HALLIE EPHRON: Welcome, once again, to WHAT WE'RE WRITING (OR NOT) WEEK on Jungle Red...
Awhile back I started writing a story about three generations of women living in a Brooklyn brownstone. The oldest (a psychic who is in her 70s) lives on the top floor. Her daughter (in her late 40s, a psychologist) is one floor down on the parlor floor. And on the garden level and in her 20s, the granddaughter who is an influencer on social media.
Generational combat ensues.
I opened with writing with the oldest woman narrating. Easy peasy. Next chapter, her daughter, a research psychologist, takes over as narrator. And we were rolling along nicely ...
But when it came to writing the youngest, I hit a wall. What would she sound like? What would she notice, admire, find annoying? What would be her blind spots? Sources of irritation. And what words and phrases would she use to think about that?
The "voice" wouldn't come to me.
So I put the work aside. Realizing I needed to rethink the premise... maybe the two older women live above a cat cafe and a whole host of weirdos, animal and otherwise, live on the garden floor? That, or talk to a whole lot more Gen Z influencers.
The wisdom of this was validated recently as I read the many articles that have been coming out as we approach the new year, cataloguing recently coined turns of phrase and vocabulary of Generation Z. I am... to use a phrase from some past generation... clueless.
So would you be as lost as I am, trying the write convincing Gen-Z-speak?
Here's your quiz... What terms in PART A go with the descriptions in PART B? (Answers are below.)
PART A - Terms
1. CHOPPED
2. SHREK - SHREKKING
3. AURA FARMING
4. 6-7
5. BALLERINA CAPUCCINA
6. GEN Z STARE
7. RAGE BAIT
8. LOCKING IN
PART B - Definitions
A. Rude slang term for dating people who are perceived not to be on par with their mates
B. An intense-focus state of someone bent on reaching a goal.
C. Gen Alpha's favorite series of numbers
D. You would not want someone using this term to describe your appearance.
E. A member of the Italian brain rot crew, an absurd group of A.I.-generated characters (in a meme that flooded TikTok)
F. A condescending blank stare that GEN Zers give to comments that they deem unworthy of responding to
G. Someone who does something repetitive to look cool
H. Attention seeking online behavior
For the answers scroll down...
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ANSWERS
1. CHOPPED (D)
2. SHREK - SHREKKING (A)
3. AURA FARMING (G)
4. 6-7 (C)
5. BALLERINA CAPUCCINA (E)
6. GEN Z STARE (F)
7. RAGE BAIT (H)
8. LOCKING IN (B)
So how'd you do?
And what weird expressions did you grow up with that would baffle today's twenty-somethings?
ANSWERS
1. CHOPPED (D)
2. SHREK - SHREKKING (A)
3. AURA FARMING (G)
4. 6-7 (C)
5. BALLERINA CAPUCCINA (E)
6. GEN Z STARE (F)
7. RAGE BAIT (H)
8. LOCKING IN (B)
So how'd you do?
And what weird expressions did you grow up with that would baffle today's twenty-somethings?
I can't think of a single "weird" expression that I grew up with that would baffle anyone . . . .
ReplyDeleteI did fairly well on the quiz; the first three stumped me but I knew [or guessed correctly] 4-5-6-7-8 . . .
Got them all right, mostly because of a quiz I just took the other day. My own Gen Zer grandson has never used any of them in my hearing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school we described the cutest, hottest boys as "tough". My mother was horrified, thinking, I later realized, of the kind of "hoods" portrayed in West Side Story, with leather jackets, skinny pants, and duck's butt hairstyles. Of course, hood was her generation's slang term.
I’m pretty sure I am not the same generation as your mother and we used the term hood when I was growing up. I am 63.
DeleteWe still used it, too. But it originated with her generation, in the 1930s, or thereabouts. It was short for hoodlum. And since we both grew up in Hamilton, Ohio, where it took at least 10 years for trends to show up, she probably never heard it until the '40s.
DeleteFor me "hood" can be a location, a person, or a garment...
DeleteSurprisingly, I got them all correct even though the only one I have ever heard is 6-7.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know about slang from my era baffling Gen Zers but they are baffled by everyday things like 8 track tapes, cassette tapes, VHS tapes and the players that play them all, analog clocks, Landline telephones, cursive writing, typewriters, and making change.
Brenda, our 11 and 14 year old grandsons spent the night with us last weekend on their way to Vermont. They were fascinated by the landline phone. The younger one had never heard a dial tone. He played with the silly device, called his brother's cell phone and generally messing around. He had us all in stitches. He's our family comedian anyway, but he was so cute. (We see them every few months but we drive to them. First time he'd been here in ages.)
DeleteJudy, I love that! My husband collected old phones, and we have one that has no dial. You just pickedd it up and clicked until an operator answered.
DeleteOur granddaughter has been exposed to old typewriters, and we have an old rotary dial black phone that's not hooked up. She had a lot of fun making the dial go round when she was smaller. We taught her to read analog clocks when she was in preschool and at almost ten she has a pretty good cursive hand. However, I suspect that casette and VHS tapes would stump her!
Delete3My daughter made the mistake of mentioning in front of the thirteen-year-old that she had read 66 books this far this year and wished to complete one more.
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there, Jerry. LOL
DeleteHa ha, Jerry!
DeleteI am zipping in while the two-year old is in the other room, so I didn't try to match things up. I think we should bring back "groovy" and "outta sight!"
ReplyDeleteAlong with bitchen. And way cool.
DeleteThe two I remember from high school (class of '65) were "far out!" and calling someone a "maroon" when we meant moron. Teachers and parents were also waging an unsuccessful war against saying yeah whe we meant yes.
ReplyDeleteRemember Valley Girl speak? Where every other word was like... "like"
DeleteHallie - Have you 'like' talked with someone in their 30s recently? They still 'like' talk that way!
DeleteMy husband is constantly getting after our 41-year old daughter for using "like" in every phrase! It's a really bad habit.
DeleteI have not heard any of these expressions before so am totally “ clueless”.
ReplyDeleteDianne Mahoney
Me, too.
DeleteOh my goodness, Hallie. Hopeless FAIL here. No clue, in other words, clueless. But fun was had trying! I like your original premise for the three-storied house; I vote that you persevere and do research by hanging out in coffee shops and malls eavesdropping your way through the day...
ReplyDeleteOr make the oldest woman older...
DeleteBut she can't be so old that the 3rd-floor apartment is out of reach for her aging body...
DeleteExactly the problem.
DeleteMy friend installed a tiny lift in her brownstone in anticipation of her mother moving in. Definitely not for the claustrophobic!
DeleteHallie, maybe switch the second and third floor occupants? Or give them an elevator.
DeleteAgreeing with Amanda -- fun to try ... and fail. I must eliminate some characters from a short story ... or age them!
ReplyDeleteFun? Defined as pure torture.
DeleteMy youngest, born 1997, is Gen-Z. I have never heard her use a single one of these, but with a brother ten years older and Boomer parents, she has a slightly more "historic" vocabulary. She has marveled many times that most of her friends have never seen the 1980s and 1990s movies she grew up with. Still, she is quick and I'm sure knows all of these. I'm not familiar with of any of them except "rage bait," which I think of as not just seeking attention online but posting something to deliberately court outrage. 90% of Rupert Murdoch's fortune is based on rage bait. (Selden)
ReplyDelete"Rage bait" is such a perfect description of what it is.
DeleteHallie, I did not notice your graphic which clealry defines rage bait. Sorry!
DeleteI was so proud of myself -- I got them all right!! Several I was actually familiar with (4, 6, 7) and the rest I was able to figure out.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any of our slang would be as baffling to twenty-somethings as theirs is to us partly because Baby Boomers were so ubiquitous for so long that our lingo was captured in many movies and songs. But I do remember about 20 years ago a work friend pointing out to me that when we were kids "ripped" meant drunk or high, and now it meant having a sculpted body from weightlifting.
That's a good one. And "gonzo" has changed meaning over the years.
DeleteI guessed 5 correctly but I haven't actually heard any of them used. If you read books or watch TV shows from other parts of the world there are tons of what I'll call geographical slang. Words that don't come close to the same meanings here. Some words we would consider extremely vulgar but not to them. And vice versa I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI love your concept, Hallie, but you will need to do more research with that young one.
Geography! Another issue when giving your character thoughts. Does she think: soda, tonic, coke, or bubbly water... Milkshake, frappe...
DeleteExactly!
DeleteJudi, yes regional differences is so interesting.
DeleteI did fairly well, but I must admit that I took a NY Times Gen Z quiz over the holidays so I had a bit of an edge here. Without that reference, I would have guessed about 3/4 of them. Heck, I still haven't figured out the difference between "that's dope!" and "that's fire!" A few years ago a young man told me my earrings were "dope." I asked an acquaintance of similar to his age if that was the same as "fire" and she said no, but never explained the difference, just that both were positive. Sigh...I think I'll just stick with "cool" and the occasional "bees knees" just to drive the young 'uns crazy! -- Victoria
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for "bees knees" though I have never actually used the term. Feels like something that would be dialogue in Singin' In the Rain
DeleteBees Knees was circa 1920. Singing in the Rain was made in the 1940’s.
DeleteBut was set in the late 20s…. And the movie was made in the 1950s (released in ‘52).
DeleteOh, the jargon! Impossible. My vote would be don't have her use the current words at all, since they won't be current when the book comes out. Plus, and you are so good at this, I think age could be conveyed in attitude and reactions. Clothing. Agility. Tattoos. Food choices. Like that. xx
ReplyDeleteI agree. I remember reading a Dick Francis book written in 1970 and cringing because the dialogue of one character, a hippie, was so awful. I didn't think it would have sounded realistic even in 1970. Clearly Francis at 50-ish was not comfortable with the slang of the 20-something. (Selden)
DeleteExactly what Hank wrote! My daughter is a YouTuber, and the language changes so fast. Not just these slang phrases, either. Right now everything is "life changing." As in, "I had a chocolate chai latte yesterday that changed my life."
DeleteLast week I listened to 4 girls in their late teens on the train (it's not eavesdropping when they're loud.) Every other sentence was, "That's so aesthetic!" and "bro" has replaced "dude." They were quite entertaining and still so refreshingly young. (When a man in his mid 20s asked one for her IG account, they turned as one to me. I told him he was verging on Epstein territory and he fled back down the stairs.)
I love it: That's so aesthetic!
DeleteWhat Hank said!!! Using today's slang would date the book before it was even out, and I LOVE the concept!
DeleteThe only expression I am familiar with is 6-7.
ReplyDeleteIf you can recognize any of these you grew up in what community starting back in the 60's:
ReplyDeleteswell, glassy, barrel, stoked, gnarly, shaka, A-frame, close out, Barney, duck dive, grom.
OMG! I don't know any of these... except maybe stoked and gnarly. Anon: Please 'splain me! (Anyone know where "splain me" is from? Hint: I heard it first on a tv show featuring a world class comedienne)
DeleteI Love Lucy
DeleteDebRo
Hallie, when I’m talking to myself, which happens a lot since I live alone, I sometimes find myself saying “ ‘splain to me this”. It’s usually when I’m trying to understand poorly written instructions for using a new hair dryer or vacuum cleaner, etc.
DeleteDebRo
I think (my guess) that Ricky Ricardo used it in the TV show I Love Lucy.
DeleteThose are surfer terms. I grew up in the 60's and these are popular words used in the surfing community of Hawaii and California.
DeleteCan you list surfer terms from the '60s without including hang ten?
DeleteWith movies on streaming platforms and vintage music ("Mom, were you a Dead fan?"), vintage vocabulary and slang ("May the Force be with you") is still understandable today. I describe teen and twenty-something characters by their clothes, pink hair (or is it blue?), jewelry and fingernails.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, Margaret - I considered it a major milestone when my 13-year-old granddaughter decided to forgo another round of press-on nails.
DeleteHallie, are you following any of the Gen Z accounts on social media? Perhaps if you watch their stories daily for a while, that can help you understand? the character of the twenty something granddaughter? Or chat with granddaughters of your friends in that age group? Your grandchildren are younger than 20, right?
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised the word badass is not in Gen Z vocabulary.
Your blog this morning reminded me of my high school years (mid1980s). I recall speaking Valley Girl language like “dude”
I lived and breathed the San Fernando Valley when I was in high school.
DeleteLike totally!!
DeleteHaving grown up in New England and specifically as a Bostonian in the 60's I would have to list these slang words as the most familiar ones ~ "Wicked", "Wicked Pissah", "Rats" (as opposed to collegians) and "fink loops" (all clothing references), "Jimmies", "Dunkies", "Banging a Uey" (illegal U-Turn), "The Clickah" and "The Green Monster". Universally in the 70's ~ "Far Out!" a term used by the singer John Denver (I loved this guy...) I drew a blank with most of the terms listed above because at my age I am definitely "out of the loop".
ReplyDeleteSuperb, Evelyn!!! I still say "Bang a U-ey"
DeleteAre fink loops the ones on the back of button-down shirts, at the yoke? We called those fruit loops, for some reason. And to be honest, even though I have sewn one into a custom shirt I have no idea what the actual term is.
DeleteBang a U-ey? We said Hang a U-ey!
DeleteYes, we said fruit loops, too.
DeleteI’m with Deb’s: we said “hang a U-ey”. Somehow that sounds so much more logical than “bang”. — Pat S
DeleteYes, Karen and Deborah... Your fruit loops which we called fink loops are one and the same. I was a bit bothered by the word "fink" because that would mean that every boy in high school who wore the shirts with the loop on the back were not nice or a snitch. Which, of course, was not the case and most shirts back then were manufactured with the loops on the back of them anyway. Also I'm guessing that many parents did not like the fact that classmates made a sport out of coming up behind other students and ripping the loop off the back of their shirts. We could be real "dinks" back then. And I don't mean the contemporary definition of the word "Dink" which came later ~ Double Income, No Kids. :)
DeleteWhoops...that was me answering Karen and Deborah about the fink and fruit loops. And for Pat ~ we had another expression..."bang it out" meaning go for it (make it happen) which would have a similar meaning as "bang a u-ey". Strictly Bostonian lingo all the way....lol.
DeleteI do prefer BANG to hang a u-ey. It's got more oomph.
DeleteLOCKER LOOP On that loop on the back of a shirt... here's what Google says: "That small loop on the back of button-down shirts is called a locker loop, named for its original purpose of letting sailors and Ivy League students hang their shirts on hooks in narrow lockers to keep them from wrinkling before closets and hangers were common. " I have never heard anyone use that term. Though to be fair. the thing rarely comes up in everyday conversations.
DeleteThanks, Hallie! Makes perfect sense, another obsolete clothing artifact, like the extra buttons on coat sleeves, meant to discourage uncouth soldiers from wiping their runny noses on their cuffs!
DeleteI got them all, Hallie, but I'd be really wary of using any of them in a book unless, like "rage bait", they become part of the general culture. You can have your Gen Z character be hooked on 70s and 80s sitcoms or even 40s and 50s movies.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a good workaround...
DeleteI had not heard of some of the terms, but with guessing (I was mostly wrong) and being familiar with a couple of them, I think I got about half of them.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the fifties and sixties. Some words I hardly ever hear now are “keen”, to describe a nicely dressed boy (“you look keen”), and “boss”, which I think was used to positively describe something. For instance, someone likes an opinion you just expressed:”that’s boss”. I still use “neat”: “What a neat idea!”
I was the oldest child. I mostly learned slang terms from friends who had older siblings. My parents preferred us to use proper grammar and vocabulary.
DebRo
BOSS! I'd forgotten that one.
DeleteMany years ago I was at a Miles Davis concert and the guy next to me kept saying Miles was so BAD!! Greatly emphasized. This was before I knew bad meant good. At first I was thinking, "Well why are you even here dude"?
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha! It does get confusing when slang takes a familiar phrase and turns it on its head.
DeleteI took the NY Times quiz the other day and still didn’t do very well.
ReplyDeleteWe spoke with our 28-yo next month son on Christmas and had a big discussion as to which “generation” he and his wife are. (My husband is a strict “a generation is 18 years so go forward from 1964, the last year of the Baby Boomer generation and count in 18 year increments” constructionist.) When we’d hit a brick wall on disagreeing, I said, “Never mind” in true Gilda Radner-as-Emily Latella style. Then my husband asked, “Are you sure that wasn’t Roseanne Roseannadanna?” My son had NO idea what we were talking about! (Tbh, it felt kind of good since he and his wife are always telling us “you can’t say that any more” or “that doesn’t mean what you think it means”!) — Pat S
Boy howdy, do I miss Gilda Radner. And I say "Never mind..." all the time. Still and always.
DeleteIn the fifties we might call someone a meanie cat. Or tell someone don't have a cow. No, the Simpsons did not invent that term. Call someone a hood? Shades of the Wild Ones! But you didn't want to be square either. When the British Invasion happened everything was "grotty" with a long o. Or groovy, or outta sight, far out, gnarly, or uptight.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pat - I remember them all!
Delete