History Main / FutureSlang

* Featured in the 2015 scenes of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''. For example, a policewoman mentions that Hilldale is "nothing but a breeding ground for tranks, lobos and zipheads". "Trank" seems to mean "drug addict", derived from "tranquilizer": the policewoman tells Jennifer "you got pretty tranked" after finding her unconscious. The future denizens also use "low-rez" as a synonym for "stupid." One of Griff's cronies calls Marty a "bojo", which might be a corruption of bozo.

** "AV" : "Aerodyne Vehicle" or "Aerial Vehicle"; essentially the universe's equivalent of a HoverCar.

* ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' has "Grus", as in, "Oh, Grus! It smells like Grus in here! Hey, you worthless sack of Grus, did someone Grus you in the Grus or did you Grus yourself again?" Curiously, for a game taking place [[JustForFun/RecycledInSPACE in outer space]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grus_%28constellation%29 Grus]] is a constellation visible from the southern hemisphere, named by those woefully unimaginative European explorers for the crane. Just imagine everyone in the universe swearin' by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_%28bird%29 this guy.]]

* ''Literature/BubblesInSpace'', a {{Cyberpunk}} FantasticNoir detective series, has a hilarious example as it is set centuries in the future but the author uses outdated 1930s and 1940s slang like skirt, dame, bangtail, and more to create the same effect as a more futuristic vocabulary.

* ''VideoGame/EternalDaughter'': "roundface", used by military officials from Dungaga as a derogatory term to refer to humans.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' has a few of these such as "Ghoul" (humans mutated from excessive radiation) and "[[VideoGame/Fallout4 scavver]]" (short for "scavenger", a term for people who loot Pre-War buildings). "Scavanger" and its Boston shortening are seen as derogatory so the term "Prospector" is the more polite term.
** Set, the ghoul leader of Necropolis from [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} the first game]] is notable for having his own unique jargon that literally no other character in the entire franchise uses, which was presumably developed by himself as his attempt to create a culture for the ghouls that would differ from the "normies" (his word for unmutated humans). It's a strange mix of greaser-slang and pseudo-Biblical sermonizing, befitting his personality as a violently temperamental {{Jerkass}} who thinks far too highly of himself. For example, he uses the word "shadow" as both a synonym for spirit ("If your shadow touches Necropolis again, it will merge forever") and as a metaphor for power ("The mutants at the watershed need dirt-naps. Makes my shadow grow").

* ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' has "Grus", as in, "Oh, Grus! It smells like Grus in here! Hey, you worthless sack of Grus, did someone Grus you in the Grus or did you Grus yourself again?" Curiously, for a game taking place [[RecycledInSPACE in outer space]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grus_%28constellation%29 Grus]] is a constellation visible from the southern hemisphere, named by those woefully unimaginative European explorers for the crane. Just imagine everyone in the universe swearin' by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_%28bird%29 this guy.]]

* ''Animation/MezgaCsalad' Hungarian animated sitcom occasionally featured a relative from the different future who would speak New-Hungarian, which basically just shortens down every word to the first syllable, leading to odd misunderstandings. He proudly declares in one episode that he officially became a "Gaz-Em-Ber" ("gazember" is usually used as an unflattering term for corrupt individuals), as in "Gazdaság-Emelési Berendező" which is a nonsense term that roughly translates into "Economical-Inflation Organiser". On another instance, Géza asks his advice regarding the "worms in my garden" ("...féreg a kertemben") and he assumes he was saying "Félek Reggel a Kerületi Temetőben", which means "I'm afraid of (going to) the district cemetary in the morning".

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb's Quantum Boogaloo'': "Hey, mom. What's the fizz?"

* It's a plot point in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. In the episode "Bloodlines", time-traveler Impulse explains that "crash" is good and "mode" is the absolute worst -- it's always better to "crash the mode". He also uses "meat" to refer to people he isn't impressed by. [[spoiler:All this slang is derived from [[GalacticConqueror the Reach]], who have conquered the Earth in the BadFuture that Impulse [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong is here to prevent]]. The audience [[{{Foreshadowing}} hears them use these terms]] during and before Impulse's premiere episode. For the Reach, crash is actually bad and mode is good]].

* Creator/AlanMoore:
** ''ComicBook/TheBalladOfHaloJones'' does this, so much so that some of the herdience can find it tricky to get into at first. Cheeses, though, it's worth the effort.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}} +100'', he creates another future syntax. Really Movie.

* ''Disney Adventure'': An article about TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture technology (heat sensitive walls, VR videogames, etc) features a boy from the present and a girl from the future. She uses entirely futuristic slang except for "cool", which will always be cool.

* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', Edward James Olmos' character Gaff speaks in a mixture of Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Hungarian, and Japanese. Olmos created a small dictionary of words for the so-called "City Speak".

* In the Russian film ''Film/AsirisNuna'', based on Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's novel ''Today, Mom!'', the speech of the future sounds a lot like modern street slang, although even the protagonists (teenage boys from our time) have a little trouble understanding them. Strangely enough, [[CatFolk Shidla]]'s speech is far more normal than that of the humans.

%%* This occurs quite frequently in Bot Wars.

* Creator/LarryNiven:
** Hero Louis Wu often uses "tanj" (There Ain't No Justice) as a swear. Tanj sees widespread use throughout the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories, as do a few other unique curses; Belters in particular are fond of swearing by Finagle and Murphy, and tend to see the flatlander habit of swearing by deities as rather odd and quaint.
** Finagle is a deity, as he is the God of Bad Luck, and his mad prophet Murphy is also part of the pantheon. He's just a ''joke'' deity, created just for cursing. "There is no God but Finagle, and Murphy is his Prophet." A logical extension of real world military slang acronyms like "SNAFU" (situation normal; all fucked up) "BOHICA" (bend over, here it comes again) and "FUBAR" (fucked up beyond all recognition.)
** In one of the ''Known Space'' stories, Louis's father Carlos Wu was musing over two people using the word "censored". Saying "Censored" instead of a Bad Word had originally been a way of protesting and joking about censorship. But after a couple of generations, "censored" had become a bad word all by itself.
* The ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series is chock full of both {{Unusual Euphemism}}s and CurseOfTheAncients style language, but it is unique in that its FutureSlang evolves over the course of the series. Things are described as being as ferocious as Radeligian cateagles or lacking the sense of a Zabriskan fontema -- but only after they have been introduced already. The series also has Future Curses involving the god Klono ("Klono's carballoy claws!" and so on) who's apparently been invented so that Lensmen can curse a blue streak without blaspheming against any genuine religious beliefs. One consistent feature is that "OK" has been replaced entirely by "QX".

* ''[[Literature/TheMazeRunner The Maze Runner Trilogy]]'' is riddled with this. "Shanks," "Slinthead," "Greenie," and "Slim it" being prominent examples, with [[spoiler:Group B]] being implied to have their own.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** In ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'', the hero narrates and speaks in a futuristic accent, something like Hollywood Russian. The reasoning is this is a future that ran headlong into FailedFutureForecast and the USSR was one of the main countries colonizing the moon, so the lunar society inherited a lot of Russian words and syntax. They didn't get any Chinese from the third of the moon that was colonized by the Chinese, because Hong Kong Luna is isolated from the rest of the moon, not having any tube connection to Novy Leningrad or Luna City.
** "Grok" in ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' is a word in Martian that means, "to drink", "to live" or "to understand". Colloquially it can be better translated as "To understand something so thoroughly that the observer becomes part of the observed."
** Heinlein put the invented word "slipstick" into his characters' mouths so frequently, a whole generation of his fans are growing up with the false idea that people who used slide rules actually called them that. (The accepted idiom, for the record, was "guessing stick".)

* Inverted in Tamora Pierce's ''Literature/BekaCooper'' books, where there is all manner of entertaining 'past slang' not seen in the "present" Literature/TortallUniverse, like 'sarden', 'bardash', 'scummer' and 'gixie'. Most of these terms are [[BilingualBonus actually English words]] that are just really archaic.
* The ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' series has a totally bubbly form of this. It's so happy-making! Or completely brain-missing, depending on who you talk to.
** [[Creator/ScottWesterfeld The same author]], in ''The Last Days'', uses "fawesome." ''Constantly.''
** Westerfeld also uses a lots of Future-past slang in ''Literature/{{Leviathan}}'', mostly to cover up swearing by the air force. Words like clart and bum-rag are used often.
* Alternate History Slang, technically, but Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' books have teens all over the world adopt [[LizardFolk Race]] mannerisms, learn their SssssnakeTalk, shave their heads, and wear BodyPaint instead of clothing. At least American teens also adopt the word "hot" to have the same connotation as "cool" for modern teens instead of the modern slang "hot" meaning "sexy". Sam Yeager muses that his son Jonathan, who's one of those teens, wouldn't understand him if he started using [=40s=] or [=50s=] slang in front of him. Interestingly, this meaning for "hot" doesn't come directly from the lizards, as they themselves don't really have slang words, but from the fact that lizards really like heat, so anything hot must be good. No lizard would ever consider the word "cool" to be good.

* ''Literature/BrownGirlInTheRing'': "Trenton" is used as slang for "pig" in the time of 2020+, TwentyMinutesInTheFuture from publication year of 1998.
* ''Literature/HoshiAndTheRedCityCircuit'': On 26th century Cassiopeia Prime, "slop" means "to tell," with a similar connotation to "spill" or "dish."

* ''Literature/IfThisBookExistsYoureInTheWrongUniverse'': When Dave briefly finds himself in an dark alternate future, he reads a magazine called ''Jawbreaker'' that he finds incomprehensible. From the text provided, it's clear that it's an article about smashing a man's teeth out written in an almost impenetrable layer of subculture-specific slang and jargon.

* ''Series/RedDwarf's''

* An episode of ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' titled "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S2E1Soldier Soldier]]" had a far-future soldier appear in 1960s time. A language professor is brought in to translate the soldier's gibberish, only for the professor to point out the soldier is speaking English, just faster and with some futuristic slang. When the soldier is decamped to live at the professor's house, we later see the professor's son learning the slang easily (as children pick up on slang usage more quickly than adults). The episode was written by Creator/HarlanEllison, who has a thing about street slang.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' used slag (and other metal related terms) in their Mirrodin expansion, which was based on an artificial plane. "Slag" and other terms (often relating to Oil, Maker, etc.) are often used in robot-related media.
** Slag is also a real British slang word for loose woman (synonymous with slut).
** Slag was originally used to refer to the "partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to purify metals."
** Also of note is "dreg", used as Literature/NineteenEightyFour's "prole".

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' gives several examples of this, sometimes including whole lists. Groundhog, flatlander, and if this troper remembers, dirtsider are terms for non-spacers.
* ''TabletopGame/LowLife'' for TabletopGame/SavageWorlds is filled with bizarre future-slang.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' has a slew of slang terms, a lot of which filtered their way into Cyberpunk 2077 (see the Video Games folder on this page). Thankfully the game's wiki [[https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Streetslang_(2020) has a comprehensive list]].

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' had a bit of it. "Scrip" was one such word, meaning "to acquire". Also "chits", derived from "credits", the global currency in the game. It is used in the same was as one would use "quid" (pounds) or "bucks" (dollars) nowadays.
* Gothic Fantasy example: ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragons: Planescape'' (and the game ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'') uses a lot of baroque slang, like "knight of the post" for "thief", "rattle yer bone-box" for "talk" and so on. This is, mostly, based on early 19th-century British slang (some of it more or less context-uprooted Cockney rhyming slang), making it historical rather than futuristic.
* ''VideoGame/EternalDaughter'': "roundface", used by military officials from Dungaga as a derogatory term to refer to humans.
* ''VideoGame/OneMustFall'' has bits and pieces of this, most notably "slice" as slang for "very cool".
* The final dungeon of ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' consists of the main character traveling through time, and along the way there are "time tourists", astral projections of people who just want to vid the sights. Voxing with the sightseeing teeps is a totally turvy experience. (Explanation just in case (spoilered in case anyone wants to figure it out for themselves): [[spoiler: "Vid", to see, from "video"; "Vox", to speak, directly from Latin; "Teep", person, unknown origin (anyone know this one?); "Turvy", strange or wild, from phrase "topsy-turvy". There are others I didn't use - "Wayback" (noun), a point in time prior to one's current position or "Wayback" (verb), to move backwards in time. "Drek" and "Scrug", expletives; and so on...)]]
* ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' has "Grus", as in, "Oh, Grus! It smells like Grus in here! Hey, you worthless sack of Grus, did someone Grus you in the Grus or did you Grus yourself again?" Curiously, for a game taking place [[RecycledInSPACE in outer space]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grus_%28constellation%29 Grus]] is a constellation visible from the southern hemisphere, named by those woefully unimaginative European explorers for the crane. Just imagine everyone in the universe swearin' by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_%28bird%29 this guy.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Aquanox}}'': "Light" is a commonly-used greeting in the series, probably due to the fact that it's really dark at the bottom of the ocean. Also, for some reason, Flint pronounces the name of his sub ''Succubus'' as "zoo-koo-bus" instead of "suck-cube-oos".
* Parodied in the ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' episode "Chariots of the Dogs". When done talking to Future Max, he waves broadly and says "''So long!'' That's how we say ''good-bye'' in the future."
* Actually an AlternateHistory slang, [[MissionControl Zofia]] in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' once drops "Sweet [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin]]!"
* Another AlternateHistory example: ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'', taking place in an alternate 1999, has its own versions of common internet slang, such as BWL ("bursting with laughter") instead of LOL.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' has a few of these such as "Ghoul" (humans mutated from excessive radiation) and "[[VideoGame/Fallout4 scavver]]" (short for "scavenger", a term for people who loot Pre-War buildings). "Scavanger" and its Boston shortening are seen as derogatory so the term "Prospector" is the more polite term.
** Set, the ghoul leader of Necropolis from [[VideoGame/{{Fallout}} the first game]] is notable for having his own unique jargon that literally no other character in the entire franchise uses, which was presumably developed by himself as his attempt to create a culture for the ghouls that would differ from the "normies" (his word for unmutated humans). It's a strange mix of greaser-slang and pseudo-Biblical sermonizing, befitting his personality as a violently temperamental {{Jerkass}} who thinks far too highly of himself. For example, he uses the word "shadow" as both a synonym for spirit ("If your shadow touches Necropolis again, it will merge forever") and as a metaphor for power ("The mutants at the watershed need dirt-naps. Makes my shadow grow").
** Interestingly enough, one future slang present in the franchise, "Chems" (meaning drugs, usually illicit ones) was initially unintentional. The word "chem" was used to replace the word "drug" in the UK version of ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' in order to {{Bowdlerise}} it, but later games ended up adopting the expression.
* In keeping with other examples from ''Star Wars'' noted above, [[VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga Kyle Katarn]] occasionally supplements his speech with expletives like "sithspit", "grife", and "spast". Their precise meaning or etymology aren't elaborated upon, but considering what "Sith" is an anagram of, we can probably hazard a guess.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The inhabitants of Fortuna, particularly the Ventkids, pepper their dialogue with this. Examples include "dog" (great), "klokkit" (check it out), "chek/chekchek" (get it?/got it), and "mucker" ([[ClusterFBomb a word that rhymes with mucker]]).
* The original translation for ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'' uses them as a way to keep a G rating as well as to add some spice, including "horsejitt" (bullshit).

* In ''Webcomic/CwynhildsLoom'', Mars has its own unique words, often relating to its differences from Earth, i.e. "this sol" for "today" and "good sol" instead of "good day."
* In ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'', [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2009/05/03/lefty/ "numpf"]] (or [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2010/05/09/freaky-things/ "numph"]]) appears to be a common insult.

* ''ARG/ILoveBees'' (a ''VideoGame/Halo2'' ARG): "Flash" is used to mean "instant", "refu" means "refugee", and "ghosting" is almost entirely used in place of "spying".

* Krek, steaming krek! ''Website/OrionsArm'', of course, uses lots of future slang.
* There's kragging tonnes on ''Website/MultiversesWiki''. What a load of reck.

* ''The Mézga Family'' Hungarian animated sitcom occasionally featured a relative from the different future who would speak New-Hungarian, which basically just shortens down every word to the first syllable, leading to odd misunderstandings. He proudly declares in one episode that he officially became a "Gaz-Em-Ber" ("gazember" is usually used as an unflattering term for corrupt individuals), as in "Gazdaság-Emelési Berendező" which is a nonsense term that roughly translates into "Economical-Inflation Organiser". On another instance, Géza asks his advice regarding the "worms in my garden" ("...féreg a kertemben") and he assumes he was saying "Félek Reggel a Kerületi Temetőben", which means "I'm afraid of (going to) the district cemetary in the morning".
* ''Westernanimation/{{Phantom 2040}}'' has a few slang terms derived from a rather prescient anticipation of how big the Internet would get. A common apparatus used to access information is the [[{{cyberspace}} Integrated Cybernetic Environment]], or [[FunWithAcronyms ICE]]. This logically leads to 'skating' (using the net), and even 'heat source' (cracking software).
* They use "slag" as their go-to pejorative in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', like "slag him!" to mean "kill/shoot him!" or just dropping an s-bomb when things don't go their way.
** Eventually "slag" morphed into "scrap" and occasionally "scrud" as the go-to Cybertronian curse words in more modern series such as ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'' and ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015''. This more than likely has to do with the fact that "slag" is a real-life bit of somewhat coarse British slang that wouldn't be appropriate for a kids' cartoon.

** That hoopy frood Ford Prefect sure knew where his towel was at!

* On ''Series/QuantumLeap'', which takes place [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the near future,]] Al frequently uses "nozzle" as an insult.

* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' had "'fugees" (refugees). "Fishes" (the militant group opposed to the mistreatment of refugees [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilised and willing to fight dirty]]) sounds like it should be one, but it's actually a MythologyGag from [[Literature/ChildrenOfMen the source novel]], where the group's counterpart referenced the Bible passage about two loaves and five fishes in its manifesto.

* Krek, steaming krek! ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', of course, uses lots of future slang.

* ''Literature/IfThisBookExistsYoureInTheWrongUniverse'': When Dave briefly finds himself in an dark alternate future, he reads a magazine called ''Jawbreaker'' that he finds incomprehensible. From the text provided, it's clear to the reader that it's an article about smashing a man's teeth out told in an almost impenetrable layer of subculture-specific slang and jargon.

* Creator/LarryNiven's hero Louis Wu often uses "tanj" (There Ain't No Justice) as a swear. Tanj sees widespread use throughout the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories, as do a few other unique curses; Belters in particular are fond of swearing by Finagle and Murphy, and tend to see the flatlander habit of swearing by deities as rather odd and quaint.\\\
Finagle is a deity, as he is the God of Bad Luck, and his mad prophet Murphy is also part of the pantheon. He's just a ''joke'' deity, created just for cursing. "There is no God but Finagle, and Murphy is his Prophet." A logical extension of real world military slang acronyms like "SNAFU" (situation normal; all fucked up) "BOHICA" (bend over, here it comes again) and "FUBAR" (fucked up beyond all recognition.)\\\
In one of the Known Space stories, Louis's father Carlos Wu was musing over two people using the word "censored". Saying "Censored" instead of a Bad Word had originally been a way of protesting and joking about censorship. But after a couple of generations, "censored" had become a bad word all by itself.

** Sitka Jews call American Jews "Mexicans" because they live South of the border (the ''Canadian'' border, that is).

* How WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack got his name; when he arrived in the future he crash landed in the path of a giant crushing robot and had to fight his way out, impressing a trio of street punks that happened to be nearby. "Jack" is the equivalent of "dude" that they toss about, and the samurai takes it up as an alias in his battle against Aku.

** "Eddies / Ennies": Shorthand for Euro Dollars (EDs), the primary form of currency in Night City.

** "Eddies / Ennies": Shorthand for Euro Dollars, the primary form of currency in Night City.

* Golden Age science fiction is full of {{Unusual Euphemism}}s, like 'Space!' or 'Unity!' as kid-friendly curses.

* The 2D-animated Toy Story spinoff, ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' seemed to include some forms of futuristic swearing, like "Aw, Craters" for terms like "Aw crap!" or "Damn it!", and "Sweet Mother of Venus" for "Sweet Mother of God!" or "Jesus Christ!". Swearing aside, Booster's occasional CatchPhrase "Hot Rockets!" also qualifies as some form of this trope.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' [[TalkingAnimal Rufus' descendants]] started using [[SingleMindedTwins The Tweebs']] CatchPhrase "Hicka-bicka-boo" and "Hoo-sha" as a way of communicating.

* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' in the "Go God Go" two-parter; in the future, [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions religion has been phased out of human society]], leading to turns-of-phrase like "Sciencedammit!" and "Science H. Logic!" (The general themes of these episodes is that without religion, people will just treat other ideologies as religions anyway.)