Bomb

[David Bowie]

From:    Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>

> In the MIT slang list was:

> 'Bomb - When performed on a quiz, excellence; when performed on the
> "East Campus Fence", extreme excellence.'

> Am I right in thinking that since this list was published (and in
> general usage - I've never been even once to MIT), *bomb* has
> reversed its slang meaning?  To me, at least, in the context of tests
> (academic or in the more general sense of 'doing something
> challenging'), it now means 'fail'.  In my mental lexicon it has
> always been a shortening of 'bomb out'.

The first two of these have been mentioned in the discussion so far, but
AFAICT not in the same post, so here's my intuition:

The noun (particularly with the definite article, as 'the bomb') is
something that is excellent.

The verb is to do badly.

The adjective (generally in a construction such as 'It was so bomb')
means something was excellent, though i don't use it actively and
whether it really means excellent (and the degree of excellence) can be
more strongly affected by context than the other two.

--
David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.