#American Slang

[cowboylikeyouu]

(tiktok by @ radnasty)

the video and the comments where mostly attacking british people for using british vocabulary, which is already pretty stupid bc like?? just read smth else or ignore it?? why are we downright insulting people and telling them they shouldn’t write fics set in america if they don’t have an american beta reader?? maybe tell the author gently in the comments if it bothers you so much, before hating under a random tiktok. just saying.

anyhow, i think many seem to forget/aren’t aware of the fact that international authors probably make up a big majority of the people this happens to? like, i‘m from germany, and they teach us british english in school, but as soon as you start consuming english media on your own, it’s obviously dominated by american stuff.

"british vs american english" takes up like 0.1% of what we do in english class, like we had maybe one or two lessons in our lives where we talked about the differences for a bit. otherwise it’s really just "here, british vocabulary, pls study it for the test tomorrow, but OH, we‘re also reading an american novel for class now, have fun", and it makes writing in english hard sometimes😭 especially when it comes to dialogue and slang bc like obviously we didn’t learn about american 40s slang so SORRY we can’t write a young bucky barnes very well 🙄

and then comments were all just like "well do your research🙄" and yeah ofc we could, but i kinda don’t want to?? this is fanfiction and while i love flawless stories, it’s thankfully not a requirement, so let us have some fun without doing a whole english lesson beforehand ^^ pretty sure most people wouldn’t mind you telling them that they used the wrong word here and there, i‘d probably be grateful, but after reading those really rude comments i kinda wanna make my american characters talk in full UK slang, just to trigger some americans :/

[westeroswisdom]

Ewan Mitchell and Tom Glynn-Carney take turns trying to guess American slang.

I was chuffed to run across that vid.

The Targaryen-Hightower bros seem to have good chemistry. That bodes well for a great HotD Season 2 which begins in just over three weeks.

[tinkerbitch69]

I CANT STOP LISTENING TO THIS BAND SEND HELP!!!

[wordgoods]

The origin of "OK" / "okay"

On March 23, 1839, the initials “O.K.” were first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time.

During the late 1830s, it was a favorite practice among younger, educated circles to misspell words intentionally, then abbreviate them and use them as slang when talking to one another. Just as teenagers today have their own slang based on distortions of common words, such as [“rizz” for “charisma”], the “in crowd” of the 1830s had a whole host of slang terms they abbreviated. Popular abbreviations included “KY” for “No use” (“know yuse”), “KG” for “No go” (“Know go”), and “OW” for all right (“oll wright”).

[via History.]

[basinbabygirl]

I just think that british people calling them love bites is so much more sophisticated and romantic and eloquent than calling them hickeys. Like hickeys is such a hookup culture name for something, but love bites? It screams affection. It screams love. It screams attention. It screams care. It screams adoration. It screams happily ever after. It minorly screams vampire. I love it. It’s just so much better than calling it a hickey.

[monsterkingdom]

Please tell me im not crazy because i use this every day of my life for when im getting dressed nice.

[mondonguita]

....qué pá?

[lilaxprinxe]

Thinking about how insane American slang is

Buttfuck

That means the middle of nowhere. Ex: I live in buttfuck Ohio. Means I live in a very rural area of Ohio. Imagine how fucking insane that would sound to someone who’s never heard of it

[the-blind-assassin-12]

you took it all gracefully on the chin

knowing that the beatings had to someday end

you found the bandages inside the pen

and the stitches on the radio

but there was something heavy holding you down

and there were whispers that were driving you crazy

and now you haunt the heart of this town

remember when I knew a boxer, baby?

[punkrockmixtapes]

The Gaslight Anthem - Bring It On (Official Video)

And give me the fevers that just won't break

And give me the children you don't wanna raise

 And tell me about the cool, he sings you in those songs If it's better than my love,

baby, bring it on Oh, bring it on

[itsyaboibananaboi]

"Imagine if you will, that there was a world where a based white boy who has that black teen swagger and is goated with the sauce lost his rizz. Can this jit say that his drip is bussin when he can't rizz up the local gyatt, no cap fr? Can this mid simp get the glowup and slay once more? Find out on this episode of, The Twilight Zone."

[waitwhathelp]

The greatest thing to do is make your own slang and use it unironically in daily life

[shadowdemon-gd]

I just said “tbh” out loud unironically. What did the internet do to me

[hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon]

This is largely for @ryebreadlord

So...something about Jersey does weird things to the people who come from it, and subsequently the music they make, which explains two of my favorite bands being My Chemical Romance and The Gaslight Anthem. due to being raised on the latter and falling head over heels in love with the former at age fourteen, the discographies of these bands exist in conversation in my head. can I rationally explain these conversations? the answer is: sometimes!

Basically, this is why The Spirit of Jazz (Gaslight Anthem) and Save Yourself I’ll Hold Them Back (MCR) are married in my head.

To begin, there’s a few superficial similarities between the songs:

In the second verses of both songs there are mentions to dark haired lovers and a special relationship between the narrator and their lover:

“ So what now, lover with your long black hair? If I cut you open, baby, I can repair. Bandage your wounds with the salt on my tongue. And I'm the only one around here ” (The Gaslight Anthem)

“ I'm the only friend that makes you cry, You're a heart attack in black hair dye” (My Chemical Romance)

Both songs loosely allude to a vague form of immortality via movies and music, suggesting that the narrator is aware of the story they are telling:

“ The Cool is dead, baby, go on to sleep, Rest your weary head and love a better me, And in the morning we'll start over again, That's how they do it up on the screen “ (The Gaslight Anthem)

“ They say we're never leaving this place alive, But if you sing these words, we'll never die” and “ This ain't about all the friends you made, But the graffiti they write on your grave” (My Chemical Romance)

These are superficial similarities, but they allow me to get the ball rolling and thoughts percolating.

To me, the songs are just similar enough in ideas and concepts mentioned to plausibly create two perspectives of one narrative. Two snapshots of one story, if you will, with the individual context of each song creating a larger narrative. Save Yourself I’ll Hold Them Back has a narrator who is simultaneously desperate and hopeful, screaming for their lover to get out and save themselves while also saying that as long as they keep hope and beauty in the world, none of them will truly die. The Spirit of Jazz has a narrator who is nostalgic, remembering previous times with a lover and waiting for that lover to return, while still professing their love. To me, these narrators are one and the same, just separated by time. At first, the narrator is young and in a desperate situation, sending their lover away for their safety. Later, they are waiting, wondering if they will ever see that lover again. At no time do they ever doubt their devotion to each other, there is the question of whether they did the right thing.

To compare the choruses:

“ Was I good to you, the wife of my youth? Not another soul could love you like my rotten bones do, So I will wait on the edges in between, These New York streets where you and I would meet” (The Gaslight Anthem)

“ We can leave this world, leave it all behind, We can steal this car if your folks don't mind, We can live forever if you've got the time “ (My Chemical Romance)

These are in conversation with each other. In an earlier time, the narrator and their lover wanted to run away, and claimed they would live forever. Later, the narrator is waiting, perhaps forever, for their lover to come back to them. The Gaslight Anthem song mentions waiting multiple times throughout the song. In the lens I’m using, this can be viewed as the narrator waiting at an arranged safe point after being separated, and wondering if their lover is ever going to meet them there.

Additionally, both songs make references to times when the narrator has saved their lover from pain, both self-inflicted or otherwise:

“Get off the ledge and drop the knife, Not a victim of a victim's life, Because this ain't a room full of suicides, We're believers, I believe tonight” (My Chemical Romance)

“And only I can heal your wounds, Only I can heal your wounds, When you can't go on, when you can't go on, When you can't go on, when you know, hold on” (The Gaslight Anthem)

Finally, one of the more blatant similarities with the narrator describing their lover:

“ But I'm a cannonball to a house on fire, And you're slow like Motown soul” (The Gaslight Anthem”

“ You're the broken glass in the morning light, Be a burning star if it takes all night” (My Chemical Romance)

Both of these songs describe the narrator’s lover as moving slower or ‘taking all night’, which supports the narrative I’m establishing. Of course the narrator is giving their lover time to escape, the lover moves slower and needs time(a whole night) to get away. And of course the narrator, much later, is still waiting for their lover to reappear, they take their time like soul music does. I also love how both lines shown here reference the lover in close proximity to fire and destruction.

Both songs are also oddly hopeful! Save Yourself I’ll Hold Them Back continuously states that the narrator and their lover are going to live forever, while The Spirit of Jazz remembers the old times with only fondness and repeatedly states that the narrator will wait as long as it takes to see their lover again.

To sum up: To someone who listens to a lot of sad yet oddly hopeful rock music from Jersey, these songs have a lot in common and can form a narrative when put together. Go listen to them, I provided links. Stay tuned for when I compare more songs!

[knistelfitz]

The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang (akustik Cover von Knistelfitz)

[heywriters]

A few non-Americans are confused by the og post, so let's break this down.

cursing — (formal) e.g. swearing, using vulgarities and profanities, etc; often indicates that the speaker is in a bad mood and should probably be taken seriously

cussing — (informal) bastardization of "cursing" with same definition except it implies the speaker is a child, behaving like a child, trying in vain to sound tough, throwing a temper tantrum, and overall not to be taken seriously

Examples:

When the crime boss received the bad news, he threw a chair across the room and began cursing loudly. vs If our parents ever caught us cussing we would be in so much trouble.

Now, for every instance when "cussing" is used "cursing" would also work just fine, but not the other way around. So if I write my character is "cussing" I mean they are being childish.

Use of "cuss" can also imply a low class and highly informal context. Working class cuss, upper class curse.

Naturally, other variations exist, including,

cuss word — (noun) a term I definitely used on the playground when tattling on a mean girl who said "fuck" to me; e.g. "Teacher, she said a cuss word!" (I would never have said "curse" as a child)

cuss — (noun) 1. shorter version of the above; e.g. "Teacher, she said a cuss!" 2. [regional/archaic] a derogatory nickname for someone, usually an older man, who is grumpy and stubborn; e.g. "My grandfather is an old cuss."

cussed out - means someone was chastised with foul language; e.g. "He cussed out the employee over a minor issue." Or "It wasn't a big deal, you don't need to cuss me out about it!"

Here's some info on the etymology of "cuss" in American English. It goes back surprisingly far and has evolved over the centuries.

TL;DR — Cussing is for children and childish people. Cursing is more formal.

No, Google Docs, there is a distinct difference between "cussing" and "cursing."