Stan Carey"Platty joobs", "genny lec", "menty b" & co.: I wrote about this British slang fad
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2026/02/10/dont-have-a-menty-b-about-this-bloggy-p/
#slang #language #words #phrases #hun #linguistics #wordplay
A comment on my post describes users of this slang as lazy simpletons with a limited vocabulary. (I was having none of it.)
I see linguistic shortcuts – abbreviations and the like – more as efficiencies. They're the verbal equivalent of desire paths, which no one sees as "lazy".
But the characterization shows the social baggage that language has accumulated. It's a scapegoat for broader anxieties and prejudices.
Bodhipaksa@stancarey The "laziness" argument is probably class snobbery. An English woman I knew with a very RP accent was complaining about the "laziness" of Irish people not aspirating "th." I pointed out that she didn't pronounce the letter R, and said cah instead of car, oadah instead of order, but wouldn't consider herself lazy.
Slang contractions are playful. And they create a sense of community when people share them.
@stancarey I love how the woman accusing people of being simpletons apparently doesn't know how to use capital letters, commas, or full stops. It's a little unusual. Often these snobbish complaints are written in a rather stilted and overly mannered way.
@bodhipaksa This struck me too. But I didn't want to get personal (unless she doubled down, in which case maybe)
@bodhipaksa All good points! I'm so over language being used as a socially acceptable form of prejudice
rivets@stancarey I interpreted diddification as referencing Ken Dodd not P. Diddy
@rivets @stancarey I did as well, and I was trying to remember his catchphrases to see if any of them fit with this pattern.
@bodhipaksa @stancarey It was the Liverpool reference that also steered me that way.
@rivets @bodhipaksa I know of Dodd but am not at all familiar with his material. Did he use phrases like this?
(I replied on the blog, but you may not have seen it; I'm still not entirely sure how this integration works.)
@stancarey @bodhipaksa Doddy and the Diddy men was one of his things.
@rivets @bodhipaksa Thank you. I looked into it and added an update. It definitely seems more likely
Dr Alice Violett@stancarey I remember 'nervy b' from Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series of YA books in the early 2000s, which tracks, as they were HUGE among us white suburban millennial girls. In some respects they've dated horribly, though!
@alicemcalicepants Thank you for the reference!
@stancarey I thought about your article this morning as I drove my son to school past a restaurant-bar called "Patty B's."
@bodhipaksa A classic of the type!
@stancarey It's been around a long time. Maybe 20 years. That still puts it a long time after "Jackie O" and other examples, though.
@bodhipaksa Thank you for the detail. I wonder how far back the "formula" goes, particularly with names.
@stancarey Have you looked for examples in the works of Willy S and Jeffy C? 🙂
@bodhipaksa Didn't get a chance =)