BAHAMAS SLANG
"I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations."....Samuel Johnson
The Bahamas has slang, like any other country. Most of the material presented here comes from an excellent book, More Talkin' Bahamian, by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, Guanima Press 1995. Click on the book icon to the left here to order the book from Amazon. You can also order the book, if Amazon does not have any, directly from Patricia's Publisher, Guanima Press.
And, If you have another term you would like to see added to the list, please email me.
(Also, see the "Bahamas-ese Translator" for something you would like to say like a Bahamian!!)
argie: to argue
baby maker: getting alot of women pregnant
Baker=oven as "fresh out of the baker"
back-back: to go in reverse in a car
big-eyed: greedy
biggety: anything bold, brassy, and boastful
big up: Pregnant
bitch-up: to make a mess of something
boom-boom: rear end
boonggy: rear end; considered a national word
bound: constipated
bread: female gentitals
bright: light complexion
bubby: breasts
buck up: to crash, as in car
burlup: a potion, that is "boiled" up, as in Cerasee, a flower that is a "burlup", or penicillin, for the flu bungy: anus
bust-up: badly drunk or intoxicated
calm head: smooth hair in a female
camolly: lump, or bruise
conch: large mollusk; considered to be an aphrodesiac; national food
conchy joe: watch out for Joe! An ethnic term referring to those of caucasian inclination (in other words, white)
"Don't jam me up, or I'll gin you up!...."
confuddle up: to get confused
corporation: in some cases, a pot-belly
cowboy: to take an abbreviated bath, without getting in the bath.
cuckoo soup: soup into which certain bodily fluids are placed to "tame a man", especially one who is trying to win the heart of that man; said to have magical powers in winning the man in marriage
crabbie: female gentitals
cut hip: to give a beating
dead: used as an adjective to intenisfy anything ("dead" ugly)
dialing new york: drunk vomiting into toilet
She's "Dialing New York"
doggie: male genitals
duff: boiled, fruit-filled dough; a national desert, much loved,with a rum flavored sauce
fast: describes someone who steals, or cannot mind their own business
general: form of address from man to man
gin up: to screw up, mismanage
gussy-mae: fat Bahamian girls, with large "bubbies" and "boonggy"
high: bad smell
hurt: to put a hex on
jack: friend
jam up: to crowd
jook: to stab
jumbey: spirit
leg short: arrived too late
long out: to pout
lover: generic name for all Haitian males
low fence: someone that is easy to take advantage of
muggage up: to beat up
outside: away from the marriage, as in outside children
parrot ass: one who talks too much
picky head: short, thin hair
pucketery: in a jam, or quandary
pump: to pass gas
purge: to vent rage
quarm: to walk in an affected way
shuttail: without pants
sip sip: gossip
skylark: good natured horseplay
show sef: show off
spilligate: to go out on the town
spirit agree: to get along well with someone
springchicken: an old lady acting younger then she actually is
stiff-toe gang; rigor mortis, or to die
swallow water-melon: pregnant
sweetheart: affair
tarpree: low class, gullible; like "low fence"
terreckly: soon, from 'directly'
tote news: to gossip
true, true: I agree with you
"you think I black": meaning you're not stupid
GOOD PHRASES
"Looks like someone has gone shelling without a basket"L:A temporary error has occurred
“when I slap you, you goin stay slap”
“Don’t let your mout (mouth) carry you where your foot can’t bring you back from”