Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon

Slayer Slang
Author(s)	Michael Adams
Subject(s)	Buffyverse
Genre(s)	academic publication, Media Study
Publisher	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date	July 1, 2003
Pages	320
ISBN	ISBN 0-19-516033-9
OCLC Number	51769230
Dewey Decimal	791.45/72 21
LC Classification	PN1992.77.B84 A34 2003

Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon is an academic publication relating to the fictional Buffyverse established by TV series, Buffy and Angel.

Book description

A distinguishing feature of the series Buffy was the way in which the show's writers play with language: making new words, changing existing ones, and turning common usage around. Michael Adams argues this creates a resonant lexicon reflecting power in both youth culture and television on the changes in American slang.

Contents

Michael Adams starts the book with a synopsis of the program's history and a defense of ephemeral language. The main body of the work is the detailed glossary of slayer slang, annotated with dialogue. The book concludes with a bibliography and a lengthy index, a guide to sources (novels based on the show, magazine articles about the show, and language culled from the official posting board) and an appendix of slang-making suffixes.

Chapter	Title
Intro	"Introduction" (by Jane Espenson)
01	"Slayer Slang"
02	"Making Slayer Slang"
03	"Studying the Micro-Histories of Words"
04	"Ephemeral Language"
Glossary	"Slayer Slang: Glossary"

Glossary examples

A few examples from the Slayer Slang glossary:

• bitca n

Willow

I mean, why else would she be acting like such a b-i-t-c-h?

Giles

Willow, I think we're all a little old to be spelling things out.

Xander

A 'bitca'?

—Written by Joss Whedon, "When She Was Bad" (15 September 1997), p. 142

• break and enterish adj suitable for crime

Buffy

I'll go home and stock up on weapons, slip into something a little more break and enterish.

—Written by Doug Petrie, "Enemies" (16 March 1999), p. 145

• carbon-dated adj very out of date

Buffy

Deal with that outfit for a moment.

Giles

It's dated?

Buffy

It's carbon-dated.

—Written by Joss Whedon, "Welcome to the Hellmouth" (10 March 1997), p. 160

• cuddle-monkey n male lover

Xander

Every woman in Sunnydale wants to make me her cuddle-monkey.

—Written by Marti Noxon, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" (10 February 1998), p. 166