10 Throwback Junior High-isms We Just Can't Let Go Of

Posted at 5:00 AM Jan 27, 2010

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By Tolly Moseley

Kids these days. They think they invented peer-to-peer slang! Oh, you know what I'm talking about. "OMG," "ttyl," "btw." But before cell phones, Facebook, Google Chat and its early ancestor AOL Instant Messenger™, young adolescents communicated through an ancient artifact now known as "paper." I know, because I have evidence of this time.

Generation Net will recognize some of our early attempts at sentence abbreviation ("BFFAE!"), but my friends and I had a special vocabulary of our very own passed down to us from Clueless, Saved by the Bell and possibly our older siblings' 2 Live Crew tapes. After consulting my Lisa Frank edition notebook (by which I mean shaking it until my 6th and 7th grade notes fell out), here is a field guide to my junior high self's vocabulary. Should you ever need to discuss anything with 13-year-old me, these terms are recommended.

10. LYLAS

MEANING: "Love ya like a sister." I remember that the first time I saw this written on a note, I was completely confused until I turned over my note--folded expertly into an origami box--and saw it written out like an acrostic poem, with a  picture of two stick-figure girls smiling. Hey, that's me and my friend, loving each other like sisters! Note: While "BFF" may have been the earliest and certainly best-surviving example of sentence abbreviation speak, LYLAS was a close second in its origins. 

USAGE: Mostly as a salutation to your note. For example: "See you at 5th period, LYLAS!!!!  --Stacy"

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9. Fine

MEANING: Cute, hot, good-looking. This term was used interchangeably by both sexes to describe each other. I'm not sure if  "fine" was a precursor to "hot," but I do know I waited until my very late high school years before I started using "hot" with confidence. It felt as though this word should be reserved for men, while "fine" was better suited to teen boys.

USAGE: "I used to think Joey in New Kids (on the Block) was fine, but then I saw Ladybugs, and now I think Jonathan Brandis is more fine."

8. Talk to the hand

MEANING: "....'cause the face don't give a damn." If announced in person, this phrase came with a hand gesture to demonstrate exactly which part of your hand the offensive party could talk to (the palm). I have no idea which character (/real person?) from the 80's or 90's invented this expression, but I do know I felt like a badass when I said it.

USAGE: "I saw gross Matt at the basketball game last night and was all, 'TALK TO THE HAND.'"

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7. Whatz up, down, all around?

MEANING: This is pretty self-explanatory, but it's worth pointing out two things here: A) "Sup" was an effective alternative if you didn't feel like writing out this whole greeting, and B) The "up, down, all around" part had to be written with arrows and a curly Q line.

I'm not sure if this was just a San Antonio, Texas thing (site of my childhood), or what, but I think at some point, 90's teens and preteens the nation over started incorporating using more "z's" where "s's" were traditionally used. Because that's how TLC would have spelled their plurals and possessives.

USAGE: As a greeting (duh). "Yo dude!! What's up, down, all around?"

6. As if!

MEANING: "Yeah right," "whatever," etc., but spoken with incredulousness. Think Cher from Clueless, who just may have invented this term.

USAGE: "Mom said I couldn't wear purple Doc Martens to church and I was like, AS IF."