No Cap: History of “Cap”

term for cap “dates back to the early 1900’ s and the expression is closely associated with slang in Atlanta-area hip-hop”. is slang term has been around for longer than most people would think, but hasn’t been popular until this past year. Many teenagers have recently been using this term a lot, especially when socializing with their peers and having non formal conversations. Daily conversations between friends can include this term a lot, as it is an informal way of calling someone out for lying or faking something. Famous rappers are adapting to the new slang terms as well. Many rappers such Young ug, 21 Savage, Future, Offset, and DaBaby have used various ways of the new slang word in their music. For example, these rappers all have recently used “Cap, No Cap, Capper, Capping.” ese rappers are people who some of the youth and teenagers look up to. ey use these popular slang terms to connect to their listeners; so teenagers can relate to the music more. It is almost as if teens learn these slang words from songs and music and incorporate them into daily life and conversation because it is catchy. Most slang terms have their own periods of time where they are most frequently used and then eventually die down when they aren ’t as popular anymore. e original meaning for cap has changed and transitioned itself into a different style of linguistics. It is now used more as a slang term than the formal term for the original meaning.

Since the slang form of “cap” is not yet included in the Oxford English Dictionary, it is however increasing in use, especially with the youth. e technical definition for this slang word should be to lie or be fake. Mostly because that is the majority reason for using “cap”, is to point out when people aren ’t being truthful. “Cap” has led to the creation of new slang terms that extend from “cap”, such as “capping” and “no cap”, which could demonstrate how important the use of slang terms are and how they help you to expand your vocabulary at younger ages. Although adults tend to say that slang words are not true forms of English and aren ’t real words, they have their own definition and meaning that the younger generations understand and use on a

daily basis. Personally, as teenagers, we use “cap” and many more slang terms such as “turnt”, “yasss”, and “lit” all the time which make communicating with each other much easier and informal. e possibility of this slang term still being around in the next couple of years is slim, seeing as most slang terms tend to fade in popularity and usage with time: “Plenty of slang that gained instant popularity at the time of its use has since disappeared.” Eventually, new words with similar meanings are created and become more popular because teenagers are creative and productive with new language. Seeing how “cap’’ has been around for years, it did not become frequently used until last year, and is used everyday by most teenagers. Teenagers at different schools and states may have different forms of slang and phrases that they say to a great extent, that are different from ours; some culture and environmental factors influence slang terms as well. For example, people who live in the south would not use the phrase “it’ s brick” (it’ s cold), since it does not pertain to the weather they experience. However, in New York, we use that phrase all the time because we experience colder weather. Another factor that influences slang terms is culture and traditions. For instance, “American slang was created mostly in gangster culture” according to listenandlearnusa.com. e slang word “cap” once meant to “put a cap in someone” as to shoot someone, but has since changed to what it means now: to lie or exaggerate.

No cap, this word’ s etymology is beautifully convoluted. is term’ s meaning has changed drastically over time. From “hat” to “lying”, which has seemingly no connection whatsoever. is tends to occur a lot with slang terms because of the fact that the new generations come up with their own meanings for words. roughout history, every generation has had their own version of slang, and today we continue to come up with new words or terms that society uses on a daily basis.

e Etymological Journey of e Word “Tadpole”

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, tadpole is “the larva of a frog, toad, or other batrachian, from the time it leaves the egg until it loses its gills and tails”. Chiefly applied in the early stage when the animal appears to consist simply of a round head and tail. e earliest known use of the word tadpole was in the fourteen hundreds and took many centuries to get to the spelling and meaning it has today. It originally was spelled out as “taddepol” and it took “several centuries to settle down”. When the word is broken up into two parts, Tad means toad while pole means head, which makes sense because all a tadpole is, is a head and a tail. is word is derived from Middle English. e Oxford English Dictionary also displays the word pollywog which is a synonym for tadpole. e earliest use of this word was in modern English, and polwygle which breaks down into the elements pol, which means head and wiglen, which means wiggle. e word tadpole is significant because it defines a metamorphosis. Not many reptiles and animals go through metamorphosis, and the word tadpole is the stage at which metamorphosis happens. Humans also go through metamorphosis when devel-