Lingo & Argot

lingo







Y

D



–noun, plural -goes. 

1. the language and speech, esp. the jargon, slang, or argot, of a particular field, group, or individual: gamblers' lingo. 

2. language or speech, esp. if strange or foreign. 





argot 

–noun 

1. a specialized idiomatic vocabulary peculiar to a particular class or group of people, esp. that of an underworld group, devised for private communication and identification: a Restoration play rich in [thieves'] argot. 

2. the special vocabulary and idiom of a particular profession or social group: sociologists' argot.  

 

is a highly specialized vocabulary of terms peculiar to a constituency, a group of users. We speak of the argot of the underworld, of jazz musicians, or of baseball players. 



To label a word or a sense of a word argot is to suggest its strictly limited world of use. You may know what the American baseball pitcher means by a slurve (a combination slider and curve), but what is the British cricketer’s googly? Both are argot, and only the initiated can understand. 





　

Then these two (describing themselves as "a couple of real mean motor scooters" in the script's jokey pop argot) meet the film's innocent characters: the Fuller family, driving through the desert in a recreational vehicle and unlucky enough to stop at the Geckos' motel. 



It's one of the film's little jokes that Juliette Lewis is cast as the clean-living ingenue while Harvey Keitel, behind glasses and a bushy beard, plays the ex-pastor who is her solemn father. Ernest Liu nicely holds his own in this strange company as Mr. Keitel's son.





vernacular 

patois

shibboleth

that distinguishes a particular class of persons.

and many Standard users consider use of flaunt for flout a first-class [shibboleth]. 

argot

lingo

The Southern California suburban mall teen scene and its accompanying "Valley Girl" lingo were spreading widely

parlance 

a way or manner of speaking

legal [parlance]

parse 

analyze in terms of grammatical constituents

it’s unclear if it’s a [tic] or if he’s [parsing] his words as carefully as possible. 

people whose education taught them to [parse] others' sentences for slights 



interpolation

Act Three, Scene Five of "Macbeth" is an interpolation, an [addition] to the Shakespeare play from another script.

extrapolation

infer (an unknown) from something that is known, conjecture

but that’s still pretty vague and, possibly, [part] extrapolation.

putative

As vivid and suspenseful as Roman Polanski has made this claustrophobic tale of a torture victim turning the tables on her [putative] tormentor

Umlaut









　

Many teen comedies of the 1980s and 1990s tried to imitate the verve and nerve of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but few succeeded. Films by John Hughes, such as The Breakfast Club, were much tamer. Others were much more gross and not as well-written. 



First-time director Amy Heckerling took a typical teen story penned by Cameron Crowe, a gabfest about sex, school, and status, and turned it into a film that is emblematic of an [era]. 



gabfest

–noun Informal. 

1. a gathering at which there is a great deal of conversation.

2. a long conversation.



The Southern California suburban mall teen scene and its accompanying "Valley Girl" lingo were spreading widely, and this film both nails and lampoons this subculture with knowing effect. 



With only Taps behind him, Fast Times at Ridgemont High helped a young Sean Penn become the brightest star of a new Hollywood "rat pack" of sassy young actors. 



Many others, including Phoebe Cates and Judge Reinhold, also were boosted by their roles in the large and talented ensemble cast. 





paren(the)tic 

rote

mnemonic 

semantic 

cedilla

Spell it either with or without the [cedilla]. Pronounce it fuh-SAHD. 

umlaut 

the absence of the [umlaut] bothers me to no end, though

solidus

virgule

In between [virgules], the commas that punctuate Arnaud's life story



enunciate

Winslet has played American women without [straining], but this time she [enunciates] with laborious precision,

elide

to omit (a vowel, consonant, or syllable) in pronunciation

Law. to annul or quash. 

Postscript noting the fates of certain characters conveniently [elides] the sad and/or ironic destinies awaitin[g s]ome of them. 



vernacular 

patois

shibboleth

that distinguishes a particular class of persons.

and many Standard users consider use of flaunt for flout a first-class [shibboleth].

parlance 

a way or manner of speaking

legal [parlance]

parse 

analyze in terms of grammatical constituents

it’s unclear if it’s a [tic] or if he’s [parsing] his words as carefully as possible. 

people whose education taught them to [parse] others' sentences for slights 

Umlaut