Phrases & Slang

The lexicon of Starborn is large, and continues to expand as men spend more time in the heavens above. Below are some of the common words and phrases that players can expect to come across and are encouraged to use. Also see languages for more information in the topical area.

Words

General Insults

• Blank - idiot
• Blue-blooded Gasbag - epithet for Jovian nobility
• fusion monkey - mechanical tech, ship's engineer(s), outgrowth of grease monkey
• grassbrain - a particularly stupid/ignorant mudballer, used when demonstrating their utter lack of common sense in shipboard situations
• gridhead - hacker, computer tech who spends far too much time removed from reality
• mudballer, mud pounder, mudfoot - planet dweller (can replace mud with dirt)
• rube (adj) - gullible, stupid
• Wainwright - a slimy, corrupt, or otherwise unsavory individual, the kind who make you want to burn your hand off if they shake it. Derived from Adam Wainwright, chief architect of the Ucual cover-up

Racial Slurs

• Bitbrain - "idiot" or "moron", especially common when used by or towards a syntek.
• Cleans - non-augmented humans and other races
• Fin-head or Fish - an Arix, as in "He's going to be one dead fish by tomorrow."
• fuzzball (and anything even remotely similar) - slang for a desh
• Glow-worm, firefly, chemlight - slang for a Binut, not generally malicious
• Ground-walker - any non-Arix person, mainly said by Arix
• guppy, (polly)wog - derogatory slang for an arix
• Keller (as in Helen) - Another slang for a binut, generally more malicious than the others
• monkey - very nasty epithet for a desh

Slang Terms

• Bit(n) - generic term to mean any program, attack, evade, defense, etc
• chipped/crystalled - a human whose only augmentation deals with cybernetics related to hacking/gridding, or data implants
• dirt magnet - mining vessel or a miner themselves, for the inordinate amount of dirt in and around them
• ED (v) - get rid of in a rather nasty manner "That dude needs to get ED'd" from "Explosive Decompression"
• firehose - slang for a continuous plasma thrower, a potent and dangerous weapon akin to an oldtime flamethrower
• fishin' (v) - term for space piracy
• float - drifting or surfing via neural implant on the GRID (akin to surf)
• gaudy (adj) - describing someone whose occupation is obvious
• green (adj) - 1) of or related to Astrum. "He didn't hire me for the hit because my connections were too green" 2) clean, legitimate, legal, particularly when related to practices and ethics
• green (n) - Astrum officer (from their uniform color)
• jipsy (n) - traveler or nomad, usually referring to women
• mat (n) - replacement for matter, thing, or stuff
• meat - hired muscle, even applied to synteks (hurrah for equal rights!)
• metalhead - a heavily augmented human, viewed as an epithet or a term of solidarity, depending on the the speaker and recipient (think of it akin to the current-day N word)
• plat (n or adj) - something worth lots of money
• push (n) - the amount of thrust generated by a ship's engines. "That courier looks nice and slick, but she's got no push"
• Red (n) - ISA military (can also be used as an adjective)
• rez (v) - to damage or kill a person by hacking or IC while the target is gridding via a mind machine interface, rare occurrence, more of a bogeyman moms tell their kids so they don't grow up to be hackers
• shark (n) - pirate
• Silk, short for silicon - any computer or hardware
• skel - drug addict
• slag (adj) - describing something bad or unwanted. That job turned to slag real quick. I dont want that slag!
• slick (adj) - fast, sleek, streamlined. used to refer to ships more than anything
• slick (n) - a ship that is slick, that is, fast, sleek, etc. generally is applied to anything that is an in-system courier or priority transport
• spacer - simple term for space farers
• Sucking vacuum - dead, originated from the practice of burial in space
• suck - "What happened to him? Joined the suck."
• tank(n) - attack program
• thunder coffin - a marine drop pod, so called for the high inherent risk involved in their use
• tracks - deception or bypass of program
• vapor (v) - to disappear. "He up and vapored right in front of me!"
• wall(n) - defense
• (like a) warper - (like a) member of the Brotherhood of the Machine, used in simile for someone who is particularly depraved or twisted
• zeroes - goodbye

Phrases

• "Eating wake" - left behind or passed over; a pursuer who loses his prey
• Like a desh on mercury - completely out of place or unnecessary
• "Mat through the engine" - all in the past, just memories
• "Still has dirt on his boots" - an inexperienced spacer
• "Yeah right, and a black hole doesn't suck!"
• "You are a waste of O2" - insult to person's existence