BAHAMAS SLANG

"Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work"....(Carl Sandburg).

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.

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, or ass

boonggy: rear end or ass; considered a national word

bound: constipated

bread: vagina

bright: light complexion

bubby: breasts

buck up: to crash, as in car

bungy: ass or 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: vagina

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: penis

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: someone that 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

“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”