![urban definition urban definition](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ew7HP3oWUAMUBAI.png)
And Urban Dictionary is regularly cited as a source in linguistics research, such as a 2015 paper by Natasha Shrikant on Indian American students. Fox Tree uses Urban Dictionary, along with other examples of “public dictionary websites” (like Wikipedia and ), to excavate the uses of like in storytelling. It allows researchers to track terms that are too recent or too niche to appear in establishment dictionaries, and to determine how people are using English online.įor example, one 2006 paper by communication expert Jean E. Whatever we might think of its vulgarity, Urban Dictionary is useful. While Urban Dictionary’s speed may be useful in a legal setting, some lexicologists believe that depending on a crowdsourced dictionary is risky. Urban Dictionary’s definition of to nut, for instance, has been brought up in a sexual harassment claim, and the meanings of jack were debated in a financial restitution case. More serious is the continued tradition of dictionary use in legal cases, where the interpretation of a single word can have grave consequences. Urban Dictionary is being used to determine the acceptability of vanity plate names in some U.S. And according to internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch’s much-touted new book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language: “ IBM experimented with adding Urban Dictionary data to its artificial intelligence system Watson, only to scrub it all out again when the computer started swearing at them.”
#URBAN DEFINITION ARCHIVE#
Its pages were saved to the Internet Archive more than 12,500 times between May 25, 2002, and October 4, 2019, with a steady increase over time. Urban Dictionary carries this legacy forward, and the site is likely to persist in some form. By 1785, Francis Grose’s Classic Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue extended the slang lexicon beyond the middle-class conception, adding terms such as bum fodder (for toilet paper).
![urban definition urban definition](https://images.newrepublic.com/ab1b5f0d458238f116453de473f8467a45c185e3.png)
The slang dictionaries of the seventeenth century were considered useful for clueing readers into the language of thieves and cheats, which itself was part of an older tradition of exoticizing the language of the poor and criminal. But it also continues a long history of recording low-brow language: dictionaries of English slang have been around in some form for centuries.
![urban definition urban definition](https://runt-of-the-web.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/urban-dictionary-definitions.png)
With its crowdsourced definitions and high speed of coinage, Urban Dictionary is very much a product of the internet age. There is a community college across the street.“IBM experimented with adding Urban Dictionary data to its artificial intelligence system Watson, only to scrub it all out again when the computer started swearing at them.” It is surrounded by family dwellings, mom-and-pop shops, and wide streets for biking, walking, and playing. It is a stone’s throw from a soccer stadium and surrounded by tall buildings, people biking to work in suits, folks who routinely beg, and the hub of the public transit system.Īcross the river in North Portland, there is a high school named Jefferson. It is less than a mile from the Pearl District, a hip place that boasts unique food, shops, new condos, and the best of urban renewal. Downtown there is a high school named Lincoln. So why, then, do we use the term urban when what we really mean are schools with majority black and Latina/o populations? In large, densely populated cities, such as Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, city schools are often characterized by large, diverse populations, many poor students, budget shortfalls, and bureaucracy. So what does that mean when we say urban education? What is unique about city schools or city education? That depends on the city you’re talking about. A quick look in the dictionary, and there is no surprise: Urban means related to the city, characteristic of a city or city life. One word that I’ve examined over the past five years is urban. I am a teacher educator who studies how people use language to talk about race. Preview of Article: What Do You Mean When You Say Urban? Speaking honestly about race and studentsĮthnic, inner city, urban. Welcome to the Rethinking Schools Archives and Websiteīecome a subscriber to read this article.