Having teenagers around expands your vocabulary on a regular basis.

For example, if you have a teenager, you have no doubt had the honor of being greeted by one of the phrases of the times: “Sup?”

“Sup?” is short for “Wassup?”, which is short for “What’s up?”, which is short for “Hello, how are you doing this fine day?”

We want so badly to tell them how silly they sound, but then we remember that we, too, were teenagers once.  And our parents thought we sounded silly.  “What’s hap’nin’, man?” comes to mind. 

Then there are all the words that mean “good”. 

The other day, our family was on a road trip and stopped at a gas station to fill up.  My husband and son both got out to do the duty, and I heard them having a conversation with some teenagers.

When my son got back into the car, he was trying really hard to hold in a huge grin. 

“Sup?” I inquired.  Hey, I’m old, but I catch on quickly.  (I was told pretty quickly, however, that old people can’t use the word “Sup”.  It’s so confusing.)

“Those kids said our truck was crunk,” he answered, full of pride.  I didn’t have a clue what he had just said.

My husband returned, obviously irritated. 

“What did those kids call me?” he asked, looking at my son.  He thought they had called him a dirty name.

“They said our truck was crunk!” he replied.  “That means, like, cool.”

Parents, don’t despair!  These words, too, shall pass.  Just think back on all the words we’ve gone through that have meant “good”.

In the 50’s it was “keen”, “neato”, and “hot”.  The poodle skirts were really neato.  If you had a nice car, it was “hot”.  If you had a nice-looking woman, she was also “hot”.  You only used the word “cool” in conjunction with the word “cat”, i.e. “cool cat”.

In the 60’s it was “groovy” and “far out”.  Just about anything fun, pretty, cute, or fast was “groovy”.  And anything “groovy” was also “far out”.  If parents used these words, though, they sounded pretty ridiculous.

In the 70’s, everything was “awesome”.  Awesome car, awesome guy, awesome party.  Awesome food, awesome clothes, awesome movie.  We all got sick of the word “awesome”.

In the 80’s we moved from “radical” to “rad” and anything that used to be called “good” was now called “bad”.  If someone said you had a “bad” car, that was a good thing.  If your car was not so good, you could still call it bad, but with a different inflection which only teenagers could understand.  It was a difficult period for parents.

“How did you do on your test, honey?”

“Bad.”

“Bad – good, or Bad – bad?” we would have to ask.

Then the 90’s brought us “the bomb”, “tight”, “sweet”, and “cool” (also pronounced “kewl” or “kuhl”).  The meaning of “cool” was varied and complicated.  A girl could be described as “cool”, meaning nice, and “hot”, meaning nice-looking, at the same time.  But when describing a car, you can interchange the words “cool” and “hot”.

And now we have “crunk”.   Stay tuned, though.  As soon as you get used to hearing it, it’s bound to change again.