slang | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

1634 entries found.

1943 (implied in heisted; heister "shoplifter, thief" is from 1927), American English slang, probably a dialectal alteration of hoist (v.) "to lift" in its slang sense of "shoplift," and/or its older British slang sense "to lift another on one's shoulders to help him break in." As a noun from 1930.

lam (n.)

"flight, escape," as in on the lam, 1928, in pickpocket slang, (according to OED attested from 1897 in do a lam), from a U.S. slang verb meaning "to run off" (1886), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from lam (v.), which was used in British student slang for "to beat" since 1590s (compare lambaste); if so, the word has the same etymological sense as the slang expression beat it.

eighty-six (v.)

slang for "eliminate," 1936, originated at lunch counters, a cook's word for "none" when asked for something not available, probably rhyming slang for nix.

pigskin (n.)

"saddle leather or binding made from the skin of a pig," 1855, from pig (n.1) + skin (n.). Hence, in slang, "a saddle." As slang for "a football" by 1894.

uptight (adj.)

"tense," slang, 1934, from up- + tight (adj.). Meaning "straight-laced" first recorded 1969. It was used in a sense of "excellent" in jazz slang c. 1962.

twisty (adj.)

1857, "full of windings," from twist (n.) + -y (2). Meaning "attractively feminine," 1970s slang, is from twist "girl" (1928), apparently from rhyming slang twist and twirl (1924).

clit (n.)

by 1969, slang shortening of clitoris.

pud (n.1)

slang for "penis," 1939 (in James Joyce), according to OED and DAS from pudding (q.v.) in the same slang sense (1719), an extended use from the original "sausage" meaning of that word.

pisser (n.)

1901, slang, "the penis," also "the female pudendum." The slang meaning "extraordinary person or thing" is by 1943, now usually meaning an extraordinarily distasteful or unpleasant person or thing.

nitro (n.)

abbreviation of nitroglycerine, 1935, slang.

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