Comes now the above -mentioned Callahan and his dictionary of ordinary words he hears from the teenagers he teaches at Lowell High School, Massachusetts. I have long been a student myself in current words and phrases which often have nothing to do with each other. I'm thinking of the old "phat" to describe something found by the speaker to be marvelous or wonderful or altogether a good thing.
His offering comes to four typed pages. Herewith some samples:
tea or spill tea - meaning to dish the dirt or gossip
run that! - to start doing something i.e. Deal the cards or run that!
Pull up! - an invitation Pull up - let's go to the movies, out for lunch …
Nunya - short form for none of your business
That ain't it! - to find something unacceptable or I don't approve
Hop off - mind your own business
Gotta blast - I have to go now
Finesse - to steal something
Deadass - I'm serious!
The Oxford English Dictionary was first printed in 1879 and quite probably had slang entries way back then, too.
As for slang dictionaries today? Every language in the known world has slang and it follows that they have a dictionary, too. What marks the slang version is that in less than six months, whatever is current now will be obsolete.
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