Festival Language Study Unveiled: Do You Know Your "Grampers" From Your "Vamping"?

After last weekend's Bestival, the UK's festival's season starts to draw to a close. It's been an amazing summer of tunes, good times and memories we'll never forget. But what have we learned? Well, young people have a special way of speaking at festivals for one thing. In fact, the festival circuit has developed a language all of its own..
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After last weekend's Bestival, the UK's festival's season starts to draw to a close. It's been an amazing summer of tunes, good times and memories we'll never forget.

But what have we learned? Well, young people have a special way of speaking at festivals for one thing. In fact, the festival circuit has developed a language all of its own..

This week a definitive collection of new and emerging words that swept the nation's festivals has been revealed.

Words including 'amped', for when someone is particularly excited about an upcoming event; 'nangin'', to describe something that is cool and 'Xippie', used to describe a Generation X Hippie who loves festivals - were all revealed as contemporary words peppering the language of young people during this summer's festival season.

Commissioned by Lucozade Energy as a way of celebrating a brilliant summer of good times at festivals across the UK in 2014, the report has been created by expert linguist Tony Thorne and MC rapper Pepstar. The #YESMoment Festival Dictionary showcases how language has evolved amongst young people and how festival culture has influenced it.

Accompanying the more familiar slang words of 'amazeballs', 'laterz' and 'safe', are variety of less familiar terms. Some of the other more interesting words to come out of the dictionary include; 'boomting', a word to describe a particularly exciting event or moment, 'gramper', to mean an older festival goer, and even, 'x-bomb' meaning a complete and total failure.

Tony Thorne, Language and Innovation Consultant at King's College London and author of The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, said;

"Festivals are the place where niches, genres and cultures come together in a dynamic mix - and is also a space where the latest comic, exotic, original and edgy forms of language are traded. Young people's coinages are now probably the richest source of new language in the English-speaking world, for me, this report was an insightful look into the constant evolution and development of language."

Here's an A to Z of highlights for Huffington Post readers:

Amazeballs - A term used to describe something that is impressive or excellent.

"Wow, this burrito is amazeballs! I could eat one everyday."

Boomting - A term used to describe an exciting event.

"The silent disco tonight is going to be boomting."

Camp tramp - Refers to a messy, dirty festival-goer.

"Have you seen that camp tramp? He's so filthy. He slept in a puddle."

Don - A word to describe someone who has achieved success and is seen as a legend.

"That guy is such a don. He manages to pull all the girls."

Endz - A word to describe your neighbourhood or hometown.

"My endz are rough."

Fam - Used to identify your close friends.

"I'm going to see Chase and Status with you, fam!"

Garms - A slang term for clothes.

"I need some new garms for winter."

Hypin' - A word to describe someone that is showing off or acting provocatively.

"That guy over there is hypin' for sure."

Innit - A slang question tag, deriving from "isn't it" - usually put at the end of a sentence for emphasis.

"Time to go to bed, innit?"

Jel - An abbreviation of "jealous".

"I'm so jel that you got tickets to Bestival."

Keeno - An overly keen person.

"He texts me fifteen times a day. What a keeno."

Live - A term used to describe something that is exciting.

"This festival is live."

Mum 'n' Bass - An older woman who is still the life and soul of the party.

"That is a serious Mum 'n' Bass over there."

Nang - A slang word used to describe something that is cool.

"Those trainers are nang, mate."

Obvs - An abbreviation of "obvious".

"Breaking Bad is obvs the best."

Props - Used when respect is due.

"Props to you for remembering my birthday."

QT - A slang word for "cutie", meaning somebody who is cute.

"Aw, she is such a QT!"

Raggo - A word used to describe something that is reckless or provocative.

"Can you believe him? He's acting raggo!"

Shapes - A slang word for dance moves.

"I'm going to bust some serious shapes tonight."

Tekkers - Abbreviation of the word "technique", used to describe something or someone with skill.

"See Danny Welbeck last night? He's got some serious tekkers, man. Yeah, is he even allowed to play for England? I swear he's Tekkerslovakian."

True dat - Used to acknowledge or express agreement with a statement.

"We should have brought some wellies. Yeah. True dat."

Unforch - Abbreviation for the word "unfortunately".

"Unforch these wellies are too small for me and are giving me blisters."

Vexed - To be irritated or angry about something.

"I'm so vexed that you stole my phone charger."

Vamping - A synonym for "showing-off".

"You're just vamping now."

Wag1 - A slang word, deriving from "what's going on?", used as a greeting.

"Wag1, man. You OK?"

Wasteman - Refers to somebody who is useless.

"That guy is an absolute wasteman. He couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat."

X-bomb - A total failure.

"That show was an X-bomb."

Xippie - A generation X Hippie that loves festivals.

"Look at the way he is dancing! He must be a xippie."

YOLO - An acronym for "you only live once", a phrase made famous by American rapper Drake despite many saying it before him.

"I'm going to go outside in the rain, because YOLO."

Zonked - An expression of tiredness or exhaustion.

"I'm zonked. I can't wait to get into bed."

Pepstar, Rapper and Award-Winning MC, said;

"These are words that I hear on a regular basis; it's language that groups of young people use all of the time. It's great to put these words in the public sphere allowing others to understand and potentially even change common misconceptions. Music festivals are places where you can be yourself, and embrace the many different UK cultures; this dictionary is a perfect way to celebrate that."

The full YES Moment Dictionary is now available for Huffington Post readers to download as well. So, there's no excuse for not being in touch with the nation's youth! Time to start swotting up before tickets go on sale for next year's festivals..

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