Where on TV will you find lines of the quality of: "That's great, Larry, you've really mastered the art of the single entendre"?
On Buffy The Vampire Slayer, of course.
On the face of it, the cult American teen horror series is about a group of attractive young Californian teenagers whose idea of a good time is to go around killing vampires and demons.
In truth, it is probably the best programme about what it is like to be a teenager ever made - hip, funny, angsty and drop-dead cool all at once. Required watching for any parent who can't quite work out what planet their own teenager is from.
It is also linguistically inventive, with the characters coining new items of American teenage slang almost every time they open their mouths.
Buffyspeak is already spreading here, thanks to TV and the internet. Now, a scholarly new book by Michael Adams, Professor of English at Albright College in the United States, dissects and records the development of what is almost a new language in its own right.
Scholarly it may be, but a good half of the book is dedicated to a glossary of Buffyisms that is a sheer delight - and a great reminder of what it was like to be a teenager. Find out what hotties and cuddle-monkeys are, when it is appropriate to wear something break-and-enterish - and why watching your mother frenching a guy is definitely a ticket to therapy-land.
Slayer Slang: A Buffy The Vampire Slayer Lexicon by Michael Adams is published by Oxford price £12.99.
Updated: 09:32 Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article