Word Up!

As a confirmed word-licker, I look at the digital Oxford English Dictionary (OED) every day and twice on Sundays, in search of rare words like pumkinification. That doesn’t describe a long-feared, medieval-type, CIA-approved interrogation method that makes naughty grown men into delicious pumpkin pies. Rather, it’s a more metaphorical “Transformation into a pumpkin; used esp. with reference to the elevation to divine status of the Roman emperor Claudius … Hence allusively: extravagant or absurdly uncritical glorification.” Neat. Now where can I find minions to pumkinify me?

Though getting pumpkinified may sound like heavenly music to the insufficiently aggrandized, there’s plenty of earthly music that’s had an influence on the OED too. Here are a few pop-propelled terms that have been immortalized in the largest dictionary in the world.

ya yas

This is rarely used in any sentence that’s not a variation of the Stones’ famous title “Get your ya-yas out” – which is defined as “to enjoy oneself uninhibitedly.” This is one of many British borrowings from American blues, specifically Blind Boy Fuller’s 1938 song with the same title. Usually, ya-yas are abstract, but some ya-yas are ta-tas, as in a 2004 quote that describes a charming young man “challenging others to arm-wrestling matches and complimenting the women on their ’sweet ya-yas’.” Other ya-yas are civic-minded: “Gourd was left with no avenue for getting out his political ya-yas” (1999).

bootylicious

Most people are familiar with the meaning that inspired Beyonce’s album title: “Esp. of a woman, often with reference to the buttocks: sexually attractive, sexy; shapely.” However, bootylicious originally conveyed a different type of assiness. On Dr. Dre’s The Chronic in 1992, Snoop Dog rapped, “Them rhymes you were kickin were quite bootylicious,” and it wasn’t a compliment.

mojo

Austin Powers wasn’t the first to lose his mojo, which is defined as: “Magical power, voodoo, the art of casting spells; a charm or talisman used in casting such spells. More generally, esp. in recent use: a power, force, or influence of any kind (often with sexual connotations).” This 1999 quote from the New York Times shows just how broadly – and lamely – the term can be stretched: “All the televised football in the world can’t compensate suburban men for their lost warrior mojo.” The origin of the term is unknown, but one of its first uses is in a memorable 1926 song title written by Mike Leadbitter and Neil Slaven: “My Daddy’s Got The Mojo, But I Got The Say-So.”

smackdown

This vivid word hardly needs defining, but the OED gives it a shot, saying a smackdown is “A beating; a humiliation, decisive setback, or defeat; an instance of repression or severe treatment. Also: a confrontation; a bitter contest or rivalry.” A citation for death match shows just how metaphorical smackdowns can be: “For decades now, the two [tabloids] have been engaged in a smack-down death match in which the term ‘exclusive’ is liberally applied, the ‘canoodling’ of B-list celebrities is deemed worthy of print…” (2001). The first known example turned up in a lyric by Snoop Dog, who may rival Shakespeare in number of OED citations before he’s done: “I’m-a continue to put the rap down, put the mack down, And if your bitches talk shit, I have ta put the smack down.”

strawberry fields

This isn’t in the OED for the idyllic and delicious literal meaning. 1967’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” inspired a subentry of strawberry – wedged between strawberry dish and strawberry finch – because strawberry fields is a slang term for LSD, as used here in 1976: “Then came the fatal trip which led..to my fleeing to India to forget. I was on Blue Cheer, I think, though it could have been Strawberry Fields.”

dis

Dis is respectfully defined as “To show disrespect for by using insulting language or dismissive behaviour; to abuse or insult, usually verbally.” This 2000 quote shows just how sophisticated and un-hip-hop-ish disses can be: “Seething at seeing his life’s work in pesticide research being dissed by the organic lobby, he called in the Advertising Standards Authority.” Though dising is so commonplace that it feels like it’s been around forever, the first known use is in a Spoonie Gee song from 1980: “Ya wanna be dissed and then ya wanna be a crook Ya find a old lady, take her pocketbook.”

Mark Peters is a language columnist and humorist who writes for Good, Visual Thesaurus and other mags, while maintaining too many blogs, including Wordlustitude, The Rosa Parks of Blogs, and The Pancake Proverbs.

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