Is it just me? Or is the slang that is being coined these days just getting sillier and sillier? The great American dictionary the Merriam-Webster has released another one of its occasional lists of current slang, and many of them strike me as being silly beyond words. Check out this list and see what you think:
Girl dinner—a light meal of snacks or easy-to-prepare foods. Use of girl dinner with this meaning is often attributed to a TikTok video posted in 2023 by Olivia Maher, in which she says the following about her meal of grapes, bread, cheese, and pickles: “This is my dinner. I call this ‘girl dinner’ or ‘medieval peasant dinner.’” But, of course, there is nothing ‘girl dinner about this—it’s just an easy meal or a snack meal.
Gish gallop—a debate strategy involving the overwhelming use of false arguments. Gish gallop was coined by American physical anthropologist Eugenie C. Scott in 1994, referencing a rhetorical strategy often employed by creationist Duane Gish in debates about evolution. This is a bit of slang that would be incoherent, simply puzzling, in Australia. But there are examples of it. When Chris Bowen says ‘renewable energy is the cheapest more reliable form of power’ (a false claim) before we can stop him to argue he says (‘And it can be backed up for batteries for peak periods’ (another false claim) and ‘the sun and wind come to us free’ (another false claim since it takes a huge amount of money to covert ‘free’ sun and wind into electrical power. He is running at a ‘Gish gallop.’
Glow up—transforming a person’s appearance, especially as regards to their age. Not very clever—just a mash up of ‘grow up’ and ‘glow.’ Why do they bother?
Green flag—a signal of approval or encouragement. We have long use ‘red flag’ to mean a stop signal or a warning signal; this is just the reversal of (or alternative to) that. But really? Would you ever indicate your approval by saying ‘that’s a green flag’?
Grindset—this just means a workaholic; someone who is obsessed and determined and keeps on going. Again an obvious (if rather award) mash up of ‘mind set’ with ‘hard grind.’ It is just a puzzling and unhelpful way of saying something that could be put much more clearly.
Heffa—a young woman. This just a jokey spelling of ‘heifer’, the word for a young cow. Not very polite I would have thought; but the Merriam-Webster people say ‘a usually neutral and often playful term for a woman.’ Neutral? Playful? To call a woman a cow? I don’t think so! They go on to say: ‘The current slang use of heffa/heifer comes from, and is employed primarily in, African American English. In her 1994 book Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner, Dr. Geneva Smitherman notes that heifer is “a reference to any female; used by males and females; a fairly neutral term.”’ Still looks dodgy to me!
A bit more silly slang tomorrow.
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