A guide to city slang

Photographs: Franz: Albane Navizet/Cobris

NYPD slang
ACCORDING TO AN NYPD COP

• 10-13: n. We’re in big effing trouble; “The giant gorilla is loose! We have a big hairy 10-13 down here!”
• 10-85: v. We need help, but it’s a nonemergency; “10-85 me some doughnuts, Sergeant.”
• mopes: n. Degenerate lawbreakers; “Let’s throw these mopes into the squad car.”

Teenage slang
ACCORDING TO NYC PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS

• feenin’: v. Needing something desperately; “I’m feenin’ for a trip to Fire Island!”
• OD: adj. Short for overdoing something, but often used in a positive connotation; “This foie gras is OD!”
• jinkin’: adj. A positive description of something; “Upon seeing the new episode of Antiques Roadshow, Russell exclaimed, ‘That’s jinkin’!?’
• to get washed: v. To get one’s ass kicked badly; “After losing all of his client’s money, the broker got washed within an inch of his life.”
• gill: interj. Response to an ill-conceived remark; works best if used in conjunction with a fish-gill-cutting hand motion near the neck of the person being spoken to. Teen 1: “I say, Proust is rather droll, isn’t he?” Teen 2: “Gill!”

Handball nomenclature

• Crotch ball: a shot to the juncture between wall and floor
• Dead ball: a ball that is out of play
• Fist ball: a closed-handed shot
• Ace: an unreturnable serve
• Killer: a low-flying, unreturnable shot
• Fly shot: a ball hit off the wall before it reaches the floor
• Spike: an overhead shot that lands in a low corner
• Roller: a spinning groundout
• Yellow; white: the line
• Pump; pinky; Pensy Pinky; Spaldeen; small; hard; black; big blue: terms for the ball

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