This is a glossary of frequently used Oakland words. Feel free to add Oakland-specific lingo or slang.
| Index | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| # | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
#
+/- – (Not Oakland per se, but on Oaklandwiki) “added” and “deleted”, respectively, in comments, e.g.: “+links, img; -cruft”
510 — The Nickel-Dime. The Five-Ten. The Five-and-Dime. The 5X The Terrestrial Telephone Area Code (510) of the East Bay, of which Oakland is the anchor city.
33’s - Former Oakland A’s player Nick Swisher who wears number 33. ...Swisher Sweets
A
AlCo - Alameda County
All gravity - All good.
All gravy - All good
Aunt Clara - the bus. “How you getting home?” “I’m rollin’ with Aunt Clara” (from AC Transit)
B
B.F.O - Brother from Oakland.
B-town - Berkeley
Bayrabic - Arabic Language speakers who mix Arabic and words found on this very Glossary page when speaking around the Bay Area.
Bike Party - Random or intentional group bike rides around town
C
C-town - Chinatown
Choppers - Helicopters
CoCo or CoCoCo - Contra Costa County
Comida Corridor - 1.5 mile stretch of International Blvd. from 22nd Avenue to the blocks just beyond 42nd, dubbed because of Restaurants & Food & Taco Trucks.
’Currity - as in Security. Usually in reference to Police Constables. You know, them thar OPD folks.
D
Deep East- You know, East Oakland that’s actually East Oakland.
Dirty 30’s - All 30th streets in West Oakland
DTO - Downtown Oakland
E
Elroys - Police
F
Free “B” - Free Broadway Shuttle
Funktown - 10th street to the twomps
G
Ghostriding- To "ghost ride" is to get out of a moving car and dance around it. This is generally used with "ghostride my whip" which is similar to a scraper, but less Oakland. For an example of ghostriding, see "Ghostride my Volvo."
Grimey 90’s - All streets in Oakland that are 90 or above
Grill - special teeth. preferably gold.
H
Halt! - Who goes there?
Hecka - old school intensifier. Used by some instead of Hella. See Jim Copes.
Hella - intensifier (short for “Hell of a…”), for situations wherein the word “very” isn’t Oakland enough
Hyphy - (pronounced "hy-fee") - A term to describe Bay Area hip hop movement” artists like Keak da Sneak (3x Crazy) and others like Federation, Mista F.A.B., Turf Talk. Term created by Keak da Sneak on his 1994 album.
Hipster – like pornography, difficult to describe, yet everyone knows it when they see it
Hoopty
I
Isle of Denial - Alameda
J
Janky - Crappy. Lame. I don't know if anyone else still says this, but I do, and I'm from Oakland.
K
Killin’ Fields - a sometimes reference to East Oakland, for its random killings
KONO - Koreatown Northgate
L
Lake of 1000 Smells - An archaic nickname for what has regained its status as the “Jewel of Oakland”... we are referring to none other than.... Lake Merritt !
Lower Bottoms - Area in West Oakland past Acorn projects
M
Make-Out Corner - Ali Baba Ballroom
Mistake at the Lake - Festival at the Lake
Mount Davis - The section of seats at the Coliseum constructed in 1995-1996 above the outfield bleachers that were supposed to sell out all the time when the Raiders moved back from Oakland. Now a hideous, tarped-over monstrosity.
N
NC – (Not Oakland per se, but on Oaklandwiki) No Change. Prepended to comments about OaklandWiki edits, when the page itself is not edited. Used for discussion and questions, since localwiki software (intentionally) lacks commenting capability.
NorCal — Northern California. (cf SoCal)
North Pole - North Oakland
O
OAK - Airport code for Oakland International Airport.
#oakmtg - a social media hashtag for people discussing Oakland city meetings and politics
OAM - Oakland Art Murmur
O.co - Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Oaktown, The O - Oakland
Oakland Hills - that nebulous area to the east of the bay that separates Oakland from Everything Else. Generally used to described the more northern, wealthier part of the hill. (maybe rewrite – not clear)
OO - Occupy Oakland
OPD - Oakland Police Department
P
Pittsburg - an East Bay town, not a Pennsylvania city (note lack of terminal -h). End of the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART line.
Police - pronounced puh-LEECE, means law enforcement officers who are here to help. Pronounced PO-leece (or worse, “po-po”) means … you’d better run.
Q
R
RCA - Recent Changes Addiction (RCA) a highly contagious, virulent condition that infects all Oaklandwiki editors, and many of its casual readers.
Richmond - a city north of Berkeley, not dissimilar from Oakland in size and crime. End of the Richmond BART line.
Rollin Huneds - 100th Avenue on down, in East Oakland
S
Sideshow - any of various informal, impulsive, often flagrantly transgressive activities which, by providing a momentary spectacle for onlookers (one thing East Oakland has no shortage of) represent a homegrown, DIY attempt at mass entertainment. The more illegal/stupid/dangerous, the better. One perennial favorite involves cars “doing donuts” (skidding in tight circles) in an intersection. What goes around... comes around.
SoCal — n. Southern California. See also NorCal.
Scrapers - Cars, generally American made, but in Oakland often a Lexus, customized with any number or combination of the following: rims, tint, paint and beats. E-40 has a song with the lyrics "sittin' in my scraper watching Oakland gone wild."
SJC - Airport code for San Jose International Airport. (BART does not go there.)
SFO - Airport code for San Francisco International Airport, which is not actually in San Francisco (reportedly a nearby city). (BART does go there.)
T
The 5 - 50th Avenue in East Oakland
The Bridge- The Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland to San Francisco via Treasure Island. Of the many bridges around here, only this one gets "The" designation. Officially the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
The City - San Francisco. See above. There are a lot of cities around here, including Oakland, but only San Francisco gets "The" designation. (First, they steal our area code …)
The Coliseum - That stadium where the A's play and the Raiders crash for a few months a year. Officially known as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum or O.Co which is apparently overstock.com's new name.
The Lake - Lake Merritt (unless you're from the West Bay, in which case it's Lake Tahoe)
The Town - Oakland
The Track- A stretch of International Blvd from 42nd Ave. to 53rd Ave. known for prostitution
The Vil - Housing projects on 69th ave in East Oakland (Villa, 69 Vil)
Tumbleweave: Think desert clumps rolling rolling rolling.... only made of weaves.
Turfing- Oakland-originated dance style
U
Uncle Cephus - ?
Urban Pioneer - ?
V
Valley-Ho or Valley-Jo - Vallejo
W
Walk Off - When a baseball team wins in their last possible at bat. This was a BFD in 2012 when the A's had 14 regular season walk off wins.
West Bay - No explanation needed. (Do people say this? Yes.)
Wett - Cool, hip, phat, down, all that is fun stuff boys and girls
What it Do? - coined Keak Da Sneak aka “Z-Kush” (also known for coining Hyphy). The Term was used to asked a Dude at a side show, what his muscle car could do? It now loosely means axing a homie how he’s doing. How you doing? No, how YOU doing? ;-)
X
Y
yadadamean - “You know what I mean?”
Yay Area - Hip Hop Rap for the Bay Area.
