in horror, and declared it “absolutely awful” and nothing can replace the original etc.
In the meantime, I’m wondering if I’m hearing what I think I’m hearing when the uncensored version of ‘WAP’ by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion crosses my airwaves, and find myself longing for the days when Madonna was considered all kinds of controversial. To admit such thoughts in public is basically announcing that I’m not woke.
When I was a teenager, heading out the door full-goth in the evening with caked-on mascara and pounds of eyeliner – not to mention blue lipstick – my parents no doubt wondered if I’d been ingesting bleach. I chortled at their medieval sense of style as I pranced to the car. Now, it seems that wearing clothes constructed from any kind of opaque material is so very last season, and slits up-to-here and down-to-there are all the rage. I’m so glad it wasn’t the fashion when I was young, although I had to go through the ‘Baywatch’ years where any swimsuit that wasn’t high-cut might as well have been bloomers.
We may say that we won’t ever become our parents, but whether we realise it or not, phrases like “In my day” and “How can they call this music?” start creeping into our conversations as the years pass. Thankfully, there are some things that translate over generations. Case in point is the news about Swedish supergroup ABBA releasing new songs for the first time in decades, and participating in a radical new show at an arena custom-built for them in London, UK. Their avatars will be accompanied by a live 10-piece band, bringing their many hits to new audiences and lifelong fans. I don’t care what your age – no one can resist a bit of ‘Dancing Queen’.
Flip phones are also making their way back into the market, even though the first time they appeared on the scene they were considered revolutionary, and now they are looked upon as delightfully retro. If we wait long enough, it does seem that certain designs and types of fashion re-emerge decades later. That’s why I’m hanging onto my chunky hip belt and neon pink shirt dress. Honest.
It even appears that not all slang words and terms get filed away forever. Going through that Oprah site, I found that ‘Vibe’ is on the list – a word that harkens back as far as the late ‘60s. ‘On Fleek’ is still around, despite being brought into the mainstream around 2014 when it was used to describe a woman’s beautifully shaped eyebrows. According to sources, it can now refer to anything “immaculately executed”.
I was pleasantly surprised/downright shocked to see that ‘Gag’ made the grade. Who my age can forget the Valley Girl craze when “Gag me with a spoon” featured liberally in conversations? It isn’t quite used in that context these days, but I greeted it like an old friend.
Near the end of my research, I came across the word ‘Cheugy’ (pronounced “chew-gee”). According to the site, it is a Gen-Z term which gained popularity on TikTok, and “describes anything that’s considered uncool, untrendy, or people who deliberately stick to ‘older’ trends. The term was coined by 23-year-old Gaby Rasson and was used among her friend group before it became widely known.”
It continued by saying that good examples of what would fall in the Cheugy category are anything emblazoned with the word “girlboss”; wooden signs with inspirational quotes; ‘Friends’ or ‘The Office’ merchandise, or UGG boots.
Despite feeling a little Cheugy myself, with my attachment to DVDs, big ‘80s hair, and unabashed love of old musicals, I can’t disagree with most of those examples… but you’ll be pulling my UGG boots out of my cold, dead hands. I am turnt AF every time I wear them. (Did I say that properly?)
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