Danger sign reading High Voltage Live Wires on a scratched railway fence in Brisbane, Australia, used as cover image for an essay on Australian, Indian and GenZ slang

Three Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Good Word

Slang has rules. They are just not written down anywhere. A drive through Brisbane, a daughter’s vocabulary, and a lifetime of nodding politely in cities where I did not speak the language taught me what those rules are.