In Spring of this year, I read an article about a
"cool" and "savvy" 43-year-old high school teacher in Massachusetts who developed
a "Gen Z Dictionary" that attempts to define the
colloquial terms that his students used throughout the school year.
The dictionary garnered considerable attention on social media when
students posted excerpts of the presentation.
The dictionary defined the terms "hop off"; "run
that"; "take the L"; and, my favorite,
"periodt" as, respectively, "mind your own
business," "to take/to start," "make a
sacrifice," and "facts—I'm in agreement with
what you just said." Although I cannot vouch for the spelling
of the terms/phrases or the accuracy of the definitions, I was
thoroughly amused and have even heard some of these terms/phrases
used in popular songs. This Buzzfeed article refers to this dictionary as
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
