angieh
01-02-2013, 09:03 PM
I was going to start with the Beatnik era, but have discovered that Jive-speak pre-dated it and some of the language (supposedly) spoken in the 50s and early 60s is closely related to Jive-speak.
If you feel like it, try and paraphrase the following into a modern day meaning. Just for fun!
1. "I dig your lick baby."
2. "That's shovel city, man!"
3. "We're all breathing natural gas."
4. "I don't go for that magoo."
All the above appeared in Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive (6 editions between 1938 and 1944) via The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth
If you feel like it, try and paraphrase the following into a modern day meaning. Just for fun!
1. "I dig your lick baby."
2. "That's shovel city, man!"
3. "We're all breathing natural gas."
4. "I don't go for that magoo."
All the above appeared in Cab Calloway's Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive (6 editions between 1938 and 1944) via The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth