Last night I was out and about with my young daughter and we picked up my 16 year old nephew from soccer practice who as he left his mates for a ride home with us, yells out ‘see you later brah’. My immediate reaction was a quick giggle and I thought to myself how could anyone be comfortable calling their mate brah? Yes, I had heard the term before, but brah? seriously? slang.

It wasn’t until later on after we dropped him off that my daughter so innocently asked me, ‘mum, why did he call his friend bra?’ isn’t a bra that thing that you put…yes yes I quickly said (with a smile on my face), I tried to explain, he just meant to say bro. Then she further questioned, but mum, that wasn’t his brother, so why did he call him his bro? As I sat for a moment and pondered my next explanation, I came to realise just how ridiculous (and quite hilarious) the slang that is being used today is and wondered how in the world we can keep up with them all.

Many of us throughout our school years have been taught and tested on our language skills and when needing to know the definition of something, a quick trip to the library to grab a good old Macquarie Dictionary would do the job, however these days if you’re trying to decipher something you heard a friend say or something you heard on tv, it’s a little more tricky.  Whether you are someone who hears slang and ROFL, or if you are someone who hears it, understands it but thinks WFT, or if you just have no idea what those last two lines mean at all, here is a little slang catch up to help make sense of the world we live In today 😉

  • Cray – Well it might be in typical Aussie fashion to abbreviate our words and this one is no exception, if someone uses the words cray cray, they are simply leaving out the z, and think you or something is a little crazy!
  • Slay – This word is more recently used in a positive way to describe someone or something that is done or looks outstanding, strong, beautiful and maybe even fierce.
  • Throwing Shade – This one makes me laugh… Since when can anyone throw shade? I mean, I have heard of the old saying, throwing mud, but shade? With all the nasty UV rays about, isn’t sitting under shade a good thing anyway? Well apparently not in this context. If shade is being thrown your way… run for the sun because it means that someone is taking a dig at you, for something you did or said. Essentially if you’re the one ‘throwing shade, be careful, as that little shady spot it likely to be thrown right back as we often see via social media.
    Variation of the term- Throwing ‘Major’ Shade, keep your eye out for this one and prepare as shade this major is likely to cause a storm)
  • Brah – No, we aren’t referring to the things those two guys put on their heads in the movie ‘weird science’, this is a term that is commonly used when referring to a friend, someone who you may consider like a brother.
    Variation of the term- Sup Brah– translation, what is up brother (even though the brother is commonly from another mother (can this trend end sooner rather than later please…)
  • Basic – Seems simple enough right, like average, simple, basic but ouch…if you’re a fan of Vanderpumps Rules you might know why this word is being used as one of today’s biggest modern insults. These days people can be well known and popular for being bad boys, bad girls, big girls, skinny girls, whatever you may be but what appears to be the most insulting of all is just plain old ‘Basic’.
  • Bae – 3 letters! Well this is just plain lazy…. It seems ‘baby’ and ‘babe’ is just out dated and ‘bae’ is the latest new way to refer to your loved one.
  • Shorty – The term ‘shorty’ isn’t referring to one’s height (although that would make sense), its typically used to describe a good looking woman…The connection between shorty and good looking…who knows. What if this good looking woman in question is 6ft tall…I can’t imagine hearing a 5ft guy calling his 6ft girl a shorty…a little odd right?

There you have it, hope this has clarified a few things for you, thankfully I am not an English teacher 😉 lol (laugh out loud.)