Grab Bag for Word Nerds, Part Two: Vivacious Vernacular: Words About Slang

The origins of slang are unknown, but it was first used to describe the specialized words used by members of a specific group or trade. Learn this list of terms related to the informal language that groups use casually among themselves.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. argot
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    In the argot of the market, that means “real” or inflation-adjusted yields are negative. New York Times (Jul 27, 2020)
  2. cant
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    Mercieca is an academic, yet her book is mercifully free of scholarly cant. Washington Post (Jul 23, 2020)
    Cant probably comes from the Latin cantus, meaning "song," because a language you don't understand might sound like singing. It was originally used to describe a secret language used by beggars and thieves.
  3. colloquial
    characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation
    I wasn’t racially abused outright, but my use of colloquial language and my style – of a working-class black girl from a council estate in Oxford – was often sniggered at during lectures. The Guardian (Jun 18, 2020)
    Colloquy means "talking together" in Latin.
  4. dialect
    the usage or vocabulary characteristic of a group of people
    “Even now, I catch myself saying words in a Southern accent or in dialect,” he said. Los Angeles Times (Oct 11, 2020)
    Different regions of some countries speak variations on the mother tongue: different enough to be difficult to understand, but not so distinct as to qualify as another language. That's a dialect, from the Greek dialektos.
  5. idiom
    expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from its words
    One woman Graham interviewed used an idiom: “Women are strong enough to walk and chew gum at the same time.” Slate (Oct 1, 2020)
    An idiom is a phrase or expression which, if translated literally into another language, would make no sense. "Hit the hay," for example, meaning "go to sleep," is an idiomatic (see below) expression.
  6. idiomatic
    relating to the natural expressions of native speakers
    These greetings are what linguists call “formulaic expressions”: idiomatic phrases people say in certain circumstances without a thought to their literal meaning. Washington Post (Jun 21, 2020)
  7. jargon
    technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject
    The analysis also found, at the extremes, an element of real pathology — of a “personality disorder,” in the jargon of psychiatry. New York Times (Sep 28, 2020)
    Jargon comes from the Old French, where it means "the chattering of birds."
  8. lingo
    a characteristic language of a particular group
    If you're not familiar with the press lingo, a "lid" is a note to your press pool that you plan no further public events on your schedule. Fox News (Oct 2, 2020)
    Like lingua franca, below, lingo originates in the Latin word lingua, meaning "tongue." Language does too, as does linguistics.
  9. lingua franca
    a common language used by speakers of different languages
    Our neighbours in Tanzania are supposed to be the most proficient speakers of this language used as a lingua franca by around 100 million people across East Africa. BBC (Apr 26, 2020)
  10. patois
    a regional dialect of a language
    “The music dissolved fictitious divisions in society,” Mr. Holness said, “and somewhere between the dreadlocks, the Jamaican patois and Québécois French, the seeds of my existence were sowed, along with my future as a rebel.” New York Times (Jul 10, 2020)
    Patois is Old French for "gibberish;" now it means something closer to dialect, above.
  11. pidgin
    a simplified language allowing communication between groups
    He sings, most often, in a pidgin of English and Yoruba, confident that his meaning will get through even if listeners don’t recognize all the words. New York Times (Aug 5, 2020)
    Pidgin is a Chinese pronunciation of the English word business. Pidgin English was the simplistic version of English used by Chinese merchants and brokers in the years after the country opened to Western trade: "business English," simple but sufficient for making deals.
  12. vernacular
    the everyday speech of the people
    Men’s fashion week and the summer’s couture shows moved online, other shows pivoted to videos, and a new word embodying the two – phygital – entered the vernacular. The Guardian (Sep 17, 2020)
Created on Tue Oct 06 13:03:51 EDT 2020 (updated Fri Oct 23 10:14:54 EDT 2020)

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