Hooah !

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 00:30:01 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

>In the '60's in L.A., "die-yow," also onomatopoetic for a gunshot, was
>in very brief vogue as a slang term for "excellent": "Man, that chick
>has some die-yow hips," wherein "hips" is a slang euphemism for
>"buttocks." For some reason, the bruz tended to interpret "die-yow" as
>an ordinary word. Naturally, if you do that, then the example sentence
>has no discernable meaning. The hiperati tired of being asked what they
>were talking about. So, this bit of slang died a-borning.

I believe a more recent equivalent would be "tadow".

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http://www.voxcommunications.com/ytadow.htm

Tadow
Wow! Usually said in reference to an attractive woman.

Audio: http://www.voxcommunications.com/tadow.wav
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That's taken from a collection of teen/hiphop slang compiled by Oakland
high school teacher Mark Frey. Here's the full list:

http://www.voxcommunications.com/slang15.htm


--Ben Zimmer