Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, Third Edition; Tony Thorne (A & C Black, 2005)

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hoover (up) vb

to devour, eat or drink rapidly or greedily. A popular use of the vacuum cleaner’s household name since the late 1960s. The expression is most common in Britain but is known in the USA. During World War II hoovering was the name given to an airborne mopping-up operation by the RAF.

‘We laid out a spread and they hoovered it up in minutes.’

(Recorded, hostess, Weybridge, England, May 1986)

‘He hoovered up five pints and got poleaxed.’

(The Crack: a Belfast Year, Sally Belfrage, 1987)

hoovered adj British

drunk. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

hophead n American

a narcotics user. Hop was a late-19th- century term for opium, later extended to any ‘stupefying’ drug including marihuana. Hophead, dating from the 1940s, was one of the first words for a category of drug-users to use the ‘-head’ suffix. By the 1960s the word was used mainly by law enforcers and other disapproving adults. It is now rare.

hop on! exclamation British

a cry of delight or triumph, in use since around 2000. It is synonymous with get in! and result!

hopped-up adj

under the influence of narcotics. ‘Hop’ was a late-19th-century term for opium in the USA, later generalised to refer to any intoxicating drug.

hopper n American

a toilet (bowl). A term favoured by ‘hardhats’ and jocks among others. (A hopper is a large metal feeder container in grain silos.) Coincidentally or not, ‘the hopper’ is also in American usage to refer to the place where schemes are hatched and ideas nurtured. In business jargon or office slang to ‘put something in the hopper’ is to feed it into the system or to ‘put it on file’.

It’s all in danger of going down the hopper.

Horatio n British

fellatio. A usage recorded by Viz comic’s Profanisaurus (glossary of profanities) in 2002.

horizontal dancing n

sexual intercourse, a jocular euphemism typically used by American college students, etc. from the early 1980s. The term probably originated as a joke among middle-class adult sophisticates.

hork vb American

1.to vomit. An echoic term in use among students in 2003.

2.to steal. In this sense it is probably an alteration of hook.

horlicks n British

a mess, an unpalatable or confused mixture. The trade name of a bedtime drink has here been appropriated as a euphemism for bollocks. The word is used by all social classes and began to appear in print in the late 1980s.

how to make a total horlicks of it in five easy stages

hormone n

a promiscuous, sexually active or successful person. This term, usually applied to males, was popular among adolescents and younger schoolchildren in Britain and Australia in the 1990s.

‘He’s what we call a raging hormone.’

(Australian surfer in Biarritz, Passengers, Channel 4 TV programme, September 1995)

horn, the n

1a. the penis, particularly when erect. This obvious metaphor has been commonly employed in English for at least 200 years. Prior to that horn more often referred to the cuckold’s emblem.

1b. an erection. Usually found in phrases such as to ‘have the horn’, to get the horn or to be on the horn.

2. a telephone. In this sense the word usually occurs in the form ‘(get) on the horn’. This usage is encountered more often in the USA than in Britain.

horny adj

sexually aroused, lustful. Although the horn in question is the penis (in an image which dates from the 18th century, if not earlier), the expression is now used by and about both sexes, sometimes in colourful phrases such as ‘horny as a hootowl’. It is a 1960s successor of longer phrases such as to get the horn, to be on the horn, etc.

‘The total absurdity of it all; seven or eight able bodied policemen keeping 24 hour

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hot

watch on this horny endomorphic Jewish intellectual.’

(Bill Levy, Oz magazine, February 1970)

horrors, the n

1.a bout of terror or fit of existential despair. The term applies especially to the sudden uncontrollable feelings of dread and horror experienced as a result of drug or alcohol abuse (as, e.g., in cases of delirium tremens, heroin withdrawal, amphetamine comedown, acid flashes or the fits of paranoia associated with over-indulgence in strong cannabis). The expression was used in the 19th century to refer to the effects of alcoholism.

2.menstruation, monthly periods. A rare schoolgirl alternative to the curse.

horrorshow adj, n

a.(something) shocking or horrifying

b.(something) sensational, impressive or excellent

Like bad, creepshow, hellacious and other similar teenage terms of the 1980s, horrorshow has undergone the process (technically known as ‘amelioration’) whereby a pejorative or negative term acquires a positive meaning. This word, inspired by horror films and comics, has the dual implication of awful and thrilling, the intended meaning apparent only in the tone of voice or context.

horse n

1.British an unattractive female. In playground usage since 2000, the term is sometimes elaborated to horse-monkey.

2.Trinidad and Tobago a friend

He my horse. C’mon horse.

3.heroin. A word used by drug addicts and beatniks in the 1950s, it was already dated by the late 1960s and was generally supplanted, first by H, and subsequently by smack, scag, etc.

horse’s ass n American

a fool, especially an annoying or contemptible one. A common folksy phrase among adults. Like other expressions based on ‘horse’, the term has not spread to British usage.

horseshit n American

nonsense, foolish or empty talk. A popular term in the USA where it is similar in meaning to bullshit, with perhaps the suggestion that horseshit is more transparently ludicrous or frivolous. The Brit-

ish apparently still view the horse with more respect or affection; neither horseshit, horse’s ass or ‘horse feathers’ have caught on in British English.

‘You see, there’s got to be some respite from the horseshit. And cars give you that. They’re primitive.’

(Paul Newman, Elle magazine, May 1989)

horseshoe n South African

a hand-rolled cigarette, especially one containing strong tobacco

hose vb American

to have sex with. A mainly male vulgarism.

‘There must be someone here that I could hose…Better get some more sherry to smooth out my brain.’

(S. Clay Wilson cartoon, Head Comix, 1968)

hose-hound n American

a promiscuous or sexually active person, usually female. A later coinage based on the verb to hose and the noun hoser 2.

‘Look at the fun-bags on that hosehound!’

(Dumb and Dumber, US film, 1994)

hose monster n American

an extremely promiscuous and/or sexually active person. The term, which may be used pejoratively or appreciatively, is particularly applied to heterosexual females.

Compare shag-monster hoser n American

1.a fraud, deceitful person, cheat

2.a promiscuous person, usually female

Both senses of the term are found in the vocabulary of high-school and college students. The etymology of the word is not certain, but probably derives from hose as a noun meaning penis and a verb meaning to copulate or screw in the figurative sense of defraud.

ho stroll n American

a. a prostitute’s patrolling of her area, streetwalking

‘I’m on the ho stroll, honey.’

(Hispanic New York prostitute, Channel 4 TV documentary, October 1994)

b. a provocative gait, as used by prostitutes looking for customers

hot adj

1. stolen, from the image of something ‘too hot to handle’. The word was used in

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this sense in The Eustace Diamonds by Trollope in 1875.

D’you reckon that video is hot?

2.exciting, fashionable. A slang usage (from the language of jazz musicians in which ‘hot’, frenzied and fast, is contrasted with ‘cool’, relaxed and slow) which by the mid-1970s had become a common colloquialism.

3.sexually excited or aroused. The adjective has always been used in this sense, both literally and figuratively.

She’s hot for him.

Talk dirty to me. You know it gets me hot.

4. provocative, obstreperous. In this sense the word was defined by one of its users as ‘acting too obvious’ and denotes a transgression of the unwritten codes of behaviour of adolescent gangs. The term was recorded in use among North London schoolboys in 1993 and 1994.

acting hot

hot-dog1 vb American

to perform spectacularly and brilliantly and/or to show off. The term is applied especially in sports’ contexts (the sport of stunt skiing, e.g., is known as ‘hotdogging’), or to high-achieving students.

hot-dog2, hot-dogger n, adj American

(someone or something) outstanding, spectacular and/or successful. The term is used as an exclamation, showing amazement and approval, but when applied to people may often indicate envy or disapproval.

Hot dog! We’re havin’ a great time here! hot pants

1.n a sexually aroused state; lustfulness, particularly in a woman

2.n pl brief shorts as worn by women during a fashion of 1970 and 1971

hot poop n

the very latest news, most up-to-date information. An American term of the early 1960s which had spread to Britain, especially in the armed services and in journalistic speech, by the early 1970s. Poop is a nursery term and adult euphemism for shit.

hot rocks n pl British

the glowing embers at the tip of a lit cigarette or joint. An expression from schoolplayground slang. Cherry is a synonym.

hots, the n pl See have the hots (for someone)

hot shit n, adj

(something) impressive, exciting, superlative. The common colloquial terms ‘hot stuff’ and ‘hotshot’ are in fact euphemisms for hot shit, a term both of contempt and approbation common since the beginning of the 20th century in the USA (still heard more often there than in Britain or Australia).

some hot shit record producer

hotshot vb, n American

(to administer) a lethal injection of a narcotic, usually heroin. This term, from the vocabulary of addicts and the underworld, refers particularly to a deliberate lethal dose, either selfadministered or as a gangland method of punishment and murder. Sometimes the hotshot is a high-strength overdose, sometimes a normal dose of the drug mixed with a toxic substance.

The guys put him away with a Drano hotshot.

hot tamale n American

a sexually arousing or provocative woman. A male expression of admiration or approval first coined by adults but now probably more popular among enthusiastic, if unsophisticated, highschool and college students. A tamale is a spicy rolled pancake, a Mexican speciality.

hotting n British

the stealing of cars for displays of fast driving and subsequent destruction. An organised criminal adolescent hobby which became a vogue in 1991. Here Hot combines the slang senses of ‘powerful’ and ‘stolen’.

hot to trot adj

eager and enthusiastic for sex and, by extension, for any activity. A jocular rhyming phrase probably deriving from black American usage in the late 1950s, it was adopted by hippies and subsequently enjoyed a vogue in the language of disco dancers, devotees of nightclubs, etc. in the late 1970s, when it usually had the innocuous sense of ready to dance.

Honey, get ready – I’m hot to trot.

hotty, hottie n American

an attractive female. This appreciative term, which probably originated in black street slang, became widespread in campus and high-school speech from the 1990s.

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hot-wire vb

to start (a car) by tampering with the ignition electrics rather than using the key. A thieves’ and law enforcers’ term.

hound n

1.British a reprehensible person. The word is typically used as mild criticism or affectionate disapproval.

2.See brownie-hound

house n

a type of disco music typically played in amateur or impromptu club sessions in the late 1980s. House music is electronically enhanced versions of black and European dance records, growing out of the rap and ‘scratch’ embellishments of 1970s disco. The word house itself refers to the Warehouse club in Chicago where this form of music was pioneered.

housed adj American

drunk. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

house moss n American another term for dust bunny

house nigger n American

a subservient or deferential black person, a black menial or an ‘Uncle Tom’. This old designation, applied originally to slaves and servants, contrasts with the now obsolete expression ‘field nigger’ for a black estate worker or poor farmer.

He’s gonna have to realise that he can’t treat me like some house nigger.

howler n British

1. a child or baby. An item of middleclass and family slang of the later 1980s and 1990s. Wowler is an alternative version. Apart from the obvious reference to a baby’s crying, the word might also recall the howler monkey.

‘We’re going to have to get a sitter for the howler.’

(Recorded, middle-class working mother, London 1994)

2. an ugly person, usually female. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

howling adj

a.Scottish smelling offensively. This is one of many synonyms for stinking, such as minging, bowfing, honking.

b.British ugly. The term is usually applied to females by males.

hoy vb British

to throw, discard. An item of Geordie speech (it originated either as a dialect cognate of ‘haul’ or as an invention influenced by haul and/or hoist) which became more widely used in the 1990s. The same word occurs in Australian slang.

‘Finish your fag and just hoy it.’

(Away the Lads, BBC 2 TV documentary, February 1993)

huff vb

1.to sniff, snort (an illicit drug). A late 1970s alternative to the more common snort in connection with cocaine. The term has a more specific relation to solvent and glue abuse. It is American in origin.

2.British to fart. A schoolchildren’s term. Guff is a synonym.

hum vb, n

(to) fart. Especially popular in Australia, this jocular term probably relates to the surreptitious sound rather than the colloquial meaning of hum as ‘stink’.

humassive adj

enormous. A blend of huge, humungous and massive, heard in 2004.

humgrumshious adj Caribbean rough and crude

hum-hole n

the mouth. An American high-school word, usually employed as part of an insult or challenge. It appears to date from the early 1980s.

Tell him to shut his hum-hole.

hump1 vb

1. to have sex (with). ‘Once a fashionable word for copulation’, according to the

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Grose, 1785, hump is now scarcely fashionable but is still a widespread vulgarism, often in the form ‘humping’.

See also dry-hump

2. to carry. This now common informal sense of the word was considered unorthodox in the 1950s.

hump2 n

1. the hump a feeling of annoyance, resentment or depression. To ‘have the hump’ or ‘get the hump’ has meant to be bad-tempered or to take offence since the 18th century. It comes from the notion of a hunchback’s burden.

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228

‘“I’ve got the ’ump today!” he told us cheerfully.’

(Security guard, Evening Standard, 12 June 1989)

2.American a nickname for a Camel cigarette

3.a despicable or contemptible person. This insult may be based on the old term for a hunchback or may derive from the sexual meaning of the verb to hump.

humping adj British

exciting, dynamic. A synonym of banging, slamming, etc. heard in South Wales since 2000.

humpty adj British

1.having the hump, annoyed, resentful

He’s a bit humpty this morning.

2.wanting to hump someone, priapic, horny or sexually aroused

Both senses of the word were current in London working-class usage in the late 1980s. The ‘h’ is usually silent.

humpty-dumpty n South African

a foolish and/or fat person. The mocking or insulting epithet, derived from the children’s rhyme, was recorded as an item of Sowetan slang in the Cape Sunday Times, 29 January 1995.

humpy adj

1.British having the hump, annoyed, resentful

2.American sexually aroused. The term, a more recent synonym for horny, is used particularly among American adolescents and can refer to either sex.

humungous, humongous adj

enormous, terrifying, tremendous. A popular word among schoolchildren and teenagers since the late 1970s, this is an invention combining elements of huge, tremendous and enormous, on the lines of ‘ginormous’, ‘sponditious’, etc. It seems to have originated in the USA.

Man, I got a humungous thirst on me.

‘Darlene and I just killed a huge spider – we hadda use a whole can, it was humungous.’

(Roseanne, US TV comedy series, 1989)

hung adj

1a. sexually endowed (referring to men). A coarse euphemism which is probably Victorian, perhaps older. The word is often part of colourful comparisons such

as ‘hung like a horse/bull/jack donkey’ or, alternatively, ‘hung like a fieldmouse’.

‘Her opener had a certain showgirl candor: “Is it true what all the girls say – that you’re hung like a horse?”’ (Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Babylon, 1975)

1b. sexually well endowed, having large genitals. This shortening of well-hung has been part of male gay jargon since the early 1970s.

Wow, he’s really hung.

2.a variation of hung-up

‘You got me to/ Fall in love with you/ Though I’m not free to/ Fall in love with you/ Oh, why/ Did I/ Have to get so hung on you?’

(The Righteous Brothers, ‘Hung on You’, written by Spector/King/Goffin, 1965)

‘Nothing to get hung about.’

(The Beatles, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, 1967)

hung-up adj

a.suffering from a complex; neurotic, inhibited. A popular putdown used by hippies to categorise socially or sexually repressed, uptight behaviour, especially on the part of straights.

b.hung up on (someone) obsessed with, in love with (someone). A hippy usage which persisted into the 1980s and is still heard occasionally.

hunk n

a well-built, sexually attractive male

hunky-dory adj

fine, in good order, perfect. A wellestablished colloquialism, adopted in Britain some time after World War I. The phrase arose in the USA in the mid19th century. The ‘hunk’ component is from the Dutch honk, meaning a post used as a ‘home’ in a game of tag; ‘dory’ is probably a meaningless elaboration.

huntley n British

karma (personal destiny). An ephemeral and unusual collision between the worlds and concerns of the hippy and rhyming slang, this humorous coinage is from Huntley and Palmer, a well-known British biscuit manufacturer.

‘Hello love, how’s your huntley?’’

(Recorded, social worker, London, 1987)

hurl vb

to vomit. A usage common in Australia and, to a lesser extent, in Britain.

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hurt adj British

ugly, unattractive. An item of black street-talk used especially by males referring to females, recorded in 2003.

She’s hurt.

hurting adj

1. American suffering from the lack of a necessity, usually a drug. By the 1990s the term, previously used in a romantic context, almost invariably referred to a narcotics withdrawal.

I was on the street and hurtin’ with nothing to cop with and no-one to cop from.

2. unappealing, disappointing hustle1 vb

a.to work as a prostitute, solicit sexual clients

b.to importune, pressurise, take advantage of (someone)

c.to make great efforts (often selfishly)

All senses of the word (introduced from the USA into other areas in the mid1960s) derive from its origin in the Dutch husselen or hutseln, meaning to shake up or jostle. This gave rise to an American version of the word meaning hurry or shove, later used in the specific senses above.

hustle2 n

a.a high-pressure scheme, an attempt to obtain money, bully or browbeat someone

b.a rush, energetic action

The noun forms derive from the earlier verb form.

hustler n

a.a prostitute (of either sex). This specific and euphemistic sense of the word remains exclusively North American.

b.any intrusive, importunate or overassertive person

A word which entered world English in the late 1960s, from American usage. Both senses of the word postdate the verb form hustle.

hymie, heimie n

a Jew. An unaffectionate, if not strongly offensive term inspired by the short form of the Jewish male forename Hyman. The word has been used in British English since the 1950s.

hype1 vb, n

(to create) excessive, overblown or misleading publicity. A term applied first to the activities of the pop music industry in the early 1970s, hype is a shortening of ‘hyperbole’. The word was apparently in use in the USA for many years among swindlers and tricksters before becoming part of commercial jargon.

hype2, hypo n

a hypodermic syringe. This short form was used by drug abusers in the 1950s and early 1960s, but was always rarer than the more colourful alternatives such as harpoon, works, artillery, etc. It persists in the vocabulary of doctors, paramedics, etc., particularly in the USA.

hype3 adj American

good, popular, exciting. An expression used on campus in the USA since around 2000.

hyped-up adj

1.exaggerated, inflated, overpublicised. From the verb to hype (itself from ‘hyperbole’).

2.excited, over-stimulated, tense. This sense of the word probably originates in hypersensitive, hyperactive or hyperventilate, rather than in hyperbole.

hyper adj

an abbreviation of hyperactive and/or hyperventilating. The word, which was especially popular among American devotees of group therapy, ‘conscious- ness-raising’, etc., has now taken on a generalised sense of agitated or keyed up.

hyubes n pl female breasts

I

ice1 n

1.diamonds or other jewellery. An underworld term in all English-speaking areas, this word has also been heard in everyday speech.

2.an illicit drug which appeared in Hawaii in 1989 and for a time seemed poised to replace crack as a major social scourge in the USA. Ice is a highly synthesised version of methamphetamine (the archetypal speed as abused in the 1960s and 1970s under the name of methedrine).

ice2 vb

to kill. An American underworld term which may initially have been a shortened form of ‘put someone on ice’. The word has been popularised by its use in crime films and TV series.

‘Maybe he saw the Hellinger killing go down – they iced him to keep him quiet.’

(The Rockford Files, US TV series, 1978)

ice cold n

a beer. An American and Australian term of the 1970s adopted by some British lager drinkers.

Set up some ice colds, will you.

ice cream n British

1. a man. This piece of now obsolete lowlife and demi-monde slang of the 1950s derives from ‘ice-cream freezer’, rhyming slang for geezer.

See also fridge

2. a white person. This is a quite separate coinage from sense 1 and is mainly used by black and South Asian schoolchildren to refer dismissively to whites.

iced, iced out adj American

a.wearing jewellery

b.ornamented by jewels

‘He [record producer Damon Dash] enjoys Cristal champagne, wears iced out – diamond encrusted – £24,000 watches and likes triple-distilled vodka…’

(Sunday Times, 6 June 2004)

ice man n American

1.a jewel thief. From ice in the sense of diamonds or other jewellery.

2.a hit-man, professional killer. From the verb ice meaning to kill.

ice queen n

an imperious, haughty and/or aggressive female

icing n

1.cocaine

2.jewellery, bling

ick n

an unpleasant substance. The term is probably a back-formation from icky, itself a colloquial description or exclamation of distaste possibly influenced by sticky.

icky (poo) adj

a.distasteful, unpleasant

b.sickly sentimental, cloying

The word originated as a baby-talk version of ‘sticky’. It is now used by adults and particularly by teenagers to refer to something either literally or metaphorically viscous.

iddy, iddy-boy n British

a Jew. A London working-class term of disparagement and abuse which is a distortion of yid.

idiot box n

a television set. A less common alternative to gogglebox, dating from around 1960, by which time the mind-numbing effects of TV viewing were attracting critical comment.

‘An entertaining and salutary study of the tangled, dishonest and sometimes demented relationships our premiers have had with the idiot box.’

(Sunday Correspondent, 13 September 1989)

idiot dancing n British

a style of frenzied, abandoned dancing on the spot (invariably consisting of writhing hand and arm movements and shaking of the head) to rock music,

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indie

particularly the ‘psychedelic’ style (a precursor of heavy metal) of the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s it had mutated into the less picturesque headbanging.

idren n

good friend(s). A version of brethren or children in Caribbean and black British usage.

iffy adj

a. questionable, doubtful or suspicious. In the 1960s this was a slang term heard predominantly in London working-class usage. It enjoyed a vogue among the fashionable in the late 1970s, by which time it was also widespread in the USA. The term is now a common colloquialism.

‘Paid-for lessons at some professional club in Romford; and the use of such iffy stimulants as “Matchroom” aftershave.’

(GQ magazine, August 1989)

b. British (of a person) dishonest, probably criminal or (of a thing) probably stolen. A milder version of bent or moody.

ikey (mo) n British

a Jew. A derogatory term dating from the 19th century. Ikey is a diminutive form of Isaac and Mo (Moses). Ikey Mo was a character in the Ally Sloper cartoons at the turn of the 20th century.

ill adj

a.excellent

b.contented, relaxed

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

illin’ adj

1a. unhealthy, sick. This conversion of the adjective ill has been a feature of many English dialects, particularly black and rural ones, since the 18th century.

1b. stupid, crazy, unbalanced

2. bad, uncool. This sense results from the appropriation of the older expression by black youth and later white emulators in the USA in the early 1980s. The word enjoyed a vogue in Britain in 1987 and 1988, having been imported as one of the buzzwords of the rap and hip hop cultures.

imbo n Australian

an imbecile. A characteristic Australian shortening.

immense adj excellent, admirable

A widespread term of appreciation among younger speakers.

imshi exclamation, vb

to go away. An Arabic imperative adopted by members of the armed forces, particularly in Egypt, and imported to Britain where it is still heard occasionally among the older generation.

in a kiddie kingdom adj Caribbean

in a state of bliss, very congenial surroundings.

Compare goat heaven

in-and-out n

a version of in-out

in a piss adj British

grumpy, bad tempered, angry. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

in a whole world of trouble adj British very intoxicated, a humorous euphemism. An item of student slang in use in London and elsewhere since around 2000.

in bits adj British

overcome by strong emotion, devastated, mortified. A common expression since the 1990s.

‘When I heard [of a companion’s death] I was in bits.’

(Teenage gang member, quoted in Crime Kids, BBC2, May 2002)

in costume adj American

in uniform. Police jargon of the 1980s.

in deep shit adj

a later elaboration of ‘in the shit’, meaning in trouble. This version of the expression became fashionable in the late 1980s.

Indian hemp n

cannabis; marihuana or hashish. Very little illegally imported cannabis originates in India, but the potent, smokable strain of the hemp plant has the botanical name cannabis sativa indica. Indian hemp was a term employed by official and quasi-scientific authorities in the early 20th century (The Charms of Indian Hemp was the title of a 1907 publication). In the 1950s smokers of the drug also used the expression, but by the 1960s it was confined to judicial or journalese usage. The word cannabis largely supplanted the term in the 1970s.

indie n British

a. an independent record label (i.e. one not affiliated to one of the big business conglomerates known as ‘the majors’), or

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a record issued on one of these. The expression and the phenomenon date from the mid-1970s when small-scale record companies, boosted by the advent of punk rock with its do-it-yourself ethic, began to threaten the virtual monopoly of the majors. Indie had previously referred to independent films produced in the USA.

‘Apologists for the “indie ghetto”, forever championing obscure and unlistenable bands with silly names.’

(Independent, 1 December 1989)

b. the youth subculture coalescing around Indie bands from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s

indijaggers n British

indigestion, a stomach upset. A publicschool term which perhaps originated as a nursery word in the early years of the 20th century.

‘I’ve got frightful indijaggers!’

(Guardian, Posy Simmonds cartoon, 1981)

in Dutch adj

in trouble, in a vulnerable condition or delicate situation. This expression is a surviving example of the tendency (dating from the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century) to use Dutch as a pejorative, as in ‘Dutch courage’, ‘Dutch treat’ or ‘Dutch Uncle’. In Dutch appears to date from the beginning of the 20th century. An alternative etymology would derive the expression from American English in which Dutch refers to the habits of Dutch settlers and indicates peculiarity rather than any more negative qualities.

in effect adj, adv British

in action, at large or happening. A black euphemism used particularly by street gangs in the 1980s. The expression has been picked up by black and white schoolchildren.

‘Posse in effect.’

(Graffito on wall, Clapham, London, 1988)

in goat heaven adj See goat heaven

inked, inky adj

drunk. These terms, although rare, are not yet obsolete and are common to Britain, Australia and the USA. The origin of the expressions is unclear. They may be humorous parallels to blotto, or perhaps (and more probably) derive from the fact that cheap red wine was,

in the early years of the 20th century, referred to as ‘ink’.

inky smudge n British

a judge. An old item of rhyming slang.

in like Flynn adj

successful, in a very comfortable or advantageous position. A phrase which originated in the late 1940s and which shows no signs of disappearing despite the death of Errol Flynn, its inspiration. Flynn, the Australian hero of swashbuckling adventure films, was turned, especially in Australia and Britain, into a folk symbol of male sexual prowess by the press coverage of his trial on trumped-up statutory rape charges. The expression originally referred to success in seduction, but is now generalised to mean any impressive achievement, piece of opportunism or stroke of luck.

inna adj British

intrusive, ‘nosy’. The term was recorded in West London in 1998. It may be related to the notion of ‘in one’s face’. Eggs-up and extra were contemporary synonyms.

innit? question form, exclamation British a. a question tag used to precede or to follow a statement

‘“Innit?” has now found its way to the beginning of sentences: “Innit we’re going to McDonalds today?”’

(Roy Kerridge writing in the Evening Standard, 20 August 1993)

b.an exclamation of agreement

We should split up and meet back here later.

Innit!

Unlike some languages, English requires many different question phrases (aren’t they?, can’t we?, don’t you?, etc.) instead of one (as in French n’est-ce pas?). Indian and Pakistani English has for many years used ‘isn’t it?’ in this way, but in the early 1980s black British speakers appropriated the London working-class ‘innit?’ to serve as an all-purpose tag. The usage was imitated by white schoolchildren (leading black speakers to adopt ‘in’t it?’, ‘an’t it?’ and ‘don’t it?’ as alternatives) and the word became detached from its context as a catchphrase.

innit-crowd, the n

a generic term for Asians or a specific group of Asians, from the colloquial term ‘in-crowd’ and innit? as a question tag characteristic of Asian speakers.

Compare Asian massive

233	Irish confetti

in-out n

sexual intercourse. A euphemism heard among English speakers everywhere since before World War II. In British usage it is often part of expressions such as ‘(a bit of) the old in-out’. An earlier version was ‘in-and-out’.

in power adj American

successful, enjoying respect. An item of street-gang jargon of the 1990s, which parallels the British in effect.

in shtuk/shtook/stook/schtuk adj British in trouble. A very widespread expression which moved from a restricted demimonde and theatrical usage to common currency in the mid-1960s, partly through its use in the entertainment media. Shtuk in its various spellings is Yiddish for difficulties. ‘In shtuk’ often refers to financial difficulties.

inside adj, adv

in prison. Formerly a piece of euphemistic underworld slang dating from the 19th century, this word has become so widely known since the late 1950s as to be a colloquialism rather than true slang.

in stir adj See stir

intense adj American

good, positive. This all-purpose term of approval, with overtones of exciting, energetic, vital, etc., has been in vogue, particularly among teenagers, since the late 1970s.

See also camping

intercourse n

as a shortening of ‘sexual intercourse’ this term has been used as a humorous euphemism for fuck since the late 1970s. It is largely confined to middleand upper-class speakers. The word is employed in various forms according to the usages of fuck; ‘Oh, intercourse!’ as an exclamation or ‘I’m totally intercoursed’, meaning exhausted, for instance.

interfacing n

communicating or getting on well. A piece of jargon from the world of computing, transposed by yuppies and others into a humorous (or straightforward) synonym for communicating (with) or relating to others.

in the club adj British

pregnant. This very common expression is in origin a shortening of ‘in the pudding

club’, which dates from the 17th century and is one of many folk expressions using baking metaphors in a sexual context. Pudding is an obsolete euphemism for semen and, more rarely, for the female sex organs.

in the frame adj

identified as a suspect in a crime. This example of police jargon, in use both in Britain and the USA, is derived either from the simple image of a portrait in a frame or from horse-racing parlance, in which it refers to the practice of displaying the numbers of the winning and placed horses in a metal frame at the end of the race.

in the groove adj, adv

a.proceeding smoothly, working well

b.in harmony with others or with one’s surroundings, au fait with what is going on

Both terms come from the jargon of preWorld War II jazz musicians.

in the shit adj

in trouble. This common expression has been in use since the mid-19th century if not earlier. It is a vulgar version of ‘in the soup’.

in your eye, in a pig’s eye, in a pig’s arse exclamation

an all-purpose expression of violent negation; usually denial, refusal or dismissal. The first two versions are euphemistic alternatives to the third.

iona adj British

bad. A word used by London schoolchildren in the late 1990s. Its derivation is unclear.

iono! exclamation American

a lazy pronunciation or Internet abbreviation of ‘I don’t know’. In use among adolescents since around 2002.

Irish n British

a wig. Rhyming slang from ‘Irish jig’. Wigs and toupées, which attract much notice and derision in cockney circles, are also known as syrup (of figs), rugs, ‘mops’ or dogs.

Irish apricot/apple/plum n

a potato. These predictable witticisms have been heard since the 19th century in both Britain and the USA.

Irish confetti n

stones, rocks and other debris thrown during riots and demonstrations