Friday Blog Question: Can you make your own slang?

Slang. It’s the language of the hip. It’s what all the kids are saying. It separates the cool from the uncool, the hip from the squares, the tight from the wack. The old from the young. The [positive cultural attribute] from the [negative cultural attribute]. The…. God, I don’t know. I’m tired already. In a totally unconnected thought, a lot of companies have started inventing their own words to create their brand. “Wii,” “Kyocera,” “Alltell,” “Google” – these were all invented because they somehow represented the company in question better than any existing words. (True, “Google” is based on the number, “googol,” or 10 to the power of 100. But they didn’t call themselves “googol,” they called themselves “Google,” so it’s a made up word and I’m still right.) Bringing these two ideas together, maybe it wouldn’t be such a weird idea to make up our own slang, and use it to promote something. It would take a bit of work, but paying off a few sitcom writers could get these made up words into the zeitgeist pretty quickly I think. If you could invent a slang word – which, frankly, you can if you want to – what would the word be, how would you pronounce it, and what would it be for?

I was saying "ginormous" long before I'd ever heard anyone else say it, so I'm just going to claim credit for that one and be done with it. - Joseph Jaramillo

I tell my kids to “skoochet” all the time. A combination of “skooch” and “get”, it’s my way of telling them to get going. Whether we’re on our way out the door or it’s time to pick up toys, when I tell them to “skoochet” they know they better get going fast! - Vanessa Geary

Ghettoble...it describes street fashion that you must have but can't find in store. So it's highly coveted and sought after:) - Laura Hall

Goofamongus: (güf-ə-məŋ-gəs) 1. What you feel like when you send out a Friday blog question and a grand total of three people answer you. - Eric Reid

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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