Some Private Eye Slang

The crime fiction genre has some fun and colourful expressions.  

Here are a few faves:

Chicago lightning: Gunfire
Chicago overcoat : Coffin 

Chicago typewriter: Machine gun  (Wow - Chicago offers a lot to the hardboiled lexicon!)

Flivver: A Ford automobile 

Giggle juice: Liquor

Hammer and saws: Police (rhyming slang for laws)  

Harlem sunset: Fatal injury caused by knife

Have the bees: To be rich 

Highbinder: Corrupt politician or official

Johnson brother: Criminal  

Kicking the gong around: Taking opium   

Lullaby cocktail: Drugged drink

Orphan paper: Bad cheques 

Oyster fruit: Pearls 

Portrait of Madison: Five hundred dollars

Rats and mice: Dice (more rhyming slang)

Roundheels:  A woman of easy virtue  

Soup job: To crack a safe using nitroglycerin

Sunday School picnic: What this caper isn’t turning into

Sources for above:  

http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html and

http://comedyu.com/20091017/parodying-the-film-noir-detective-film/ and 

http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/hardboiled-slang.htm 

Urban Dictionary....

New words for me and Sasha.  I admit to being a word nerd, but I'll also (reluctantly) admit that I'm not up on the latest slang used by those crazy kids nowadays...  I am familiar with many of the acronyms, like LOL, BRB, IMO, CUL8R, etc.  I know many of the words or terms teens today think they invented, ecpecially for drunk (shitfaced, plastered, etc.) or joint (spliff, blunt, etc.).  However, after whiling away a morning on Urban Dictionary, I did learn a few things:


Rendezbooze: When a group of people (friends, co-workers, acquaintances) get together to drink.

ProcrastinEating: Do I really need to explain this one?  Usually involves chips or ice cream.

PWN (or PWNed):  Means losing badly at something/getting your ass kicked.  (At the Olympics, we PWNed the podium.)  This apparently comes from a misspelling of 'owned'.  Seems logical.

Beef Walk: Going outside or away from the group in order to fart with less consequence.  In other words, leaving the room to break wind or toot.  We said "cheese" kids now say "beef". 

Netglow: Someone (or something) that is better online than in real life.  Term is frequently used in reference to cyber-dating and vacation spots. 

MMORPG:  Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. A treadmill that makes you fatter.  In other words, sitting on your ass in front of the screen.  Get outside.  Get some fresh air.

MBAese: An  indecipherable language taught in MBA factories where the user has mastered the art of using large, multisyllabic words to make meaningless, intelligent sounding action statements.  This is becomingan epidemic.    

Edgehog: A passenger on the bus/subway who hogs the aisle seat so that you either have to climb over them to get the window seat or so that they have the two seats to thelselves.  Basically an asshole.

Bed Gravity:  Happens to me every weekend.  An irresistible force that draws you back to bed, or toward any mattress, couch, or other soft horizontal surface. Usually stronger when one or more persons are already on said furnature.  Also happens often when you have an 8:00 am class.

Powerpuff Presentation:  Love this!  All sizzle, no steak.

23 Ski-Doo, Groovy and Hip!

Is there an 'E' in groovy? 
The fact I have to ask that indicates just how UN-groovy I am!!!


I'm sure you all know about Urban Dictionary and other online sources for scoping out current slang and idioms.  Also, Urban Dictionary (IMO) is only helpful to check a word you already know, and won't spill out a bunch of suggestions if you're looking for that je ne sais quoi turn of phrase.  So, I've recently tried something different as a way to get tuned into the latest street talk.


Long ago, I created a Facebook fan page for my Sasha Jackson Mysteries.  I have over 1000 fans, and I can get demographic info about them (though no individual info).  Most of my fans (48%) are between 15 and 25 years old, so cooler and hipper (more hip?) than I am by far.


I recently posted a query on the Sasha fan page wall about contemporay slang.  The results were very helpful!  It turns out the word I had planned on using was wrong for the context I had in mind.  But the fans gave me some good suggestions for other common terms to use instead.


Funny to think of using Facebook as a tool to help you in the writing of a novel.