Modern Slang
By: Winnie Brennan, Ariana Chaudhry, Avery Clayton, Campbell Coyne, Anika Kakar, and Tess Nelson.
Buss. On god. Drippy. Hits Different. Slay.
Do you know these words? You may hear them in the hallways, during lunch, and around campus, but do you understand what they mean? Modern slang constantly evolves to make new terms and new ways of saying things. For this article, several teachers and students were interviewed to get their definitions and opinions on slang words.
Here is a short list of slang terms used today:
- Slay
- On god
- Buss/Bussin
- Snatched
- Sus
- Period
- Cap
- Drippy
- Hits different
“I think I have figured out what some of them mean,” said Mr. Revell, the eighth grade science teacher. “I don’t even want to say them because I have a feeling some of them are not school appropriate.”
Are you like Mr. Revell trying figure out the definitions of these words or wondering if they’re inappropriate? Here’s what they mean and how to use them.
Let’s begin with slay.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines slay as “kill (a person or animal) in a violent way.” Some teenagers today use it to say “you killed that,” but not in a literal sense. “I think of the negative context of slay,” seventh grade math teacher Mrs. Haskins said. “But you guys have swerved it to the positive context.” Its meaning depends on the interpretation. Slay is “one of the more profound words in the English dictionary,” said Salil Gupta, an eighth grader.
A lot of people may think the term “on god” means something religious but in modern slang it’s more like a synonym for I promise, I swear, or I agree. The word is usually abbreviated to ‘ong’ when it’s used in a texting conversation. It is also newly used within the past year or two. Don’t confuse this term with on guard.
Bussin and buss mean good. It usually describes food. Here’s an example: “That cupcake was bussin!”
The word snatched usually means to take something in a rude way. But in slang, it means looking good. The few students interviewed for this article had no understanding of this word. “What?” Logan Washington stated when he was asked to define snatched. Salil Gupta responded, “Snatched? No idea! No idea!” This word is not said very often but it is still used by some people.
Sus. Short for suspicious.
“Sus is used when someone is being a weirdo,” eighth grader Taye Britt said.
Sus became a popular slang word from the game Among Us. The word sus was around before Among Us, though it really wasn’t used in everyday conversations. According to Merriam-Webster, sus was used in the game Among Us when “a crewmate tries to guess the imposter and complete tasks before the imposter offs them all.” The usage of the word occurred when Among Us was popular, and people still use this word today.
Cap/no cap are more frequently used slang words. Cap means lie. No cap is the opposite, so no lie. If you’re capping, you’re lying. And if you’re not capping, you’re not lying. “Even no cap I’ll hear a little bit…I still don’t know if I ever use them appropriately,” said Ms. Stettler, the sixth grade English teacher.
Drippy means extremely fashionable or to have really good style. You might use drippy to describe someone’s shoes or jewelry. Like many other teachers, Madame Kalubi was confused by the slang meaning of Drippy. “Drippy? You drip? Is this the Urban Dictionary?” Madame Kalubi said.
You might think hits different means to actually hit someone, but it doesn’t. Hits different again means “good,” according to eighth grader Logan Washington. Adding onto that, the Urban Dictionary says hits different means “to describe something out of the ordinary.”
If you ever hear this crazy slang during the school day, try some of them out in your daily conversations even if you’re unsure of how they work or what they mean. “There are few things as embarrassing as when old people try to use [slang] words right,” said Mrs. Neidlein-Dial, the eighth grade social studies teacher. After reading this article, hopefully you might have learned a thing or two about modern day slang words.
Just don’t use them around your English teacher.