Oh. My.Gosh. It's the Valley Girl Vocabulary Run Down

Have you heard? The eighties are back? Ugg. I have seen two news shows documenting the "return of the 80's". Seriously, when I think of the 80's I think of bad fashion, invasion of the British with synthesised and over processed music and horrible hairstyles. Why would we want to go back? With the exception of "my" hair bands, I just assume the 80's be gone forever.




I began to ponder the days, some 23 years ago, when I was 15-you know, back in the 80's. I looked something like this:


What a dork.
At the risk of sounding like an old fart, times were different in those days. Kids didn’t walk around with cell phones pressed to their ear. The hair music was great, piercing screams from hair metal rockers such as AC-DC and Bon Jovi. Today, all I hear coming from the stereos are the deep sound of bass and a bunch of repetitive chat and stutter. OH. My. Goodness. I AM an old fart.

We wore some crazy styles, so much so, that today the styles have come full circle. Kids today are sporting everything from legwarmers to (gasp) mullets. However, one thing that the kids of the 80’s had was their lingo, their own verbatim. We were valley girls and dudes. I think today the lingo is based on shortened phrases of text messaging, like TTO and ILY and of course PITR. It just doesn’t have the same coolness to me as the phrases that my generation coined. True. Most words played themselves out, but it was great fun remembering! So "crop a squat" and let us study up on some new vocabulary words that you can bring back into your conversations…

awesome- \Awe"some\, a. 1. Causing awe; appalling; awful; as, an awesome sight. In the 80's, if something was cool, it was awesome. See also bad.

bad- adj. it meant good….very good, excellent; Cool, Awesome. See also awesome.

bad to the bone- The group George Thorogood & the Destroyers had a hit in the early 80's that had started this quote. The movie Fast Times At Ridgmont High was bad to the bone! See also bad.

barf bag- A type of insult. Something Jo on The Facts of Life might of called Blair for spilling something on her homework.

barf me out- You might of heard this come from a Valley Girl after you've said something offensive to her. Also used to describe something you do not particularly like.

bogus/bogue -Unfair or unfortunate. Having one night to do a termpaper is so bogus!

bomb- Adj. Something favorable. See also awesome.

boy toy- A word to describe a cute guy used as a toy for older woman. Madonna invented this one with her "Boy Toy" belt on her 1984 Like a Virgin album.

butt ugly- Adj. Unattractive to the sight. Worse than ugly. Though I never sed this one. To me, NO ONE is ugly. But I did hear this used.

cheesy/cheezy- Adj. 1. In poor taste; lame, corny. The gift I received was really cheesy. 2. Overly sentimental or insincere. 3. Leigh still uses this word regularly, because it is cheesey. But Leigh is a fan of cheese. Leigh uses cheesey in the dorkus form. “Leigh is cheesy.”

chill -v 1. to relax; hang out. Let's go chill at your place. Dude, just chill.

choice- Extremely Cool

dipstick- n An unintelligent person; moron, dim-wit; idiot. Popularized by "Boss Hogg" on TV's The Dukes of Hazzard.

ditz -A less harsh way of describing a person who is not very smart. See also airhead.

dweeb- Geek, nerd. Someone who is not "in".

for sure/fer shur -To stress what you are saying. Usually in a valley type accent. Fer shur, fer shur dude!

fresh -Cool, new. A true VAl migh tsay, "Duran Duran's" new album is so fresh!

gag me with a spoon- A typical Valley Girl response to something you dislike. Not meant to be taken literally.

gnarly -Very good. Not commonly used today. She is gnarly!

grody- really, really gross. Sometimes used with: Grody to the max! Max being a degree of grossness.

gross out/grotesque- To make someone sick. Most of the time - not literally.

have a cow -Being overly excited or to make a big deal out of something.

hoser -Loser, jerk.

joanie -A boring, not-so-hip girl. From the 70s and 80s show Happy Days, Erin Moran, the character of Joanie Cunningham the unhip girl of the 50s. Tell me that you know who I am talking about?

lame- Used to describe something or someone who is not cool or acceptable.

like -A word used before every sentence in the 80's. "Like, are you going to the prom?", “Like my hair is sooooo in need of a perm….”

major -To stress something you say, immensely. "You are a major dipstick, Major!"

new wave- A type of heavily synthesized pop music performed by groups like A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, The Busboys, Thompson Twins and Eurasure. A form of disco that had an essence of the future. This spun off people who dressed "new wave". Lots of mouse or gel in the hair, makeup on the face, loud colors, etc. These were bands that my husband, then infatuation, was fond of. I never liked these groups-although I was an 80's chick. I preferred the long haired bands with guitars.

o-rama- Suffix you affix to a word to describe the whole spectrum of the meaning. "He is a Dweeb-o-rama". Meaning, you are describing someone that is every sense of that word.

out the door- A suffix used at the end of a phrase. "Gag me out the door." Meaning, something gaged them so much they had to leave the room.

paninaro- Italian slang for a person or persons who are fashion conscious. Came from the Pet Shop Boys with their song "Paninaro".

party hearty/party hardy- To party excessively.

Poser- A 'wannabe' spin off

preppie/preppy- A collegiate type, someone who wore Polo or Izod shirts, deck shoes and a cloth belt. Preppies usually grew up to be yuppies. See also yuppies.

psych- A term meaning "gotcha"! Psych was usually used after telling someone something not true. My cousin Gina and I really overused this one.

spazzing- Overly excited. An exaggeration of being excited.

stoked- To be ready to do something.

to the max- To the extreme. Taking it to the max or maximum level.

totally- Another way to stress what one is saying. "That is totally tubular". -or- "School is totally uncool".

tubular- Something that is cool. Something overwhelming. "Tubular, totally tubular."

wannabe- A person who would like to be like someone else. Usually a pop star or a person in the public eye. There were lots of Madonna wannabe's in the mid-80s.

wicked -Another word for good, radical or bad. See radical and bad. "She is wicked nice."

And that my friends, is a crash course in 80's slang. I hope that you learned something that you can take out into the world and use. You can sound ultra hip, totally fly when you are giving the "downlow" to your peeps. I know, maybe I try too hard sometimes....


What's even more sad, many of these words and expressions I still use.


What about you? What do you remember from the 80's? Was it the fashion? The vocabulary? Or were you around in the 80's?