0533 (On Slang)

The word “slang” was popularized in English during the mid-18th century and first referred to the speech of tramps and thieves. It’s likely that it comes from the verb slanger, a Northern English word meaning “to linger” or “to go slowly,” perhaps in reference to the wandering ways of vagabonds. Slanger is related to Nordic words meaning “to sling” or “to hang loose.” 

Slang in Music and Rhythm

• Entry 0533: Describes soul as the "slang" of music, characterizing it as a variation that people understand more intuitively.
• Entry 1862: Asserts that beats are the "slang" of rhythm.
• Entry 1419: Suggests that musicians must occasionally return to "old grammars" to discover "new slangs." It notes that musical slangs become traditions or "grammars" once they are fully absorbed into culture.
• Rhythmic Language: One entry notes that anything built on drummed rhythms is susceptible to "slanged" language, such as the wordplay found in scat and rap, which subsequently becomes an engine for the music.

The Lifecycle and Function of Slang

• Entry 3347: Defines slang as a way to seize a cultural moment of youth, allowing young people to create a world that feels uniquely theirs and shared with peers.
• Entry 0912: Describes search engines as the "canary in the colloquial coal mine" because they track the "temperature" of language. When slang becomes "burned-out," search engine results help reset it.
• Entry 2159: Discusses how slang falling out of fashion may actually indicate it has been fully absorbed as a new cultural norm. The entry uses the term "selfie" as an example of slang that became a permanent norm despite its perceived negative qualities.
• Entry 2166: Notes that even if a subject is foreign to an individual, its dialects or slang can serve as effective access points to understanding its finer details.

Strategic and Metaphorical Slang

• Entry 1239: Compares political strategies to slang, arguing they are created by repeating a "skewed variation of a tradition" until the strategy becomes a reflex.
• Entry 1988: Cautions that while metaphors help construct meaning, they should not be treated with the same casualness as slang.
• AI and Coded Language: A commentary on AI uses the metaphor of Cockney rhyming slang to describe generative systems; while the "coded language" may be incomprehensible to listeners, tracing its formation over time makes it interesting. Additionally, the prose generated by AI is described as a "dialect" of human speech.