Some phrases just express the right sentiment at the right time. Even if they’ve gone out of style and are not understood by folks not of your place and time. I propose bringing back two of my favorite phrases from my teenage and young adult years: Dig it and Right on!

Right on is so righteous that we used to say it twice, “Right on, right on.” It was an affirmation of whatever someone else said.

A friend might say, “Let’s go get something to eat.”

You (or somebody else) would affirm their suggestion: “Right on, right on,” (or sometimes just the singular “Right on” if you weren’t a particularly effusive person.)

The expression, “dig it” was most famously brought into the lexicon in the song, Grazing in the Grass, released in 1969 by the group, Friends of Distinction.

It was a huge hit. Grazing in the Grass had a memorable refrain that was sung real fast:

I can dig it, he can dig it, she can dig it, we can dig it, they can dig it, you can dig it, oh, let’s dig it. Can you dig it, baby?

I could dig it, did dig it, and am ready to dig it again.

Other phrases I used a lot were:

* Jive – as in, he’s a jive person (not cool, flaky, undependable)
* Jiving – as in, “You’ jiving me?” (Meaning you’re putting me on or lying to me.)
* Mellow – as in, “It’s mellow” and “mellow out.” (Meaning it’s calm, chill out.)
* Baaddd – as in that’s a baaddd hairdo, album, dress, outfit – meaning it was fantastically-gorgeous & wonderful. (“She’s a bad mamma-jamma, just as fine as she can be,” written by Stevie Wonder and recorded by Ohio Players, The Gap Band, and Stevie Wonder.
* Trip – as in that’s a trip or you’re a trip (you’re out-of-your mind)
* Groovy – Meaning okay.
* Pad – The place you lived as “are we going to your pad or my pad.”
* Crash – As in, we’re all going to crash at Etta’s pad (meaning hang-out for the evening).
* Later – As in “see you later.”
* Be there or be square – I think you get it.
* Cool – it’s cool, it’s A-okay (as opposed to just okay).

Every generation of teens comes up with their own language to talk to each other and code their parents and other adults out. A lot of teen-slang today is abbreviated, phrases derived from the technology they use. They “friend” people.. A current phrase that I would use if I were a teen now because it’s so cool is explained by BlogHer.com correspondent, Virginia DeBolt, in
Pardon me? Was that the latest slang?

Obama means cool. If you're Not Obama, you, I'm sad to say, are not cool. Get busy and get your Obama on.

Obama. Cool. Very cool. Right on.

There are a lot of blogs that discuss slang of the 1960s. Darlene McFarlane on socyberty.com, reminded me of a phrase I hadn’t heard in a while, “Far-out” they hippies used it a lot to describe things and people, “that’s far-out man.”

She writes: “If something was far out, it was better than groovy. “Pete’s a real far out guy!”

Cynthia C. Scott wrote an article, Vietnam Slang, on the website “Rewind the Sixties.” She reminded me that the Vietnam War, as do all wars, brought a # of phrases into our everyday conversations.

When Vietnam vets returned home from the war, they introduced terminology and slang that was commonplace within the military into the language. These terms are composed of French/Vietnamese words that were spoken by the Vietnamese natives and adopted by soldiers and, in some cases, turned into pidgin words; compounds of English words, creating new terms; or acronyms and the abbreviations of words or terms.

Boo-coo: a bastardized French word, derived from beaucoup, meaning "much" or "many." (My friends and I would describe a party, thusly, “we had boo-coo fun!” That meant a whole lot of fun.)
Bummer: bad luck, a real drag, i.e. "That's a bummer, man."

We also called each other “Brother” and “Sister” because we were united in the struggle for freedom. (Took ourselves quite seriously.) We “liberated” (permanently borrowed also known as shoplifted) items from “the man” (the establishment) and “gave each other five” afterwards.

Language is such a dynamic force for expressing the times we’re living in. I’d “run it down” for you more but I got to “split” right now.

Right on!

Also see: Urban Dictionary