According to Oliver Klingenstein (’11), Gabe Ruimy (’11) and Adam Wolf (’11), the new slang word of the week is: “Freezie.” What does this word even mean? When asked to use it in a sentence, Klingenstein replied; “Hey dude, I am hella sweaty from basketball practice. I’m gonna dip home and get freezie.” When asked to define it, Klingenstein believed it meant to get ready or to clean up for the night.
Multiple students claim that Urban uses the most slang out of many of the high schools in the Bay Area. Slang is primarily used between friends either to either make jokes or to shortcut through conversations. Klingenstein believes that “most slang starts here (at Urban),” and soon enough, other schools pick up on it. Ian Sicurella (12), also thinks that “slang words go from school to school very quickly.” Sicurella feels that slang is very different at Urban than at other schools. If someone begins a slang word at Urban, “other people will soon pick up on it, and it will spread to other schools immediately.”
Slang at Urban has also definitely made its way into classroom discussions. English Teacher Courtney Rein believes that in class, slang is “used for self-mockery. It is more of a humorous gesture and not for truly explaining your thinking.” Rein recognizes the fact that in her class, students know that what they are saying is ridiculous and that such slang cannot be integrated into any formal writing. When it does show up in class discussion, it is never taken seriously.
On the other hand, slang has its benefits in the sense that it “is the richest way language invents itself,” said Rein. “Slang is definitely a generational thing,” she says, where certain words can go out of fashion in a matter of months. Below is a personal Urban Slang Dictionary that defines the most popular slang words at Urban. However, soon enough, even these words will slowly make their way out of the common lingo.
Urban Slang Dictionary:
Raw: Student Definition: “Really, really cool, great, or sick.”
Cut: (Cutty) Student Definition: Something that is really shady, scary, or intimidating. A cut would be a good friend or homie.”