jazz age slang

in homage to my recent purchase for tickets to the 2009 New Orleans Jazz Fest (i'll be in the big easy april 30th-may 4th): here's some jazz age patois for your mental thesaurus. it's always nice to mix things up a bit & keep people on their toes.

Sheik and Sheba: a male and female posessing style, respectively. and a sheba's bangin' bod was referred to as her "Chassis"

It's the Bunk: meaning, basically, "No way". "Banana Oil!": an interjection used to express disbelief.

Berries (adj): that which is attractive or pleasing (Did you see her new flapper skirt? It’s the berries.)

Copacetic: meaning everything is "Cool man, cool". American entertainer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson supposedly conceived this one during his days shining shoes in the south. Others argue that the term has Hebraic lineage to a similar sounding word with the same meaning...sounds fishy, Bojangles.

Gams: a nice pair of stems, ie "a shapely pair of legs". from the French word "gamba" for large prawn and italian word "gambe" meaning legs. a lady with a nice pair of gams could be called the "the cat's meow", or the "the cat's pajamas".

dead soldier (n): an empty beer bottle (I’m ready to hit on all sixes and throw a petting party, but it looks like the only fine necks tonight are on the dead soldiers. Let’s scram.)

Barney-mugging (n): sex (ex: "After the alley fight, some dolled-up sheik daddy took me home and gave me a good barney-mugging.")


Bearcat (n): a hot-blooded girl (You get a load of that bearcat? Twenty-three skidoo! She got so zozzled on hooch and phosphates she could barely walk.)

Owled (adj): drunk (Best call a gypsy cab for this doll; she can barely stand up straight. She’s owled, canned, corked, scrooched, and fried to the hat!)

rowdydow (n): uproar (Take a look at old William Penn’s tight pants. Certainly is causing a city-wide rowdydow.)

definitions provided by (and in some cases, taken from) AssociatedContent and DailyCandy. For jazz age slang check out MookyChick.

Photo: Louis Armstrong's Hot Five

Posted by Madame Lamb on Monday, February 9, 2009 at 7:00 AM