27 Jan 2022 (Adapted from Dec 2021 CitySunTimes article, incl artwork)
OK all you Midwesties, All Y’all’ers, Yinzers (you know who you are!) UP’ers, snowbirds and other winter visitors: You’re planning your escape from snow and freezing rain and setting course to sunny Arizona. (Oooh, it’s chilly outside here at 1 p.m. in the shade…64°!)
Or maybe you’re already here, hanging out by the hotel pool and figuring out what a “Camelback” is. Consider this your orientation to the new hipster slang for Valley locations that all the 20-bopper Scooters are dropping. 
So, ushering in the hopefully post-pandemic new year, we’re going to give you a break from all the sorry news in order to help you dig the new lingo and get your jols on for 2022. And we promise not to say “dig” again.
First off, let’s take a look at some Valley of the Sun locales so you know the cool terms to use when your 2nd wave rels from Yinzerland and Vancouvy come to help you enjoy the pool while we’re freezing with three layers of flannel and sweaters.
We begin with possibly the longest, skinniest continuing stretch of city in America, maybe the universe:
- Scoots (Scottsdale)
- NoSco (north Scottsdale — kinda like SoHo in NY)
- SoSco (south Scottsdale)
- New Town (area of Scottsdale, sometimes known as “Old Town” though there’s not much “old” there since it is mainly fashionable clubs where the 20-boppers do their booty popping, along with art galleries, museums, super-modern condos, and contemporary municipal buildings )
- Troon (just “Troon”— needs no jokey slang name)
Moving around the Valley…
- C-Creek (Cave Creek)
- Q-Creek (Queen Creek)
- C-Free! (Carefree…optional exclamation point)
- P-Val (Paradise Valley)
- NCFee (north central Phoenix)
- Tempers (Tempe, especially useful if you’re not sure which syllable gets the stress)
- Chandy (Chandler)
- The Mase (Mesa, this one is getting quite bussin’ with the 20-boppers. Also known as “La Mase” for a bit of flair au francais (just don’t plan to go bar-hoppin’ on a Sunday)
- Do-toe (downtown, or DownToe)
- Gilbayr (Gilbert, like the store, Tarzhay)
- Glendy (Glendale)
- The Tewk (Ahwatukee)
- Slakes (Sun Lakes)
- Presky (Prescott…just be sure not to say PresCOTT)
- Westie (west sider—technically west of Central Ave but in practice used for anyone west of the I-17)
Here are some non-geo items
- 20-boppers: what the teenyboppers grew up into. They can usually be found twerking in New Town
- pager: a hard cover book, as opposed to Kindle, Nook, EPUB or other online book; a “pager” is something where you actually turn pages
- erl-eve — early evening, for texting or cazh convos, “Let’s make it erl-eve for our hang-out”
- late-af — late afternoon, for texting or cazh convos
And now, some items we didn’t make up.
- whip: your car, a tongue in cheek reference to the former name for a fancy car, derived from horse and buggy days)
- devious lick: TikTok vids of kids stealing stuff from schools; we know the original use but no idea why it’s called this; spelling varies (and by the time you read this, it’s prob cheugy)
- cazh: casual (spoken, not written)
- rando: a stranger, i.e. random person, usually pejorative
- chief (verb): — to smoke you know what; also used as a codeword noun: weed
- bussin’: awesome
- stan: obsessive fan (combo of “stalker” and “fan” but mellowed out now)
- drop: to release a new song, podcast or other digital performance. Originally a 1990s hip-hop term that crossed over to the mainstream world. Nowadays every pop artist is “dropping” new singles, albums, podcasts, Tik Toks etc.
Finally: Old slang (please discard)
(these are so cheugy we’re not even going to define them)
- Bae
- cheugy
- woke
- cancel culture
- on fleek
Stay groovy all you crazy dudes and dudettes! And remember to not use a period at the end of texts
Words in Action: The Blog 