what are your favourite grime slang terms?

[droid]

re: ambiguity - patois is all about this. one would be very hard pressed to find unambiguous definitions of many, if not most, jamaican words... isn't this part of the nature of patois? no one has ever fixed these meanings (or even spellings in many cases) by writing them down and so they change in meaning more than most words IMO, both over time and also in different geographical locations.

Thats a very good point. I think thats the nature of slang in general. it tends to mutate and take on different (even opposite) meanings depending on who uses it... whilst were at it, how do you read 'Tan' in Patois? As in 'see how me tan' or 'tan good'?


That one had me going for ages...

 

[gabriel]

I reckon hes saying there that he was in the 'poorhouse', or in a 'bad state' before he got his girl. Whilst it is in reference to a relationship, the meaning of the word stays roughly the same IMO.

completely... i wasn't saying that almshouse had a different specific meaning in all of those three situations, rather that it's a word that has a general meaning that is applicable in many different contexts. re: its root, i'm of the opinion that its meaning as put forward by me was removed from the literal meaning a long time ago, and each use now refers to the kind of almshouse that buju and capleton are referring to in their lyrics, rather than constatnly referring back to the original literal meaning. i'm no linguist, but i imagine there's some kind of technical term for this. it reminds me somewhat of the concept 'dead metaphor'.

im not sure what those two lines before it mean. Couldnt it just be referring to general bad behaviour?

"Dem a wait pon di body dem fi put inna di box, A wait pon di body deh fi put inna di vault"
- i read this capleton criticising babylon for encouraging violence and killings, which he then called 'almshouse'. again, a general use...

Ive got a bunch of tunes (from Capleton too) that push the other meaning as well...

be interested to hear that. like i said, i'd only ever noticed the word in its non-literal use, but i never doubted that it had a literal sense too...


Sorry for the thread Hijack btw - but its vital that we clear this up!

LOL. yeah. was too bored at work today!

 

[gabriel]

whilst were at it, how do you read 'Tan' in Patois? As in 'see how me tan' or 'tan good'?

had always thought of it simply as a corruption/different pronunciation of 'turn'

e.g. how you tan so = how you turn/move so (well)

never really thought it through though...

 

[droid]

had always thought of it simply as a corruption/different pronunciation of 'turn'

e.g. how you tan so = how you turn/move so (well)

never really thought it through though...

Pretty much spot on.. I assume it came from 'turn' as well... it basically means something like somones 'stance', or how somebody 'carries' themselves...

be interested to hear that. like i said, i'd only ever noticed the word in its non-literal use, but i never doubted that it had a literal sense too...

Theres some lyrics on Prophecy (I think), and I remember a Luciano tune that mentions it in a literal sense as well... Ill try to dig some out.

LOL. yeah. was too bored at work today!

Was avoiding a deadline myself!

 

[zenmonkey]

skeng etc

Can anyone tell me what the following mean: skeng, mash and blix/blicks,

For some reason I think a skeng is a knife. Am I right?
I am presuming that a mash is either a) a machete b) a machine gun c) a mash hammer
or d) some pulverised potatoes.

In the Dizzee Rascal track "Where's the Gs" he says, rhetorically, "Where's the blix? Where's the mash?"

In "fix up, look sharp" he says something along the lines of,

"I've heard the gossip from the street to the slammer,
They're tryin to see if Dizzee stays true to his grammar,
Being a celebrity don't mean shit to me,
Fuck the glitz and glamour, hit them with the (Blitzen hammer/bricks'n'hammer/Blicks n' hammer.)

What does he say? If its Blix - what the crud is a Blix?


Also, in reference to previous references to the way in which language mutates and takes on different (even contradictory) meanings, I once overheard the following conversation.

RUDE BWOY 1) You try dat cheese cake from dat shop over the road?

RUDE BWOY 2) Yeah, bludd.

RUDE BWOY 1) I bought some yesterday bludd. It was raw, ya get me?

RUDE BWOY 2) Standard, bled. Yeah man. (licking his lips)

RUDE BWOY 1) Naah blud, it was Raaaaw!

RUDE BWOY 2) Yeah, I hear you bludd it was Raaaaaaw! (smiling)

RUDE BWOY 1) Nah, ya don't get me. I saw it, yeah, and it look like a angel had made it, bludd. Den me bit it, yeh and it had no BIScuit at da BOttom! Cheesecake s'posed to have BIScuit at the BOTtom. Ya get me it was RAAAAW! (grimacing)

RUDE BWOY 2) Aaaaah - right, it was "Raaaw!" (nods in realisation)

RUDE BWOY 1) Standard

The sight of two people shouting the word "Raw" at eachother in complete bafflement was a hilarious example of how trying to hard to keep up with cool slang can leave you looking plain stupid.

SAFESAFE

 

[zhao]

hahaha

 

[mistersloane]

Can anyone tell me what the following mean: skeng, mash and blix/blicks,

For some reason I think a skeng is a knife. Am I right?
I am presuming that a mash is either a) a machete b) a machine gun c) a mash hammer
or d) some pulverised potatoes.

In the Dizzee Rascal track "Where's the Gs" he says, rhetorically, "Where's the blix? Where's the mash?"

In "fix up, look sharp" he says something along the lines of,

"I've heard the gossip from the street to the slammer,
They're tryin to see if Dizzee stays true to his grammar,
Being a celebrity don't mean shit to me,
Fuck the glitz and glamour, hit them with the (Blitzen hammer/bricks'n'hammer/Blicks n' hammer.)

What does he say? If its Blix - what the crud is a Blix?

urban dictionary is good on all of these I reckon

 

[Logan Sama]

lol

Blix is a knife

 

[Mr. Tea]

lol

Blix is a knife

Not quite: to 'Blix' someone is to try to acertain whether or not they're carrying a knife, or indeed a weapon of any kind. Came into usage around 2003.

 

[viktorvaughn]

Not quite: to 'Blix' someone is to try to acertain whether or not they're carrying a knife, or indeed a weapon of any kind. Came into usage around 2003.

As in frisk?

 

[Mr. Tea]

As in frisk?

Pfft, God knows, it was a very poor gag on Hans Blix.

I have less than no knowledge of grime slang (although I must say, I find there are some real horrowshow slovos you music vecks are coming out with here...).

 

[benjybars]

i really enjoyed skepta's 'one man skeng daddy' phase...

 

[viktorvaughn]

'Are you stupendous!??' - Footsie

 

[rockypoppy2]

terms / phrases i like to use (usually in random text messages):

tools (=weapons)
don't watch no face.
never forget ur ends
on a regular
top form / top boy etc.

haha who would you ever text that to?

 

[rockypoppy2]

In the Dizzee Rascal track "Where's the Gs" he says, rhetorically, "Where's the blix? Where's the mash?"

In "fix up, look sharp" he says something along the lines of,

"I've heard the gossip from the street to the slammer,
They're tryin to see if Dizzee stays true to his grammar,
Being a celebrity don't mean shit to me,
Fuck the glitz and glamour, hit them with the (Blitzen hammer/bricks'n'hammer/Blicks n' hammer.)

What does he say? If its Blix - what the crud is a Blix?

i always thought it was blitz von clapper- an old german gun - maybe its just my ears
that cheesecake thing is jokes

D double - im chatting bare reality
love it

 

[mos dan]

one for the 'questions you are too scared to ask..' or a JA thread maybe, but this is the only thread i could find with 'slang' in the title:

what is the origin of the phrase 'dun your dance'? where was it first used and why are you dunning it? obviously i know what it means in context. thx!