Slang

The vocabulary of American food slang can claim a proud, inspired, and resourceful heritage; slang terms dealing with food enjoyed a truly golden age in the 1930s and 1940s. Nothing has slowed the ever-prolific coining of new alcohol-instigated slang; although much of drinking slang has migrated to the realm of drugs, drinkers have continued to do what drinkers have always done—drink and invent slang.

Food neologisms are abundant thanks to culinary globalization and the insatiable appetite of American eaters for new styles, dishes, and ingredients. However, these newly coined terms are typically standard register, and rarely, if ever, do the innovations in language rise to the level of slang. To be sure, food metaphors abound, with liberal servings of food vocabulary sprinkled throughout idiomatic and colloquial American speech: “American as apple pie” for thoroughly American; “bring home the bacon” for earning the wages that support a family; “baloney” for nonsense; “go bananas” for losing one’s temper; “bread” and “dough” for money; “carrot-top” for a person with red hair; “cheesecake” for a good-looking, scantily clad woman; “chew the fat” for engaging in idle conversation; “toss your cookies” for vomiting—the food terms used as idioms or metaphors in colloquial speech extend impressively through the lexicon.