`Bling-bling' tolls the bell for today's flippy lingo
By Beth Teitell
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Here's the thing: When a new word or expression starts making the rounds, you have a certain amount of time to use it before linguistic fashion moves on. Employing the term past its prime marks you not as an insider, one perhaps with a membership at SoHo House and a saleswoman in the Saks shoe department who puts aside size 7s for you before a sale, but instead as a person who gets her news from the cover of Time, or maybe her great aunt.
But there's a problem. Unlike a carton of milk, with its clearly stated expiration date, or even hemlines, on which the fashion press regularly reports, there's no real-time lingo guide.
You can be calling out ``Hello, girlfriend'' for months before realizing, if you ever do, that ``girlfriend'' is so yesterday, and, in fact, ``yesterday'' is so yesterday.
So, for someone like me who had just mustered the confidence to say ``bling-bling'' without inflecting my voice to indicate Yes, I know it seems inappropriate for a grown woman who's not in the fashion or rap industries to say ``bling-bling,'' I'm doing it tongue-in-cheek, Sunday's news that ``bling-bling'' is dead, or, as William Safire put it, ``gone-gone,'' was a real disappointment.
Bling-bling has reportedly stepped, or been shoved, aside by``flirty,'' ``flippy'' and ``pretty,'' among others, which designers are using to describe the new look for spring in women's wear.
``I used `candied' myself yesterday,'' a frequent contributor to The New York Times fashion pages told Safire.
And she wasn't talking about yams.
``What are you going to do now?'' one of my friends asked when I called to report the demise of ``bling-bling.''
My plan is this: Having learned what the new words are, I'm going to use them right away - before anyone has a chance to declare them stale - even if it means using them out of context.
In other words, I'm not going to wait for a flirty dress or a flippy skirt or some candied blouse to come around.
So I called a friend and worked the conversation around to politics. ``I've been thinking about it,'' I said, ``Kerry would have done better on Leno if he had gone more flirty.''
``Or flippy,'' she said. ``Although I'm not sure he could do flippy.''
At that point her cellphone faded out, and when she called back, she said she wanted to switch wireless providers.
``Verizon is very girly,'' I said. ``That might be the way to go.''
And then, because I couldn't help myself, I added, ``a new phone would look really good with your bling-bling.''
