Bukowski peculiar slang terms (1 Viewer)

cirerita

cirerita

Founding member
as discussed in other threads, it seems than B used outdated slang intentionally to create a literary "effect".

so far we've discussed three terms:
1) Moxie - A beverage symbolizing courage or get-up-and-go.
2) Turkeyneck - Penis / Dick / Cock, etc
3) Suckerfish - A fish symbolizing a total sucker, a nobody.


We need your input. Please add any (outdated) slang term you've read in B's works which you believe he used intentionally.
 
One I mentioned elsewhere: "shackjob" (a woman you're living with) Verb: "shacked", "shacked up".

I like how he called his knife a "shiv."

By the way, if you're not familiar with the slang and popular culture of the 1930s to 1950s, you can learn a lot from old movies, especially "film noir." These classic films often have great stories, great dialog, fine acting, excellent photography, and you feel like you're back there in a world that has long since disappeared. You can pick up some of the context of Bukowski's stories from these movies, plus they're entertaining as hell.
 
We called knives "steel" when I was a kid. And flashing steel got me out of a lot of fights. I'm a better flasher than fighter. ;)
 
How about the term "high yellow". Is that special or old?
I always associated it with "tall blonds" or some such, but just looked it up in the Urban Dictionary and realize that I've been wrong all these years... ;)
 
Damn, Erik, you beat me to the punch with "high yellow". I went to bed last night thinking I'd post it in the morning. The only place I ever heard that growing up was in old blues songs and in Bukowski. It is an old term for a fair-skinned black person, but in Buk and in the blues, it seems to be applied mainly to women.

Buk also called his knife his "blade" I think.

This would be a good time for a photographic memory.
 
I just finished rereading Barfly and two slang words I'd never heard of.
Gams: Legs
I'm gonna wack off to those gams.
Click to expand...
Or Cuff: on the house; free
One for the road, Jim. On the cuff.
Click to expand...
Now I might have heard of the second one before. seems more and more fimiliar the more I see it.
 
No one calls a bartender bar keep these days.

"Hey, bar keep, go fetch me a draft."

He also uses a term for a hamburger that I remember my grandparents using:

a hamburger steak...

And calling socks stockings. What guy do you know these days that calls their socks stockings?
 
I guess it's not really slang but I always found it strange when Buk would use the phrase "and how" in response to something someone said, or to reinforce a point that was made.

I've since seen the phrase used elsewhere but I haven't ever heard anyone use it in daily life. Does it just mean "I agree"?
 
I've heard "and how" all my life, and still do. It means "I agree", but with the added suggestion of "and then some." So if someone said "You've been busy" and you answered "and how," it would mean you haven't had a second to yourself all day. Kind of like "you can say that again" or, "tell me about it."

"Gams" goes way back, 1920s or 30s, I'm guessing. I only heard that in old movies.
 
86'd.
does anyone use the term 86'd anymore?
I used it in a conversation recently, and the person had no idea what I meant.
I'm sure I still hear it used, but it could be my anacranistic brain shitting me again.
 
keep 'em coming, guys, I really dig this thread. Those words might be forgotten anytime soon, so keep 'em alive somehow!
 
how about gingham dress,bedsheets,or right up the pickle barrel

i like this thread too
it makes me flip through my b collection more.
 
I got a good one.

goosed...in Notes On The Pest he says..."a father who used to goose himself with brillo pads,"

Transitive verb
Slang Inflected forms: goosed, goos·ing, goos·es 1. To poke, prod, or pinch (a person) between or on the buttocks.

he also uses the term in the Barfly screenplay.
 
more of the same

Being from the old school, he used a lot of expressions I used to hear from the older people I knew as a kid....perhaps that's why a lot of these don't seem so out of date. But goosed, turkeyneck, moxie, crapper, bedsheets, gingham dress and 86'd are still pretty current in my opinion. I've heard them pretty regularly all my life (I'm only 36). Even gams is used quite a bit these days, but usually a bit more ironically or with an awareness of it's 1940's feel.

I was thinking that perhaps many of these things that seem outdated are in fact regionalisms. I lived so long in the South that when I moved to NY (upstate) I had my ears opened to a whole slew of words I thought long gone. I mean, they still refer to carbonated beverages as "pop." I hear that and think of "Leave it to Beaver"! ;)
 
Moxie2.jpg
 
well, kiss my bubs, can anyone tell me what canned heat means? i've always assumed it to mean one of the higher percentage lagers, of the sort that winos drink (and me.)

and while i'm here, how about green beer? cheap draught lager?
 
Canned Heat is sorta like napalm, only friendlier. It's a flammable gelatin in a can, mostly used for keeping food warm outdoors.
 
. canned heat Urban dictionary offering (Questionable source)

a very hawt, physically-appealing, oversexed whore who is incarcerated.

I'll take the above over sterno anyday.
 
Sterno is a-ok with me. I made a thread about ATD. Not a whole lot of people (or 15-25 or so kids anyways) call marijuana "grass" here. I almost NEVER hear cunt, and Bukowski seems to only differentiate between "cunt" and "clit." I've not seen pussy, twat, or anything else in reference to the vagina.
 
After only having read 3 of his books now (and still on Ham On Rye), I can't recall him using any other slang than "cunt" for the female anatomy. Although, it's been a year or so since I read Post Office and Hot Water Music.
 
I don't think it is really slang, but i always think it is endearing when he says 'curbing' instead of curb. Like ...he drove up to the curbing. or ...he stepped out onto the curbing.
 
I've heard it in Woody Allen movies, Brighton Beach Memoirs I think.

Also I have heard it in Mel Brooks movies, so it could be a Jewish term like Putz.
 
Rekrab said:
I've heard "and how" all my life, and still do. It means "I agree", but with the added suggestion of "and then some." So if someone said "You've been busy" and you answered "and how," it would mean you haven't had a second to yourself all day. Kind of like "you can say that again" or, "tell me about it."
Click to expand...

Funny: the literal German translation of it ("Und wie!") is in use here too, and with exactly the same meaning still.
 
cirerita said:
as discussed in other threads, it seems than B used outdated slang intentionally to create a literary "effect".

so far we've discussed three terms:
1) Moxie - A beverage symbolizing courage or get-up-and-go.
2) Turkeyneck - Penis / Dick / Cock, etc
3) Suckerfish - A fish symbolizing a total sucker, a nobody.


We need your input. Please add any (outdated) slang term you've read in B's works which you believe he used intentionally.
Click to expand...

___________

Well, he called his underwear "shorts".

And maybe any large boat was a "steamship".

And he used "Negro jazzband boys" in Tales of Ordinary Madness.

He was writing about events that had happened decades earlier and he wasn't one to drop words because they were no longer fashionable.
 
hoochmonkey9 said:
86'd.
does anyone use the term 86'd anymore?
I used it in a conversation recently, and the person had no idea what I meant.
I'm sure I still hear it used, but it could be my anacranistic brain shitting me again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I still use the term 86'd, fairly often, also use "deep-sixed" which has a more seagoing history. Both good terms. A lot of the terms are/were common to his generation, which would be the same as my fathers/uncles.
 
There's a few possiblilties regarding the meaning of 86'd. One meaning is to be barred ie. refused further service at a bar, as in "You've had enough. I can't serve you anymore."

I believe this is how Bukowski uses it.

It can also be used to suggest you've drunk enough to deserve the above, even if it hasn't happened.

Its also used in the restaurant business to describe when something on a menu is all gone. There are other meanings too, and there are conflicting stories about where the term comes from.
 
For what its worth
Eighty-six "Do not sell to that customer" or "The kitchen is out of the item ordered. To remove an item from an order or from the menu."

Article 86 of the New York State Liquor Code
defines the circumstances in which a bar patron should be refused alcohol or '86ed'.

The Soup Kitchen Theory
during the depression of the 1930s, soup kitchens would often make just enough soup for 85 people. If you were next in line after number 85, you were '86ed'.

The Eight Feet By Six Feet Theory
A coffin is usually eight feet long and is buried six feet under. Once in your coffin you've been 'eight by sixed', which shortens to '86ed'.
Source-http://www.americandinermuseum.org/culture/culture-slang.php
 
found these for 86 at answers.com -



1. To refuse to serve (an unwelcome customer) at a bar or restaurant.
2.
1. To throw out; eject.
2. To throw away; discard.

[Perhaps after Chumley's bar and restaurant at 86 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, New York City.]

Restaurant slang for being out of a menu item, such as "86 the lamp chops."

To throw away or get rid of something. From the number of the form originally used to remove an item from a stock record.
 

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