The Dictionary That Makes Me Blush

A fellow copywriter recently accused me of spending too much time with Mr. Roget, and suggested that I might find more creative inspiration in the Urban Dictionary. For the UD uninitiated, the online Urban Dictionary bills itself as “A veritable cornucopia of streetwise lingo, posted and defined by its readers.” It encouraged me to “Define your world” and claimed that ordinary people had contributed 7,108,705 definitions since 1999. Awesome. I just had to hook up with this treasure trove of reality TV-era wordplay. 

Things went well at first. I loved the June 26 “Word of the Day” entry, “Interpretive Dunce,” defined as “a person who has no skill at dancing, yet will try to auto-choreograph their unholy movements to the lyrics of the song being played.” (Credit: Ambad)  The July 1 entry was equally creative” “Greeting Orbit,” the place where you find yourself when you’re at a party with a friend who runs into people he/she knows, but doesn’t bring you into the conversation, “so you stand there smiling like a dummy, wondering if you’ll ever be introduced.” (Credit: elsquid). I could super relate, since I’ve spent most of my life in “Greeting Orbit” without knowing that’s where I naturally gravitated.

But on some days, the potty mouths gushed in and swept “streetwise lingo” straight toward the gutter and on into the storm sewer. I can assure you that nobody on my street, whether they are wise or otherwise, is that obsessed with bodily functions, secretions and excretions. If they were, they would never be smarmy enough to attest to it online.

So if you’re a writer with a PG sense of humor who ventures onto Urban Dictionary to be inspired by its wordplay, be prepared to bleep out some of the entries. Which brings me to the next question: Should "For Mature Audiences" be changed to read “For Immature Audiences”? http://www.urbandictionary.com