12 Jul 2008
L-L-L-Lingo
Writer style, photography and graphic layout are just a few ways to differentiate tone and perspective in today’s media landscape. Recently, Daily Candy introduced a book defining its lexicon of made up words. Gawker, partly in jest is falling suit - I’m pretty sure we’re all familiar with the term ‘fameball.’*
My point in all this is that invented vocabulary within the media industry is nothing new, and all the recent chatter should give some credit to Variety, the leading trade rag for Hollywood industry news.
From its early beginning, Variety, created and continues to print insider entertainment speak known as slanguage. Words like ‘mogul’ and ‘Gotham’ have made their way from the pages of Variety and into the mainstream. ‘Gotham’ was imagined way before Batman’s hometown - it was created as an alternative word for New York City.
After reviewing the glossary of slanguage terms, I was rather surprised how many words have made their way into popular culture - deejay, biz, nix, net, tix, hype, greenlight, indie, arthouse, whodunnit, etc. And then there the ones that fail to breakthrough and remain tightly held within the industry: above the line, ayem, BevHills, chantoosie, hoofer, ducats, hardtop, etc.
Even today, everywhere you go has its own lingo - at work, online, at the bar - I find it fascinating. Anyway, if you’re interested in entertainment terms and their meanings visit Variety’s slanguage dictionary here.
*Note, to be clear, I’m not saying Gawker invented the word ‘fameball’ (I know who did), but their mockery of it certainly heightened awareness.
