Slang @ MindSay 
I was at a drive through yesterday. Hardee's, if you must know. As I was waiting for my "fast" food, I found myself staring at the menu board. Nearly everything was listed as a "combo". And the ones that weren't, there were notes all over it saying "make it a combo!" Which got me to wondering, when did combo become a word? It isn't, you know. Combination is a word, but combo is a slang term. It seems to me that the term combo has become so pervasive, especially in the fast food world, that it has become acceptable as a word on its own.
I know this happens. Ain't. When I was in school, they used to tell me, "ain't ain't a word." Turns out, they were wrong. Somewhere along the way, ain't was added to the dictionary and is now an actual word, not just laziness. So, I guess it is the same with combo.
Just to be sure, I checked everybody's best friend, the OED. (For those of you who have no friends, the Oxford English Dictionary...THE dictionary of dictionaries, if you will.) OED shows that the term combo, listed as slang, meaning combination or partnership, dates back to the 1920's: Below is the entry for the etymology, taken from the OED.
1929 DUNNING & ABBOTT Broadway III. 113 [of two dancers] We'd make about the best combo I could imagine. 1931 Amer. Speech VII. 105 Combo, the combination of safe or vault. 1959 in Ibid. (1962) XXXVII. 79 In describing the first poetry-jazz concert at Nebraska University a newspaper reporter referred to the reading of poetry to a jazz accompaniment as a combo. Ibid., Potluck Supper on Slate? Take chicken-rice combo. 1963 Ibid. XXXVIII. 156 Recently, I heard a television commercial in which a woman shopper in a supermarket was heard to exclaim enthusiastically, ‘Me and Tide' some combo!’ 1963 R. I. MCDAVID Mencken's Amer. Lang. xi. 717 Specially made tools to..pull the combo [in safe-breaking].
You can see that the first documented usage was from a Broadway play in 1929. One of these days I feel like the OED will update it to include, 2008 Hardee's (McDonald's, Burger King, whatever) "would you like to try a combo with that?"
There are also two other definitions for combo; A white man who lives with an Aboriginal woman, and, a small instrumental band. So, apparently it is not just fast food which is bastardizing the language.
And then, just for fun, I looked it up in the NTC's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions which leaves out the Aboriginial definition found in OED, but then adds a new one: a bisexual person. And then offers this example, "Nobody would have thought that Fred's a combo. He's not a combo, he's just confused." Okay....new question, what sitcom writer moonlights as a dictionary writer?
'50s Slang
Actor -- Show-off
Agitate the Gravel-- To leave (hot-rodders)
Ankle-biter-- A child
Ape-- Used with go - to explode or be really mad
Are you writing a book? --You're asking too many questions
Baby-- Cute girl, term of address for either sex
Back seat bingo-- Necking in a car
Bad news --Depressing person
Bash --Great party
Bent eight --a V-8 engine (hot-rodders)
Big Daddy-- An older person
Big tickle --Really funny
Bit --An act
Blast-- A good time
Blow off-- To defeat in a race (hot-rodders)
Bobbed-- Shortened
Boss-- Great
Bread-- Money
Bug-- "You bug me" - to bother
Burn rubber-- To accelerate hard and fast (hot-rodders)
Cast an eyeball To look
Cat-- A hip person (Beats)
Chariot-- Car (Beats)
Cherry-- Originally, an unaltered car. Later, anything attractive (hot-rodders, originally)
Chrome-plated-- Dressed up (hot-rodders, originally)
Circled-- Married
Classy chassis-- Great body
Cloud 9-- Really happy
Clutched-- Rejected
Clyde-- Term of address, usually for a normal person (Beats)
Cook, cookin'-- Doing it well
Cool-- Indefinable quality that makes something or someone extraordinary
Cool it-- Relax, settle down
Cooties-- Imaginary infestations of the truly un-cool
Cranked-- Excited (Beats)
Crazy-- "Like crazy,man" Implies an especially good thing
Cream-- Originally, to dent a car. Later, to badly damage (hot-rodders, originally)
Cruisin' for a bruisin'-- Looking for trouble
Cube- A normal person
Cut the gas-- Be quiet!
Cut out- Leave
Daddy-O-- Term of address (Beats)
D.D.T.-- (Drop Dead Twice) Response: What, and look like you?
Deuce-- A 1932 Ford (hot-rodders)
Dibs-- A claim - as in "got dibs" on that seat
Dig-- To understand; to approve
Dolly-- Cute girl
Don't have a cow-- Don't get so excited
Drag (hot-rodders)-- A short car race; (Beats) A bore
Duck Butt or D.A. --Hairstyle of greasers where hair in back is combed to the middle, then with end of comb, make a middle part
Earthbound-- Reliable
Epistle- Letter
Eyeball-- Look around
Fake Out-- A bad date
Fast-- Someone who was sexually active
Fat City-- A great thing or place; Happy
Fire Up-- Start your engine (hot-rodders)
Flat out-- Fast as you can
Flat-top-- Men's hairstyle. A crewcut which is flat across the top
Flick-- A movie
Flip-- To get very excited
Flip-top-- A convertible car
Floor it-- Push the accelerator to the floor (hot-rodders)
Fracture-- To amuse
Fream-- Someone who doesn't fit in
Frosted-- Angry
Woody-- An erection
Wiggin' Out- Going Crazy
The slang phrase, "my bad" is now passé! I just heard Alex Trebek apologize to a contestant by saying it.
Date: 12/19/07
Time: 2100 hours Pacific
Topic: Leadership in Law Enforcement
Guest: Captain Andrew Harvey, (ret.) Ed.D.
The Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting. During the first half-hour of the show, the host, a nationally recognized expert on law enforcement, interviews a subject matter expert on the topic. During the second half-hour the program is joined by two other cops who give a street-level perspective to the conversation.
Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement
The show is immediately available in the archive and shortly thereafter available as an ITunes Download.
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