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Podcasts Take Two
Dude bro, that's hella sick! And other California slang
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Sep 3, 2015
Listen • 2:40
Dude bro, that's hella sick! And other California slang
Slate has come up with a map dubbed The United Slang of America, and according to the map, 'hella' is California's word. But not everyone agrees.
(
karmacamilleeon, Flickr Creative Commons
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Slate has come up with a map dubbed The United Slang of America, and according to the map, 'hella' is California's word. But not everyone agrees.

Slate.com came out with something that is pretty rad. It's totally tubular! 

It's a map dubbed The United Slang of America, and it's a colorful look at what odd word best sums up each of the 50 states. 

Their process began with linguists. Then they turned to online message boards, and finally to friends and colleagues, asking them to come up with a single representative slang word for each state.

So what was California's word? HELLA. The word has been used to mean very. As in, "Take Two is sounding HELLA good today." (At least we hope so.)

Many listeners on KPCC's Facebook disagreed with Slate's assessment:

So what should California's word be? Many of those who commented online believed DUDE should be the slang of the Golden State.

Several Take Two producers grew up here in Southern California and have some of their own personal favorites:

  • Tightsauce, as in "That jacket is tightsauce."
  • Legit, which can mean cool or awesome. "Your new car is legit!"
  • Late, which is short for "later" or "goodbye"

What's your favorite slang word, and where did you grow up? Continue the conversation with us on Facebook and https://twitter.com/taketwo, or in the comments below.