As soon as humans learned to shoot sound through their mouths and sinuses it’s been impossible to shut them the fuck up. We talk more than is good for us (dudes literally go to jail for life because of shit they’ve said). Then, when we get tired of the words we know, we make up some more.
Slang—which is, itself, slang for “shortened language”—is the cheesecloth through which words with big dictionary dreams pass. Problem is, some words that should never find their way there get way more playing time than, say, “tittynope,” which is perfectly good English. But every so often, some knucklechild will coin a term that earns the right to walk unchallenged in the starry heaven of everyday language. Here, now, are ten slang terms that will stand the test of time and ten that won’t. Up first: the ones that are gonna have a problem lasting.
Rick Morrison is a writer living in North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter here.