Friday, June 25, 2010

Bitchin' 1980s Valley Girl Slang Words

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If you were a kid or parent back in the 1980s, you "fer shur" remember the Valley Girl phase. This awesome use of 1980s slang seemed to last a rather long time. The stereotype started in the upper-middle class area of the San Fernando Valley in California... don't worry, I'll spare you the history lesson and cut to the popular Valley Girl slang terms. Do you remember these 1980s Valley Girl phrases? Feel free to post any I've missed in the comments section.
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Valley Girl Glossary: 10 Valley Girl Words & Terms


  1. Awesome - great, fabulous. Still used today.
  2. Barf Me Out - usually said when something grossed you out. Not used much today.
  3. Bitchin' - awesome, great, very cool. Not used much today.
  4. Choice - described something awesome and seemed very Hollywood. Not used much today.
  5. Dweeb - a nerd, geek or loser. Not used much today, yet I can see my parents saying "dweeb"!
  6. Fresh - another word for cool or awesome. Not used much today.
  7. Gag me with a spoon - another term for gross me out or barf me out. Not used much today.
  8. Gnarly - also meant awesome. Ironically today kids use it to do describe something gross.
  9. Grody or Grody to the Max - Super gross and "to the max" meaning to the maximum point of grossness. Not used much today.
  10. Totally - used to emphasizing such as very. I still sometimes say this today.
Who could forget the pivotal 1983 Valley Girl movie that started the Valley Girl craze as well as Nicholas Cage's career? Bitchin' soundtrack too!

41 comments:

Island Gal said...

I use "awesome" and "totally" a LOT!! lol

Btw I’m having a blog hop over at my blog:
http://www.nycislandgal.com/2010/06/im-so-following-you-back.html

Come and leave your link so all my readers can follow you too!

Jill said...

I completely forgot about Dweeb! Funny! I never realized how most of those terms revolve around grossness.

Unknown said...

Friend Friday visitor!

AJ @ Simple Sweet Inspiration!

This is TOTALLY AWESOME! Really groovy!

Riot Kitty said...

That's funny - even at age 12 (in 1988) I hated that movie for how cheesy it was!

Sylvia Plathypus said...

LMAO Hubs and I had a good giggle on this one...you are awesome!! =) Though I have to say, I hear 'bitchin' used all the time these days...must be making a comeback like all those heinous clothes from the 80's. LOL

Kristie said...

I like totally remember saying like totally tubular. lol
No seriously, I remember saying things like, airhead and poser. I also remember saying, "No Duh"
Oh and Fuck'n A.

Ms. A said...

Crap, you mean I'm not supposed to use these terms anymore? Why didn't somebody tell me?

Melissa said...

I beg to differ on "bitchin'"! Maybe it's just me and my friends, but we say that a whooole lot. Though I suppose we might be saying it a bit ironically. Hmmm.

Anonymous said...

That was fresh! :D

Nehha(India)

ISRAEL CARRASCO said...

She's a valley girl and there is no cure.

Unknown said...

I guess I use a few of these. My Mom uses most of them. Especially, "Dweeb"!

G. B. Miller said...

I never watched the movie, but rather enjoy the song by Frank Zappa.

mamahasspoken said...

I remember these mostly from the song too. I still use the word awesome but none of the others.

Anonymous said...

I like that movie :-) I remember using grody at times. I still use the word dweeb or dweebie! It's hilarious!!!

baygirl32 said...

I am, like totally such a dweeb! I didn't know what grody meant. Ugh gag me with a spoon why don't ya?

Copyboy said...

You can probably thank Neil Patrick Harris (How I met Your Mother) for saving the AWESOME word. Incidentally there was also a show on CBS called Dweebs. Lasted only season. And it starred my favorite actor Peter Scolari.

Joe Cap said...

I totally remember all this, fer shure!

Margie said...

Some of this is still part of my vernacular...and that's awesome.

:)

sara said...

I admit it...I own that movie. It is frequently quoted among my sisters and I. I mean Tommy is bitchin' and everything...

Grace said...

As someone who was born in the San Fernando Valley, not only do I remember those words but I still use most of them on a daily basis. And so do my kids (my poor kids).

Anonymous said...

Bitchin' was also used in the late 50's and 60's particularly when young men would talk about cars or women, lol.

I also remember:
"Gonna make me hurl" when talking about something distasteful.

"Stoked" when switching around my use of "awesome" and/or "radical"

Hello as ever, Miss Ally!

buffalodick said...

Some of them stuck, a lot of them are history! In the Midwest, some of the terms were not even used until until they went out of use in California!

Vicky said...

I totally use it too sometimes... fer sure. Totally rad or radical... or we'd say "Like, gag me."

Mass Hole Mommy said...

Ugh, I still say half of those.

Girl Interrupted said...

As a slightly well-spoken Londoner I've always been rather envious of Valley Girl speech, plus, I approve of any language which promotes the word "gnarly"

pika23 said...

I totally love that movie it's frikkin awesome! I say wicked still...I have a few online buds from new england, so I picked up "wicked" from them. Anyhow, I love the 80's styles coming back!...

*gasp* I even saw people wearing friendship bracelets the other day! woo! Time to go to ac moore and buy some embroidery floss! I am a master at friendship bracelet making!

Mimi said...

Love, love, love the movie Valley Girl still to this day. I totally wanted to be a Valley Girl, but I was from Pittsburgh, so that was not happening. Still, I had a t-shirt that said "Grody to the Max", and I rocked the Valspeak. Like, totally tubular, for sure, no way.

Salt said...

I will always have a special place in my heart for Valley Girl!

And I am still very much guilty of overusing #'s 1, 3, 8, and 10.

Although I really need to reintroduce "grody to the max" into my vocab.

TILTE said...

hah. the SF valley is where i live.

i can say pretty much all of these are still in use out here with the exception of "gag me with a spoon".

growing up, if my brother or sisters were argueing and there was clearly a victor, it was quickly followed by a celebratory "YOU GOT MODED!!!"

liz said...

I am guilty of grody to the max, and dweeb.

TS Hendrik said...

I've said all of those multiple times in my life. Does that make me valley girl?

Maria said...

Totally Awesome post!! Said completely unironically. And it made me feel old. :)

Babes Mami said...

Hahaha I still use a lot of these! Sorry I didn't email back, been dealing with MEGA MIGRAINE!!

Jen said...

I totally use Awesome at least 342 times a day. I even used "gag me with a spoon" the other day because it so totally described what I needed to get across.

Bitchin' is still awesome.

m. said...

oh yes.

m. said...

i use dweeb all the time by the way.
haha.

Powdered Toast Man said...

I only knew a few of these. The only valley girl slang I know if from Saved by the Bell.

Pat Tillett said...

AS IF...

Pat Tillett said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
foxy said...

This is seriously awesome.

When I was in elementary, I had a 3/4 sleeve pink baseball tee that said "gag me with a spoon" on it... and it was my FAVORITE SHIRT EVER. I was totally and completely a valley girl. For sure!

"Radical" was also one I remember. And "totally tubular"!! And I loved saying "bitchin" because I felt like I was saying a bad word, but I really wasn't. :)

You know, come to think of it... I may have never grown out of that valley girl stage. I still use about 90% of those words! Ha....

Unknown said...

Valley Girl is like, my favorite movie of all times ya know? It's the most totally awesome movie ever made. I have talked the talk since the first time I watched it and still do today. I live in Texas but people are always asking me if I'm from California. I'm so sure I was born in the wrong state, I should've been from Cali.

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