Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon [Hardcover]

Michael Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0195160339 | ISBN-13: 978-0195160338 | Edition: annotated edition

In its seven years on television, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has earned critical acclaim and a massive cult following among teen viewers. One of the most distinguishing features of the program is the innovative way the show's writers play with language: fabricating new words, morphing existing ones, and throwing usage on its head. The result has been a strikingly resonant lexicon that reflects the power of both youth culture and television in the evolution of American slang. Using the show to illustrate how new slang is formed, transformed, and transmitted, Slayer Slang is one of those rare books that combines a serious explanation of a pop culture phenomena with an engrossing read for fans of the show, word geeks, and language professionals. Michael Adams begins his book with a synopsis of the program's history and a defense of ephemeral language. He then moves to the main body of the work: a detailed glossary of slayer slang, annotated with actual dialogue and recorded the style accepted by the American Dialect Society. The book concludes with a bibliography and a lengthy index, a guide to sources (novels based on the show, magazine articles about the show, and language culled from the official posting board) and an appendix of slang-making suffixes. Introduced by Jane Espenson, one of the show's most inventive writers (and herself a linguist), Slayer Slang offers a quintessential example of contemporary youth culture serving as a vehicle for slang.
In the tradition of The Physics of Star Trek, Slayer Slang is one of those rare books that offers a serious examination a TV cult phenomenon appealing to fans and thinkers alike.
A few examples from the Slayer Slang glossary:
bitca n [AHD4 bitch n in sense 2.a + a] Bitch 1997 Sep 15 Whedon When She Was Bad "[Willow:] 'I mean, why else would she be acting like such a b-i-t-c-h?' [Giles:] 'Willow, I think we're all a little old to be spelling things out.' [Xander:] 'A bitca?'"
break and enterish adj [AHD4 sv breaking and entering n + -ish suff in sense 2.a] Suitable for crime 1999 Mar 16 Petrie Enemies "I'll go home and stock up on weapons, slip into something a little more break and enterish." [B]
carbon-dated adj [fr. AHD4 carbondating + -ed] Very out of date 1997 Mar 10 Whedon Welcome to the Hellmouth "[Buffy:] 'Deal with that outfit for a moment.' [Giles:] 'It's dated?' [Buffy:] 'It's carbon-dated.'"
cuddle-monkey n [AHD4 cuddle v + monkey n in sense 2, by analogy fr. RHHDAS (also DAS3 and NTC) sv cuddle bunny 'an affectionate, passionate, or sexually attractive young woman'] Male lover 1998 Feb 10 Noxon Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered "Every woman in Sunnydale wants to make me her cuddle-monkey." [X]

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The cult TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which follows a California cheerleader's crusade against the undead, has spawned websites and posting boards, novels, comics and, in the academy, Buffy Studies. This volume, a glossary of the show's distinctive dialect ("Buffyspeak"), is a strange marriage of a fan guide and a linguistics textbook. Referencing the original 1992 film as well as the TV show, the almost 75 novels and novelizations based on the character, the official and unofficial web posting boards and other media associated with the "Buffyverse," the monograph comprises an affectionate but technical paean to American slang and youth culture in addition to its 150-page glossary. As a study of actuation (the origins of new words), lexical gaps (concepts without names), loose idioms, new syntactic patterns and ephemeral language in all things Buffy, the book may be slow-going for the average fan, but the glossary itself offers entertaining browsing for diehard and casual watchers of the show. "The micro-history of the word Buffy is a veritable saga," Adams writes with relish. Indeed, the glossary includes nearly 40 variations on the name: Buffyatrics (older fans of the show), Buffinator (Buffy herself or one who criticizes Buffy) and Franken-Buffy (monster in the guise of Buffy), to name just a few. Readers can also delight in a breakdown of Buffy's distinctive and amusing use of suffixes ("mathiness," "lunchable"), and its celebration of the prefix uber- ("ubernerd," "uberachiever"). Each exhaustive glossary entry includes parts of speech, etymology, definitions and illustrative quotations from magazine articles, posting boards and countless episodes (writer, date and speaker cited). Ultimately, the book is for a very niche audience of Slayer-obsessed linguists-other readers may be baffled by this blend of academia and pop-culture mania.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"If you're curious about the word 'ubersuck,' or just want to remember which episode you first heard it in, this is the place to look. As Buffy would say, it is not uncool."--Kansas City Star

"While we were caught up in the drama of the battles against the undead...linguist Michael Adams was concentrating on the words. Slayer Slang is a combination dictionary of slayer slang/guide to the Buffyverse/textbook. Just consider it another sign Buffy will live forever."--Sacramento Bee

"Even if you never watched the show, Slayer Slang provides major clueage about the formation of slang terms in general. Slang, after all, is where language vrooms and vibes--or, in the case of Buffy, where it vamps."--Hartford Courant

"In applying linguistic analysis to the show, Adams not only shows how brilliant and innovative the writing was but also its toggling relationship to and influences upon popular culture."--Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Will satisfy the inner geek of a Buffy fan."--Kansas City Star

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; annotated edition edition (July 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195160339
• ISBN-13: 978-0195160338
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable glossary, but the essays go on a bit. September 18, 2003

By J. Roberts VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I can sum up the first 125 pages of this book as follows: Slayer slang is very creative, occasionally rebellious, and slang should be appreciated for what it is.

Michael Adams makes these three points repeatedly and often, giving case after case after case for each one. It's not a bad thing to make a point strongly, but making it repetitively gets a little tiresome.

Still, the prose flows well, and his arguments are clear and well-put, so it's not as though it's simply a hundred pages of retreaded material. Adams' points may well be new ones to the ears of some, and in that case the essays are definitely worth the read.

Of course, that leaves us with almost 200 pages of glossary, the part of the book that provides us with the most useful and most interesting information. The entries are formatted clearly, providing plenty of quotation to put the words in context, and the selection is broad, covering not only the episodes, but also the original movie, the Bronze message boards, newspaper and magazine articles and books and graphic novels.

I wouldn't count this as a "must-have" for hardcore fans of the show, as they either know the words already or don't need a hardcover glossary to catch up. This book is most useful for people with a casual interest in linguistics and the show, as well as those who are just interested in slang and its place in modern society.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Slayer slang is simply academic after this book August 13, 2003

By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If the question is posed as to whether "Slayer Slang: A `Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Lexicon" by Michael Adams will introduce more fans of the late lamented cult television series to the study of philology or send more philologists to check out the series on DVD and/or in syndication, then I would have to cast my vote for the first option. Hopefully, fans will recognize that their enjoyment of slang on "BtVS" has always entailed an appreciation of the presentation and analysis of the peculiar use of language on the various episodes and related paperback novels, all of which are now rendered as "texts" in this academic endeavor by Adams.

The first half of the volume presents what are essentially a series of essays. "Slayer Slang" looks at both the series as a phenomenon and the role that both slayer jargon (words peculiar to the occupation of being a slayer) and slayer slang (the pointed way in which Buffy and the Scoobies speak, with all their attendant pop culture references) in establishing the show's successful slayer style. If you can follow how slayer jargon can turn into slayer slang, then you are holding your own on the academic side of the equation. But the success here is in the details, and when Adams explains how Faith's idiosyncratic slang differs from Xander and the others most readers should be able to appreciate the analysis. "Making Slayer Slang" covers the attraction of prefixes and the happy endings provided by using suffixes, with Adams become absolutely wistful as he covers the impressive number of words contributed to the lexicon by using "-age" as a hyperactive suffix. I have to admit, I probably learned more about the parts of language from Adams's analysis of shifty slang, what with nouns becoming adjectives and such, than I learned in school (I picked up the rules of grammar by osmosis, i.e., what is known in some circles as reading). But when he covers the mixed etymologies in slayer slang and deals with the mind boggling problem presented by "Edge Girl" in terms of being the product of so many current sense of "girl," he is clearly reaching the limits of endurance for most readers.

"Studying the Micro-histories of Words" starts off looking at what has been going on in popular culture in the real world to create such things as actuation, before going off into a wonderful look at all the baggage in American English carried by the name "Buffy." Once again Adams launches into some philological pyrotechnics on lexical gaps, loose idioms, and folk etymologies before quickly ending this chapter as well. The final essay, "Ephemeral Language," is where Adams will leave most "BtVS" fans in the dust as he looks at the significance of slayer slang in larger terms, namely what it tells us about the current state of the English language.

The second half of the volume consists of a glossary, albeit one edited down from the massive collection of words and derived forms of words Adams originally compiled by October 2002. Still, hundreds of words from "activeness" (noun, Propensity to do [illicit] things) to "X-man" (n, Xander) are covered, included detailed looks at "Buffy," "dust," "much, "slaying," "vamp," and "wiggins," not to mention myriad variations of each You may well wonder why Adams did not wait a few more months until "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" had finished production, but since he is also including the various novels and short stories that have been published about "BtVS" even that accommodation would not have provided a true sense of completeness since there is always another Nancy Holder or Mel Odom novel around the bend. Besides, Adams points out that if you happen to find your favorite item of slayer slang missing you can contact him to get the complete academic profile.

I cannot imagine too many "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans sitting down and reading "Slayer Slang" cover to cover. Instead I see them working their way through one of the essays, or a particular section, and flipping through the glossary to read about "smoochies," "Exorcist twist," or "five-by-five." My best advice would be to read through an essay and when you find a part that you think is particularly interesting to go look at the extended examples in the glossary. I would not think it would be easy for most readers to do the reverse and work from a word in the glossary to the relevant philology point in an earlier essay. The bottom line is that fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" will find some serious intellectual weight to throw behind their love for the show after reading "Slayer Slang."

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wacky Words and Lovely Linguistics! June 13, 2003

By Amy Weihmann

Format:Hardcover

I am not a huge Buffy fan (I've just seen the last couple of seasons) but I got this as a present and it's GREAT. You really get a feel for how English is changing and how tv shows like Buffy are pushing the boundaries of our language.

There's a lot of information here but it's not hard to read. I read a lot of it straight through. I thought I was pretty strict about "correct grammar" but this guy makes some really good points about how language changes. He really won me over.

The words from the show are so funny! I'm going to use a lot of them, especially "much," like "lame much?" or "late much?"

I recommend this for anyone who likes Buffy, or for anyone who just likes words.