Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Newb or Noob?

Oh boy. I spent some time on urbandictionary.com doing some "research" today. Researching for a hip, super cool book you ask? No such luck. No, I was researching the current lingo going around my son's sixth grade class.

We had an interesting conversation in the car yesterday. It went something like this:

usually private 12 year old: "Mom, just curious, what's a newb?"
delighted to be asked mom: "I don't think I've ever heard that word...who said it?"
usually private 12 year old: "Just some kids. What's a scrub?"
confident mom: "Well, it's something doctors wear while working at a hospital."
usually private 12 year old: "I don't think that's what they mean..."
starting to feel old mom: "I don't know then, we'll google it."
usually private 12 year old: "How about a pimp?"
now dying mom: "Don't use that word."

End of said conversation.

Whoa....hold the phone! A pimp? Red flags popping up all over the place...

So that's how I happened upon urbandictionary.com which only succeeded in pointing out to me how much the world is changing. If I'm honest, I'm more confused than ever. Here's what I found for scrub - word for word, mind you....

A scrub is a guy that thinks he's fly
And is also known as a buster
Always talkin' about what he wants
And just sits on his broke ass
A scrub is a guy that cant get no love from me
Hanging out the passenger side
Of his best-friend's ride
Trying to holler at me

What????? So I look up newb...

Someone who is new to the activity that they are currently partaking in. Very often this term is used pertaining to computer games. Contrary to popular belief, a newb and a n00b are not the same thing, as a newb can and will get better where as a n00b will partake in activites meant mainly to aggrivate other players.

This seems clear enough, right? Starting to make sense. But I should have stopped with the definition, but being a word geek, I looked to the explanatory sentence:

"You jump with the space bar, don't be such a newb" Uh-oh...what does that mean..."jump with the space bar"? This research could go on for ever...

Is this really the way kids are talking these days? I'm not even 40 yet, and I'm so out of touch? How can that be? I guess I'm lucky that my kid is asking me all these questions and giving me a chance to catch up with the youth lingo...and sadly, I almost signed up to get the word of the day e-mailed me from urbandictionary just so I could stay ahead of the game...but I recouped my sensibilities and passed it up. Some things, I just don't need sent to my inbox.

So what's the bright side? At the least the definition for pimp was the same as I remember.

Any interesting slang you think I should know?