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While the rest of the world may use the slang "Frisco" for San Francisco, native San Franciscans and residents of the Bay Area prefer to call it "SF" or "The City".
While the rest of the world may use the slang "Frisco" for San Francisco, native San Franciscans and residents of the Bay Area prefer to call it "SF" or "The City".


====Gay Culture Influence====
====Gay Culture Influence====3ieui9eu3ioeuio3ueiou3eiui
Since San Francisco is home to [[The Castro, San Francisco|The Castro]], the largest gay neighborhood or "[[gayborhood]]" in the U.S., a lot of gay slang originates from the gay community living there. Examples include "rice queen", a non-Asian homosexual man who is predominantly attracted to Asian males, and "[[Castro Clone]]".<ref>Sharpio, Eddie. ''Remaking the Castro Clone''. Out Publishcation, 2008 http://www.out.com/entertainment/2008/12/01/remaking-castro-clone, p. 1.</ref>
Since San Francisco is home to [[The Castro, San Francisco|The Castro]], the largest gay neighborhood or "[[gayborhood]]" in the U.S., a lot of gay slang originates from the gay community living there. Examples include "rice queen", a non-Asian homosexual man who is predominantly attracted to Asian males, and "[[Castro Clone]]".<ref>Sharpio, Eddie. ''Remaking the Castro Clone''. Out Publishcation, 2008 http://www.out.com/entertainment/2008/12/01/remaking-castro-clone, p. 1.</ref>


Revision as of 15:04, 30 July 2013

California slang is slang used in California English, or which originates in California. The slang heard in California originates from four different regions: Northern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Central California, and Southern California. Though some slang is used in all four regions, the usage of certain slang can help identify where a person is from in California. Since the center of the film and television industry is in Hollywood, California slang often becomes mainstream American slang due to its usage in movies and television.

Northern California slang

HELLA is a slang word used by people living in Northern California or "NorCal" for short. While it is heard in other parts of Northern California, it is most commonly heard in the San Francisco Bay Area where it originated. Most Southern Californians do not use the word "hella”, so it helps distinguish Northern Californians from Southern Californians. Though, the Southern California band No Doubt (Orange County) used the word in their song "Hella Good".

The term "A Kelly" was common soon after the slang term "Betty" was popularized in Southern California. Especially in the East Bay and Oakland, the term "Kelly" is used to describe a "hot girl" who is considered low maintenance. A "Kelly" essentially looks good coming and going, day or night, in sweats or in the hottest dress. The term was used in the Xbox game A Pimp RPG where the main character Big Daddy K first meets up with Trixie and says "Whoa, you know what you go there? That's a Kelly. She ain't never gonna disappoint."

San Francisco Bay Area slang

While the rest of the world may use the slang "Frisco" for San Francisco, native San Franciscans and residents of the Bay Area prefer to call it "SF" or "The City".

====Gay Culture Influence====3ieui9eu3ioeuio3ueiou3eiui Since San Francisco is home to The Castro, the largest gay neighborhood or "gayborhood" in the U.S., a lot of gay slang originates from the gay community living there. Examples include "rice queen", a non-Asian homosexual man who is predominantly attracted to Asian males, and "Castro Clone".[1]

San Francisco Bay Area hip-hop culture slang

Slang from the Bay Area, also known as the "yay area",[citation needed] is influenced by, hip hop music particularly local hyphy music, Mexican, Asian, and Eastern European cultures. Bay Area slang consists of words like: "hyphy", ballin, holla, bounce, chillax, coochie, ginormous, cutty, scraper, perkin, "crossfaded", "yeee", "erray", "ghost ride the whip", "gas break dip", "bootsie", "bleezy", "dime", "scrilla", "stunnas", "dubb", "gig", "sideshow", "stunting", and many other words. Some slang is rooted in drug culture such as "thizz" and "molly" for ecstasy, "yayo","yola",or "yay" for cocaine, and "purp", "sticky icky", "yurple", "buds", "trees" for weed. Other slang refers to getting intoxicated, partying, and dancing such as "get stupid", "go dumb", and "get hyphy". The slang "yadadamean" means "you know what I mean?" and "fasho" means "for sure". Some derogatory terms for females include "beezy", "ripper", "runner", and "biatch". Bay Area rappers like Mac Dre, Tupac Shakur, E-40, Zion I, Too Short, Andre Nickatina, Luniz, The Pack, The Coup, and more have coined many of these terms in their music. "Swag" or "Swagger" is also slang used in both Northern and Southern California to as a way to describe someone that is "cool."

Hippie influence

At the start of The Hippie Movement in San Francisco in the 1960s, the term "hippie" was coined by a San Francisco journalist, Michael Fallon, in his article "A New Haven for Beatniks". During the Counterculture of the 1960s when psychedelic drugs were on the rise, Ken Kesey coined the words "acid test" and "acid rock", in reference to the parties that experimented with Lsd and the music that played in the background by bands such as The Grateful Dead.

Words like Groovy, far out, and peace (as a farewell) are also originated from the Hippie movement. The word "flower child" was coined during the Summer of Love on the streets of the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.

Central California Slang

Central Californian slang tends to be an amalgamation of both Southern and Northern Californian slang, often siding toward the surfers. For example some common terms/phrases are sweet, hella, mobbing, trupunx, balls cold, amped up, intense, you're fucking up, you don't even know, man, dude, bro, "brah" or I know how that is. People will often refer to marijuana as dank, weed, or bud; it is also common to refer to a bowl of cannabis that has been expended as cashed.

Southern California slang

Slang used in Southern California originates from several subcultures:

Beach/Surf Slang

This is often associated with the large population of surfers, skaters, and popular Southern California sports. To be stoked, or excited about something, is slang that can be traced back to sixties surf culture, glorified in movies such as The Endless Summer and Big Wednesday. Words such as gnarly, bro, rad, sick, sketch, beast, epic, swol, and buzzkill are used regularly now.

Valspeak

The valley girl stereotype, as depicted in the 1983 film Valley Girl, influenced the speech of northern and southern California natives living throughout the valley in California, by popularizing the valley girl sociolect, where the words "like", "all", "and", "so", "whatever", and "totally" are employed as linguistic fillers.

Hip Hop

People say cruise, bounce, or mob when planning on going somewhere (let's bounce/cruise to the store). People call marijuana trees, chronic, kush, ganja, buds, hydro, purple or skunk, but most commonly, it is simply referred to as "weed." "Trip" is often used to describe an overreaction (don't even trip, it's not a big deal.) "Baller," "G," and "swag"/"swagger" are all terms meaning or relating to "cool."

Beverly Hills

The term '"Betty"' refers to an attractive woman or hottie. Possibly a reference to Betty Rubble. The usage is perhaps best articulated by the character Cher (Alicia Silverstone) from the movie Clueless (film) in the line: '"Wasn't my mom a Betty?"'

See also

References

  1. ^ Sharpio, Eddie. Remaking the Castro Clone. Out Publishcation, 2008 http://www.out.com/entertainment/2008/12/01/remaking-castro-clone, p. 1.
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