"O" Slang

A level above 'understood'. Not just 'I heard you' — 'I heard you, I get the why, we don't need to discuss it again.' Drops as a single word to end a conversation cleanly. Big in Dallas rap and the wider South before TikTok spread it everywhere.

A tag added to statements for emphasis in Māori/Pasifika-influenced Kiwi speech, as in 'not even, ow'.

'How are you?' — a Black Country greeting that's basically a fossil of Early Modern English. 'Bist' is the old second-person singular of 'to be' (as in 'thou bist'), which standard English dropped centuries ago but the Black Country kept. Classic reply is 'bostin', ta.'

Describes a big, festive Nigerian party known for elaborate outfits (aso ebi), live music, and abundant food — especially associated with Yoruba celebration culture but now used nationwide.

'How are you?' — the Birmingham version of the Black Country 'ow bist'. Three words collapsed into one breath: 'how am ya'. The 'am' instead of 'are' is the giveaway you're hearing a Brummie or Yam Yam — it's what gave Black Country folk the nickname 'Yam Yams' in the first place.

Stands for Older Wiser Lesbian. An older, more experienced sapphic who's been around the scene and carries the wisdom to prove it. Often used affectionately or aspirationally — the queer elder you go to for advice — and sometimes in the dating sense, an older woman with a younger partner, a sapphic answer to 'cougar'.

When a player puts the ball into their own goal, usually by an error, and the goal is credited to the opposition.

To be beaten decisively in an argument, fight, or game.

Anything. Northern English contraction of 'aught'. Pairs with its twin 'nowt' (nothing). Heard across Geordie, Yorkshire and Lancashire — slot it in wherever 'anything' would go.

Describes serious financial hardship or lack of money. Originally an Ezza-dialect word for poverty that migrated into Otu-Onitsha market slang usage.

A razor or knife. Comes from Cockney rhyming slang 'ox and bull' = pull (out a blade), shortened to just 'ox'. Drill rappers use it when narrating shankings and prison-yard slashings.

Cockney rhyming slang for 'dollar', which in old British slang meant five shillings (a crown).

Cockney rhyming slang for the 'Tube' (London Underground), shortened to 'oxo'.

The armpit, or the area under the arm; 'to oxter' can mean to support someone by the arm.

Scots (and Ulster, and Northern English) for armpits. Old word, Germanic roots, still in everyday use across Scotland and Northern Ireland. Often heard in 'up to my oxters in it' — meaning neck-deep, drowning, overwhelmed. Far better than saying 'armpits'.

A biting term for someone so useless or talkative they are merely wasting the air others could breathe.

Used to prompt someone into action, signal the start of something, or hand over the floor to someone else.

A common, largely neutral descriptive term used across Nigeria for a white or light-skinned foreign person; can also be used more loosely for anything associated with the West.

Australia; also 'Aussie' as adjective/noun.

The hospital. Pure Liverpool shorthand — usually said with the kind of casualness that suggests a regular visitor.