Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Buzz

Buzz is another one of those simple slang words that has morphed in meaning over time, in some surprising directions. For instance...

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The following definition from The Rogue's Lexicon—which includes a wonderful example full of other bits of roguish slang—initially caught my eye:

Buzzing—Searching for. "I was in a push and had to buzz about half a glass before I touched a flat's thimble and slang. I fenced the swag for half a century"

What. The. Heck. Does. All. THAT mean?? Luckily for me (and perhaps for you, too), the Lexicon provides a translation immediately following this example:

"I was in a crowd and searched for half an hour before I succeeded in stealing a man's watch and chain, which I sold for fifty dollars."

American Slang: 2nd Edition edited by Robert L. Chapman, has quite a long entry on buzz, with several definitions that are new to me. Here are a few—some familiar, some "new":

1. Subject of talk; gossip; rumor (by 1605)
2. To pilfer; rob (by 1812)
3. To talk; converse (by 1832)
4. To flatter; court (about 1900)
5. To call someone on the telephone (about 1910)
6. A pleasant sense of intoxication (about 1935)

Clearly, buzzing is not limited to the actions of bees...

What's the buzz?
[By Charles Thomas Bingham - "Plate III" in (1897) Hymenoptera, v. I, London: Taylor and Francis, p. fig. 13., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61678774]