COLLEGE LINGO

Few things can beat the exhilaration of heading off to college. Your post-graduation goodies are accounted for, your bags are packed with the essentials (shower shoes, twin-size bedding, a sampling of mementos from home) and you’re ready to conquer The Real World.

Before you’re too engrossed in college life, consult our guide to college lingo, nonstandard usages of standard words that can be heard among groups of friends or people who share common experiences. Here’s a brief rundown of vocab you can expect to hear in and around your institution of higher learning.

• Atom—automatic teller machine (ATM.): “I have to stop by the atom to get some cash.”
  
• Bones—leftover pizza crusts, usually found in random and unusual places – e.g. the bathroom counter
  
• Bounce—to leave: “This party is whack, man. Let’s bounce.”
  
• Commodore—an old or slow computer
  
• Doh!—oh no! Uh oh! (Thank you, Homer Simpson!) “Doh! I forgot my homework!”
  
• Facebook—search for and/or request the friendship of a student on facebook.com: “I facebooked that cute guy in my psychology class. He facebooked me and found out I was from Kernersville.”
  
• Facebook friend—list someone as a friend on facebook.com: “I barely know him, but I facebook friended him anyway.”
  
• Food—to eat: “We’re going to Burger King to food. Wanna come?”
  
• Freshasaurus—a clueless freshman
  
• Homeslice—a close friend: “Ben’s my homeslice.”
  
• Horizontal engineering—napping
  
• Leech—a person who won’t leave you alone
  
• Mouse potato—to spend too much time on the computer
  
• Ridonkulous—very ridiculous
  
• Sco-pro—scholastic probation
  
• Seriously—expression of shock, surprise or indignation: “He doesn’t call for two weeks, but he thinks he can call tonight and I’ll go over to study? Seriously? Seriously!” Popularized by television series Grey’s Anatomy.
  
• Snarky/snark—witty, more clever and less abrasive than sarcasm: “During B-movies, I am the Queen of Snark.”
  
• T.C.G.—the Computer Guy in the dorm or computer center
  
• Zombied—to pull an all-nighter