Top Five Slang Expressions From My Youth

By Christian Lipski

Rad © Tiffany Ross (aka Syke)

1. Rad: OK, right off the bat you can pinpoint the general area and time I grew up. I went to high school in California during the early-to-mid-80s. Yes, we all said “rad,” but in Northern California no one had a Valley accent, despite the word deriving from surfer lingo. For you youngsters, “rad” is short for “radical” and connotes excellence or a positive reaction. Example: “Dude, Back To The Future was a rad movie!”
2. Killer: This threw me when I first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. I thought it meant that something was bad, or very difficult, as in something that killed or hurt you. Turns out it was an adjective that described something rad. I think this also filtered in from the Southern California surfer community, but again, in NorCal there was no accent to associate the word with its origin. Example: “In ‘Panama,’ Eddie Van Halen does this killer guitar solo!”
3. Beat: I do not know the origin of “beat,” only that it’s related to “weak,” which was also used at the time. Like “weak,” it is mainly used to describe a situation or object that is undesirable. Unlike something that is simply “bad,” “beat” in its strictest sense implies that the intent was to be desirable to the speaker. Your mom’s fashion sense in general is simply bad, but if she adds a streak of washable purple hair color to look “new wave,” that is beat. Similarly, your friend’s worn-out knock-off Vans are definitely beat. More generally, “beat” means “unfortunate” or “disappointing.” Example: “Those Sears jeans with the orange stitching are beat.”
4. Full-on: I first heard this term from people in Santa Cruz, and that’s really the only place I’ve heard it used to any extent. It’s an amplifier that implies completeness in a metaphorical sense, and is similar to “utter” in meaning. Interestingly, “full-on” can be used as either an adjective or an adverb with no alteration. Example: You can be both “a full-on stoner” and “full-on hungry,” usually at the same time.
5. Hell Of: Usually shortened to “hella,” this is another amplifier term, and traces its origins to the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve been geographically pinpointed before when using this term. It’s primarily used as an adverb to modify adjectives in order to amplify them; however, it can also be used to represent a large amount of something. Example: “Those Chuck Taylors are hella fresh,” and “We had hella tests in that class last year.”

   Finally, and most unusually, it has been used on its own as an emphatic affirmative response: “Are you going to the party tonight?” “Hell of.” For younger speakers, the bowdlerized version “hecka” is used: “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are hecka tight.” “Hell of” is my personal favorite, and I still use it from time to time to pay tribute to my Bay Area youth.

Now, when a time traveler from the 1985 East Bay approaches you and says, “There were hella people at Dodenhoff’s party last night: it was a full-on rager, and the beers were killer, but the cops shut it down. . . so beat,” you will know that he means, “There were a large number of people at Dodenhoff’s party last night: it was an extremely wild party, and the beer was very good, but the cops shut it down. . . what a terrible occurrence.”