Slang

English, as we all know, is a language which is constantly evolving. You have only to look at the textbooks which were in use just 20 or 30 years ago, to see how English has changed in many subtle ways.

Many of the shorcuts in grammar which used to be considered sloppy - or just plain wrong - are now perfectly acceptable. Hundred of expressions which were once thought to be too colloquial for correct use are now part and parce of the working language.

New words for new concepts and new inventions have had to be coined. Technology has produced a large number of lexical items which are in commun use: most people are familiar with words like input, output, feedback, hardware and software, even though they may know very little about computers.

But the richest source of new vocabulary has always been "slang".

Slang tends to originate within smaller groups - the armed forces, jazz musicians and their fans, people in show business, the underworld, drug addicts, and college students, to name but a few.

Each sector generates its own special slang, some of wich may become, for a brief period, part of everyone's vocabulary.

Occasionally , a word or expression is so vivid or so widely used that it slips into the mainstream of the language, thus gaining a certain respectability. In many cases, the line which separates "slang" from "informal usage" is a matter of individual opinion.

Newsgroups(usenet) have produced a large number of lexical items.

Are there lexical items which are now in common use? (newsgroups slang)..so widely used that it slips into the mainstream of the language, thus gaining a certain respectability???

Franco