slang

(noun)

Language outside of conventional usage.

Related Terms

Examples of slang in the following topics:

  • Avoiding Slang and Jargon

    • When writing business documents, only use jargon when necessary with appropriate audiences, and completely avoid the use of slang words.
    • It can be similar to slang or it can be highly technical.
    • The term slang includes words, expressions, or the special use of language, used in informal speech.
    • Slang is especially common in pop, rock, jazz, and rap music, as well as in films, all of which tend to have international audiences.
    • Writers of official documents or papers should avoid using slang, whatever the context.

  • Age

    • As new generations seek to define themselves as something apart from the old, they adopt new lingo and slang, allowing a generation to create a sense of division from the previous one.
    • Slang: Slang is an ever-changing set of colloquial words and phrases that speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group or society at large.
    • As each successive generation of society struggles to establish its own unique identity among its predecessors, generational gaps provide a large influence over the continual change and adaptation of slang.
    • Technological Influences: Every generation develops new slang, but with the development of technology, understanding gaps have widened between the older and younger generations.

  • Appropriate Tone

    • A piece of correspondence written in the formal tone contains the proper subordination, is free from discriminatory language, and contains no slang or text speak.

  • Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

    • An example of cultural relativism might include slang words from specific languages (and even from particular dialects within a language).

  • Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

    • An example of cultural relativism might include slang words from specific languages (and even from particular dialects within a language).

  • Differences Between Public Speaking and Conversation

    • Slang, profanity, and poor grammar might be accepted between friends but are definitely not appropriate for any kind of public address or speech.

  • The Great Depression

    • As the Depression deepened, vast numbers of families were unable to pay rent and were evicted from their homes to stay in “Hoovervilles,” the slang term for shantytowns that were contemptuously named after President Herbert Hoover , whose policies were considered to blame for the Depression.
    • A large number of these workers did not have money for train or bus tickets and took to illegally hopping onto freight trains and earning them the slang name, “Hobos.”

  • Vaudeville

    • The capitol of the "big time" was New York City's Palace Theatre (or just "The Palace" in vaudevillian slang).

  • Abbreviations and Acronyms

    • The only category of acronym that you should never use is slang, especially terms derived from texting.

  • The Rise of Realism

    • Twain was the first major author to come from the interior of the country, and he captured its distinctive, humorous slang and iconoclasm.