Slang Dictionary — Modern Slang, Decoded

Compressed 'how are you' / 'how are ya' that functions purely as 'hi'. Not a real question — the correct reply is 'howya' back. Distinctly Irish and particularly Dublin. Spelled however the speaker feels: howya, howaya, howyeh.

An embarrassing mistake made under little pressure, most associated with goalkeepers but possible for any player or referee.

A regular meeting place, especially a pub or drinking den.

Come on the lads — the terrace chant and all-purpose rallying cry on Tyneside. Most famously bellowed at St James' Park for Newcastle United, but works for anything from a darts match to your mate attempting a pint in one.

Come on / let's go, as encouragement or a call to follow.

A greeting meaning 'how are you?' or 'how are things?'. The 'she' is impersonal — the world, the day, life in general — and 'cutting' likely comes from cutting turf, hay or silage. Heard most in rural Ireland, particularly Munster, and especially between men. Stronger pub or farmyard energy than office energy.

A standard casual greeting; often not a literal question. Also 'how's it?' or 'how are ya?'.

A common greeting meaning 'how are you?', not asking about travel.

A standard greeting asking how someone is; not literally about travel.

An exclamation meaning 'steady on', 'be sensible' or 'listen here'.

A universal Nigerian Pidgin greeting used when meeting someone, checking in, or opening a conversation. It isn't literally about distance — it's closer to "how's everything?"

A radio phrase asking the other station to confirm how well they received and understood the transmission — 'did you get all that?'

A variant everyday greeting, often used interchangeably with "How you dey" and "How far." Asks after someone's general state or health in a warm, casual way.

A houseman is a burglar, one who breaks into houses to steal. It is a plain occupational term within the underworld.

The first all-Latino house in a scene that was mostly Black at the time. Hector Valle started it in the summer of 1982 to give Latino queens their own family, but it was Angie Xtravaganza, a Puerto Rican trans teen, who became house mother and turned it into a powerhouse, snatching grand prizes almost immediately. You know the name from Paris Is Burning and Pose. Inducted into the Ballroom Hall of Fame in 2006.

Willi Ninja's house, started in 1982. Willi was the Godfather of Vogue, the dancer who sharpened the form into the clean, precise, runway-fierce style the world knows from Paris Is Burning, and he led the House of Ninja as its mother. Famously multiracial when most houses were Black or, in Xtravaganza's case, Latino. Willi broke the rule that you needed three grand prizes before starting a house, then went and proved he never needed it.

The original. The House of LaBeija is the first ballroom house, born when Crystal LaBeija walked off the stage of a rigged white-judged drag pageant in 1967 and decided to build something for Black and Latino queens instead. With Lottie LaBeija she threw the first House of LaBeija ball in Harlem in 1972, and the entire house system, every chosen family that came after, traces back to that move. Crystal is the Mother of Ballroom for a reason.

A recruit assigned to clean and run errands in the drill instructors' offices and quarters.

The matriarch of a ballroom house. Usually an older, respected member, a drag queen, gay man or trans woman, who leads the house, trains its children to walk categories, and provides the support, guidance and sometimes literal housing that the kids' birth families wouldn't. Think Angie Xtravaganza. A chosen-family mum in every sense that counts. The term has spread well beyond ballroom into wider drag and queer culture.

Often a retired dancer, she runs the back: tracks shifts, sells tampons and hairspray at markup, breaks up fights, talks girls off ledges, and trains the baby strippers on how the floor actually works. Tipped by every dancer at end of shift. The job the customers never see but the club can't run without.

Pay-to-play: dancers are typically classed as independent contractors and have to hand the club a set amount — often $50 to $200 — before they've earned a dollar. Scales with the shift (Friday night costs more than Tuesday afternoon). The reason a slow night can end with a dancer leaving in the red.

The patriarch of a ballroom house, the counterpart to the house mother. An older, respected member who leads, mentors and protects the house children, providing the guidance and family their birth homes often didn't. Hector Valle founded and fathered the House of Xtravaganza. Same chosen-family role as the mother, just the masc-presenting seat at the head of the table.

In ballroom culture, a house is a chosen family — a tight-knit crew of mostly Black and Latino LGBTQ folks, headed by a mother and/or father, that walks balls together under one name. It started as survival: queer kids kicked out of home found shelter, mentorship and a surname with their house. Think House of LaBeija, House of Xtravaganza. The house both raises you and reps you when you walk the floor.

An instruction to be quiet or hold one's tongue.