Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Slang-o-Matic Extravaganza by Guest Author Randall Platt

Please welcome honored guest author and serious slang aficionado, Randall Platt (aka "that Platt woman").  So just who is this Randall Platt?

Taking the words right from her mouth: She writes fiction for adults and young adults and people who don’t own up to being either. A three-time winner of the WILLA Literary award for young adult fiction, she has been a finalist for the Washington State Book Award three times, in addition to winning several other state and national awards. Check out her three latest novels, all dripping with slang! 

INCOMMUNICADO 

THE GIRL WHO WOULDN’T DIE 

PROFESSOR RENOIR’S COLLECTION OF ODDITIES, CURIOSITIES, AND DELIGHTS 

Her books are available at bookstores everywhere and online outlets galore, but, as Randi points out, it sure is good to support your local indie bookstore. She adds, "I am on Facebook, but only as a real person, not a writer—not that a writer can’t be a real person, too. I guess." www.plattbooks.com

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Thanks for the guest spot, Ann! 

When folks learn about my passion for slang and the resulting interactive database I created, which I call Slang-O-Matic, the first thing they ask is, ‘How did this monstrosity all come about?’ Honestly? It all came about with a book review. The reviewer had questioned some terms I used in my first novel, The Four Arrows Fe-As-Ko (1992) about four mentally and physically challenged adults running the largest cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon. I did my due diligence and researched the heck out of the language of the day, the situation, and the people. From that point on, I decided I would create a database of the terms I used, especially since that novel was the first book in a three-book series. I was able to keep the language and the slanguage consistent from book to book. Handy, huh?

Gosh, I sure like Slang-O-Matic. I can’t wait to say THAT to Mom!

Well, as with many things in a writer’s life, my database took on much larger proportions and grew with each subsequent novel involving other eras and situations. I finally trademarked my tag line:

Slang-O-Matic—for the color of our speech.

Because we don’t speak,

nor should we write,

in black and white. 

What’s interesting to me as I explore the ‘history’ of a term, is how the internet and social media and of course, television and film, changed how a term can come into being and spread in an instant. Slang from the 19th Century and earlier took about ten years to ‘make the rounds.’ Today, a word can come in and out of favor within days. And of course, we writers need to be aware of that and make sure our readers of tomorrow will understand the slang of today. Conversely, readers of today might not understand the slang of yesterday. Proceed with caution. Everything needs to be in context.

Wow, according to Slang-O-Matic, there are over 174 references to coke
and not one of them referring to what’s in my hand.

Take for instance the common word ‘bug.’ According to Slang-O-Matic, there are 135 slang entries that contain ‘bug.’ It can mean anything from a bribe, to annoy, a crazy person, a cheating device, a jockey’s weight allowance, a tie pin, a bad student, a germ, to a strong desire to cheap tobacco. 

It seems the more taboo a subject is, the more slang surrounds it—take for instance the lower portions of one’s body. I count 221 terms which might be medical slang or street slang or child-speak for such areas and their functions. I will never want for a great slang term for one’s behind or procreation apparatus.

Why call a cab when you can call a ramble, a trip, a coffee grinder, a cracker box, a flapdoodle, a jarvey, or a jar box? Why call a drunk a drunk when you can choose from alki stiff, belch-guts, blossom-nose, boozington, bottle baby, croak, dipso, gin head, glow worm, light-house (big glowing red nose), soak, swillpot, malt-worm, drain pipe, or my personal favorite, a lush merchant? 

Folks usually wonder how I use my database for my own work. Since I have eight fields of information for each of my 43,000 (and counting) entries, I can easily manipulate the database for my needs. For instance, I am current working on book which takes place in the 1930s and my characters are from the fortune telling trades, the banking trades, the radio trades, and the con artistry trades. I have broken terms down to hundreds of categories - so, for this book, I call up slang and cant from the banking, carnival, con artist, and radio industries. Then I sort the terms by the date and my database returns a list of the terms used from 1920 to 1940, to cover the approximate timeline of my novel. So, if my conservative banking character needs to delicately refer to a woman as a whore, I can chose from my list of over 375 terms for ‘whore’: 

• pro skirt 
• QT cutie 
• trick babe 
• charity girl 
• soft lady 
• two-by-four (rhymes with ‘whore’) 
• soft lady 
• B-girl 
• behavior problem 
• boulevard woman 
• clever girl 

 Now, my con artist character, being much more worldly and of the streets herself, might refer to that same whore in much less charitable terms, such as 

• artichoke 
• blisterine 
• blowser 
• brass nail 
• hat rack 
• jump 
• mudkicker 
• notch girl 
• round heel 
• scupper 

See the difference? Fun, huh?

 

So what began as someone questioning some terms I used decades ago as anachronistic, has evolved into those editors, writers, and book reviewers coming to me with their questions. I am certainly not the world’s foremost expert on slang, but I sure as heck know a thing or two by now. I always welcome questions regarding this along with any idea as to how to exploit all this work. 

Help! Before I slang again! 

Oh, dear. Billy’s been reading Slang-O-Matic again!