The Canonical Glossary of Slang for Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.
***** Now with OVER 900 Entries! *****

New Entries! Click here to visit the first new entry in the glossary (located right after the red NEW ENTRY line.) Then click on the "next new entry" tag to advance to the next entry.

Last updated 2 June 2001
Copyright © 1994-2001 by Mark F. Cook

This page has been accessed times since 16 July, 1996.

---

Alphabetical Index:
0-9	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

Lexicon

Credits

- 0/9 -

2020 Hindsight:

ph. The wise act of watching your back.

2-K:

n. 1) The year 2000. 2) the 21st century.

3-V:

n. See ThreeVee.

404:

adj. (Net.) Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web message "404, URL Not Found," meaning that the document you've tried to access can't be located. (E.g. "Don't bother asking him... he's 404, man."

5-0:

n. Pronounced "Five Oh". Archaic term used as a generic reference to LEOs. (From the old TV series "Hawaii Five-Oh".)

- A -

A Team:

n. (Mil.) A small (10-12 men) team of elite troops (Green Berets, Special Forces, etc.) used for advanced missions.

Ace:

n. 1) An expert in the field. 2) Friend, buddy, pal.

Aces:

adj. The very best.

Ace of Spades:

ph. (Solo) Term for death in combat. To "draw the ace" is to die in battle. "Drawing the ace" is a short-hand expression with the same meaning.

ACLS:

acr. (Med.) Advanced Cardiac Life Support.

Aesthetics:

n. Simple cosmetic surgery.

AFIS:

acr. (LEO) Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

Agriplex:

n. An agglomeration of farms with one central managment complex.

AI:

n. Artificial Intelligence. A computer or network-based entity, originally designed to solve complex problems, that has achieved self-awareness. Usually under the control of a megacorp, but not always. (See Rogue.)

Airfilm:

n. Shorthand term for an narrow air-cushion train.

Air Guitar:

ph. (Solo) The act of firing an assault rifle from the hip and, usually, not hitting a single intended target.

Air Rappel:

ph. The act of dropping a long (usually fatal) distance without the benefit of a rappeling rope and harness.

Alfa:

n. (Aq.) Anything fast-moving, esp. vehicles.

Alien:

n. Derogatory grounder term for someone who lives in space (a highrider).

Alpha Bravo:

ph. (Mil./Solo) Ambush,

Alpha Geek:

ph. The most knowledgeable, technically proficient person in an office or work group. (E.g. "Ask Larry, he's the alpha geek around here.")

ALS:

acr. (Med.) Advanced Life Support.

Aluminum Rain:

ph. (Rig.) Debris that falls from the sky whenever an aircraft explodes or collides with another aircraft.

AMF:

acr. "Adios, <expletive>." Good-bye. Typically derogatory.

Amped Out:

ph. Fatigue after being under the influence of amphetamines and certain combat drugs.

Angel:

n. A benefactor, especially an unknown one.

Angry Fruit Salad:

ph. (Net) An interface with too many colors.

AniMan, AniMen:

n. Derogatory term for a body-sculpted individual who resembles an animal form.

Ant Farm:

ph. Huge multiscreen theater complexes with glass facades, often found near American malls. Also called gigaplexes.

Apter:

n. Pronunciation of the acronym APTR (Augmented Program Trained Reflex.) (AKA skillsoft or reflex chip.) This type of chip provides new reflex-based skills for the user.

Arc, Arco:

n. An arcology. A self-contained living environment, usually pyramidal or domed. May belong to a corporation, government agency, or non-profit organization.

Arc Light:

n. (Mil.) originally the code name for B-52 bombers strikes along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border during the Vietnam war, now a reference to any operation involving massive amounts of high explosive and general destruction over a wide area. The original operations shook the earth up to ten miles away from the target area.

Arty:

n. (Mil.) Artillery.

Attoparsec:

n. (Net) About 3.1 centimeters.

AV:

acr. Pronounced "Aye-Vee," shorthand term for a variety of hover-vans.

Axe:

n. (Rock.) An electric or SynthGuitar.

- B -

BA:

acr. Pronounced "Bee-Aye," shorthand for either Bad-Ass or Black Agent.

Ba:

n. (Viet.) Vietnamese married woman; used as a title, like "Mrs."

Bac bac:

n. (Viet.) Bastardized Vietnamese for "To shoot."

"Back to the Taxpayers":

ph. (Rig.) Where you send a wrecked aircraft/vehicle.

Back Door:

ph. (Net) A hole in a systems security, that when properly utilized, grants an unauthorized user easy access.

Bacon-in-the-Pan:

n. (Thr.) When you wipe out badly on a ramp and slide back down to the bottom.

Bac-si:

n. Vietnamese for "Doctor"; also used to refer to medic in the U.S. Army.

Bactory:

n. (Med.) Bacteria Factory. Commercial use of gene-tailored bacteria to produce some substance/material (Insulin, Kevlar, et.al.) cheaply and in large quantity.

Badge:

n. Police or corporate security.

Bagged and Tagged:

ph. To die.

Baf:

v. To lightly strike someone else in a playful manner.

Bail:

v. To depart with alacrity.

Baka:

adj. (Jap.) Stupid. (Pointing at someone and saying "baka" is like telling them they're an idiot.)

Bakebrain:

n. General purpose derogatory term indicating someone with limited or damage mental faculties (frequently due to excessive use of neural cyberware.) (AKA asshole, idiot, jerk, moron.)

Ballast:

n. (Aq.) Something of particular importance, as in "That is serious ballast."

Baller:

n. A gang drug dealer.

Ballerina:

n. A reflex boosted female assassin in the employ of a major corp.

Ballistic Counselling:

ph. To adjust the attitude of a malcontent who is within range through the use of a firearm or other projectile launcher.

Bambi:

n. (Media) What game- and talk-show staffers call someone who freezes in front of the camera (like a deer caught in headlights.)

Bamf:

v. From old X-Men comics, a notional sound made by a person/object teleporting into or out of the vicinity. Often used to refer to a dramatic entrance or exit. (E.g. "Let's bamf outta here!")

Bang a Left/Right:

ph. (GoGang) Make a sudden left or right turn, usually while driving.

Banging:

adj. (Brit.) Outstanding, excellent. ("That was simply banging, old term!")

Bare Metal:

ph. (Net) A computer with no programs, not even an OS. Also, what you reach after circumventing the most basic programs on a computer.

Bark at the Ants/Cockroaches/etc.:

ph. To vomit.

`Base:

n. Database.

B.B.:

acr. Either "Big Brother" or "Boys in Black." See Boys in Black.

BCI:

n. Bio-Computer Interface. See DNI.

B-D:

v. Breakdown.

B&E:

ph. (LEO) Breaking and Entering.

Beaded Up:

ph. (Rig.) Worried or excited.

Beaker:

n. A scientist or researcher. Usually derogatory.

Beam:

v. (Net) To transfer your apparent location, or the apparent location of something else, without moving you (or it) through the intervening space.

Beehive [Round/Shell]:

n. (Mil.) An explosive artillery shell which delivers thousands of small, directed flechettes instead of shrapnel. Also known as "Cannister Shot" or "APERS" (Anti-PERSonnel) rounds.

Beige Toaster:

ph. (Net) A computer and monitor in one combination unit. Heavy and ugly.

Bells & Whistles:

ph. (Net) Useless add-ons.

Benji:

n. (Crim.) A Police robo-hound.

Bennie:

n. An out-of-towner. (See Gaijin.)

Berserkide:

n. Any combat drug, particularly Black Lace. (AKA freakers.)

Beta Software:

ph. (Net) Software that hasn't been fully tested for use. Usually not very reliable.

Betty:

n. A skater chick; female thrasher.

Bic:

ph. (Viet.) "I understand." See No Bic.

Biff:

n. (Vulgar) Modern equivalent of the archaic 'Bimbo'.

Big Dive:

ph. (Aq.) To exceed maximum safe dive depth.

Big Iron:

ph. (Net) Large, heavy, fast mainframe computers.

Big (color) Wall:

ph. (Net) Any set of instruction manuals so large they take up more than ten feet of shelf space.

Big Red Switch:

ph. (Net) Originally the emergency shut off switch for a mainframe, now refers to any switch that shuts off an entire system.

Big Room, the:

ph. (Net.) Hacker-speak for the outdoors. You know. It's that place with a blue (well, OK, grey) ceiling you see if you go outside during the day and look up.

Bingo Fuel:

ph. (Rig.) The point at which your vehicle has only enough fuel left to return to base.

Bio-break:

ph. (Tech/Net) Euphemism for using the toilet.

Bioroid:

n. A full-body conversion cyborg.

Biosoft:

n. 1) Cybernetic software chips that incorporate biological components in their construction. Thought to be superior in performance to purely artificial chips. 2) Generic term for any cyber-data chip which plugs into a neural processor to provide new skills or knowledge (also known as microsofts and skillsofts.)

Bit-flip:

v. (Net) A 180-degree change in behavior or personality.

Bithead:

n. Slang term for a hacker or "nerdy" computer enthusiast.

Biting Angle:

ph. (Mil./LEO/Solo) Angle at which a projectile (usually a bullet) stikes a target, as it affects optimal penetration. (An ideal angle is perpendicular to the surface of the impact site.) Snipers may not take shots when the biting angle is poor, as the chances of successful penetration are low and ricochet are high.

Bit Jockey:

ph. Programmer.

Bitslag:

n. (Net) All the useless rubble on the Net one has to plow through to get to the rich information ore.

Bitty Box:

ph. A primitive, underpowered, or generally useless computer or other electronic device.

Black, Big Black:

ph. (HR) Space. The final frontier. Where no man... well, you get the idea.

Black Agent:

n. (Corp) An illegal operative.

Blackfish:

n. (Aq.) Any Black Ops member.

Black Ice:

n. Illegal countermeasure software which causes physical harm or death to an intruder. (See Ice.)

Black Clinic:

n. A medical facility which specializes in the implant of illegal or unregistered cyberware.

Black Snake:

n. (Thr.) Tar lines on the street.

Blade:

n. 1) A professional soldier or fighter, specializing in edged weapons. 2) A surgeon or doctor.

Blank:

n. An individual without a SIN.

Blanket Party:

n. Throwing a blanket over someone's head before kicking their ass so they can't identify you later.

Blink, blink?:

ph. (Corp) A general expression of confusion.

Bloc:

n. (Corp) A cartel composed of Orbital concerns with similar capabilities and interests, i.e., an Aerospace Bloc, a Pharmaceutical Bloc, etc.

Blood Money:

ph. Income from the illegal sale of organs to a body bank.

Blower:

n. (Rig.) Afterburner.

Blowing Code:

ph. (Net) Hacker term for programming.

Blowing Your Buffer:

ph. Losing one's train of thought. Occurs when the person you're speaking with won't let you get a word in edgewise or has just said something so astonishing that your train of thought gets derailed. "Damn, I just blew my buffer!"

Blown Mind:

ph. (Med.) Gunshot wound to the head.

BLS:

acr. (Med.) Basic Life Support.

Blue Load:

ph. (Mil.) Practice ammo.

Blue Moon:

ph. An honest police officer. (So rare, they only appear "once in a blue moon.")

Blue-on-Blue:

ph. (Mil.) "Friendly fire" casualties.

Blue Smoke:

ph. (Net) The mythical stuff that makes ICs work. If released from the chip, it stops working.

Boa:

n. (Net) From "Boa Constrictor", a really thick cable that seems to have a life of its own, especially when you try to uncoil it.

Boat:

n. (Aq.) Any underwater vehicle.

Boat Anchor:

ph. (Net) A really heavy peice of dead or useless hardware.

Body Bank:

n. A storage facility for transplant organs. Many are illegal and actively "recruit" new merchandise.

Body Nazis:

ph. Hard-core exercise and weight-lifting fanatics who look down on anyone who doesn't work obsessively.

Body Sculpt:

n. The process of having most or all of ones body cosmetically and/or structurally reconfigured with the use of vat-grown tissue and advanced plastic surgery techniques.

Boo-coo:

adj. (Mil.) Bastardized French, from "Beaucoup," meaning "much" or "many".

Boom-boom:

ph. (Mil.) To have sex.

Booming:

v. (Rig.) 1) Loud, raucous partying ("we were booming last night"); 2) Fast, exciting flying ("we went booming through the Grand Canyon.")

Booster:

n. Any gang member who displays a strong affinity for cyberware.

Bordeaux:

n. (Med.) Urine with blood in it.

Border Rats:

ph. (LEO) DEA and/or Customs agents who work the U.S./Mexico border.

`Borg:

n. See Bioroid.

`Borg'ed:

v. Excessive use of cybernetic body modifications.

Bosozoku:

n. (Jap.) Motorcycle and hot-rod gangs; a prime source of Yakuza recuits.

Bot:

n. (Net) Small programs designed to perform automated tasks in the net, and generally act as meat surrogates. 'Bots can be beneficial or malicious.

Bottom feeder:

ph. A low life, one who has yet to achieve, a "wannabe," a social outcast.

Bourgie, Bourgy:

adj. Common or low-class (from bourgeoisie.)

Box, the:

n. (Brit.) The ThreeVee or computer.

Boys in Black:

ph. Arasaka security personnel.

BP:

acr. (Med.) Blood Pressure.

Brain Dump:

ph. (Net) From core dump, to tell someone everything you know.

Brain Housing Group:

ph. (Rig.) Mock-technical term for the skull.

Brain Potato:

ph. A Braindance addict.

Breetva:

n. (Rus.) Razor. Anyone with combat-oriented cyberware.

Bridge & Tunnel Crowd:

ph. Commuters.

Brill:

adj. (Brit.) Brilliant. (Frequently used sarcastically.)

Bronze:

n. slang (usually derogative) term for law enforcement officials.

Brother:

n. See B.B.

Brownbaggers:

n. Derogatory street term for homeless alcoholics, constantly seen carrying their bottles of cheap booze wrapped in brown paper bags.

Bruce:

v. Pronunciation of the hacker acronym BRS (Big Red Switch.) 1) To deactivate a machine. 2) To kill someone or render them senseless. See Big Red Switch.

BTL Chip:

n. A "Better Than Life" chip (also called "DreamChips".) An illegal cyber-data chip which provides the user a combination of artificial reality coupled with direct stimulation of different centers of the brain. Though typically designed to provide a pre-programmed fantasy, the artificial reality need not be coherent, i.e. it can provide a totally hallucinatory environment. Chips are typically designed to burn out after one use, both to prevent the users brain from overloading from the sustained stimulation, and to force the user to purchase additional chips. BTL chips are psychologically addictive and repeated, frequent use causes permanent brain damage.

Buck Rogers:

ph. Derogatory phrase for an individual (usually a Solo) obsessed with high-tech weaponry.

Bullet:

n. (Crim.) One year in custody/prison.

Bullet-Stopper:

ph. See Guardian Angel.

Bumping:

n. (Thr.) Skating down stairs; can be done forwards, backwards, even sideways.

Burbclave:

n. A self-contained and like-minded community, usually catering to a specific class or race. 'Claves have their own restrictions on entry.

Burn a shoe:

ph. Destroying a set of fake ID. See shoe.

Bury the Hatchet:

ph. (Med.) Accidently leaving a surgical instrument inside a patient.

Bushi:

n. (Jap.) Honor or Code of Honor. A key concept for most edgerunners, as they frequently have little else to call their own at times.

Business, `Biz':

n. In slang context, crime.

Butt-to-Ground Adapter:

ph. An impromptu stool fashioned out of anything.

Buttonhead:

n. See Wirehead.

Buzz:

v. Buzz off. Take a hike. Leave.

BVM:

acr. (Med.) Bag Valve Mask (Ambu-Bag ®). A manual inflation device placed over the mouth of a patient, which, when hand-pumped, ventilates the patients lungs.

- C -

C-dee:

n. (Aq.) Underwater veteran, derived from "sea dog".

Cadre:

n. (Aq.) Team, also; one's circle of friends.

Camper:

n. (Mil.) A sniper, or anyone who stakes out a high recon position for an extended period.

Candy Cane Loading:

ph. (LEO) The practice of loading a shotgun with alternating rounds of slug and buckshot, through the entire magazine.

Canoe, Making a:

ph. (Med/LEO) The act of removing the body organs from a corpse during an autopsy. A synonym for being killed. (E.g. "Somebody made a canoe out of him.")

Captain Kangaroo:

ph. 1) (Med.) Chairman of a pediatrics department. 2) (LEO) A child molester.

Card:

1) n. SIN Card. 2) v. To demand that a person show their personal identification.

Career Decision (CD):

ph. (Corp) Used among low-level employees to describe an ill-advised activity. Trashing your boss while he or she is within earshot is a serious CD.

Cargo:

n. 1. Someone completly incapacitated, especially when drunk or stoned. 2. The emotional baggage one carries as left-over damage from one's past.

Carpet:

n. A electronic warfare jamming device.

Casters Up Mode:

ph. (Net) Dead. Dates back from when computers where so large that they had casters under them to facillitate moving them around.

Castrato:

n. See Muzak-Man.

Catalog:

n. A Class-A information dossier.

Catatonic:

adj. (Net) No longer responding to input. Used of both hardware, software and 'runners.

CATNIP:

acr. (Tech.) "Cheapest Available Technology Not Involving Prosecution."

Causing static:

ph. Starting trouble.

Cement poisoning:

ph. What a person dies of after being pushed off of a multi-story building and hitting the sidewalk. (AKA Deceleration Trauma.)

Chain Saw Consultant:

ph. (Corp) An outside expert who is brought in to reduce head count - leaving the top brass with clean hands.

Chalk outline:

ph. See Sidewalk Outline.

Check Fire!:

ph. (Mil.) "Hold your fire!"; usually requested WAY too late.

Check out:

ph. To die.

"Check, please!":

ph. exclaimation. "I've had enough, I want this all to end."

Check six:

ph. (Rig.) Visual observation of the rear quadrant, from which most air-to-air attacks can be expected. Refers to the clock system of scanning the envelope around the aircraft; 12 o'clock is straight ahead, 6 o'clock is directly astern. Also a common salutation and greeting among tactical pilots. Keep an eye on your behind, be careful.

Checking for light leaks:

ph. (Rig.) Taking a nap, referring to the eyelids.

Chemical Persuasion:

1) n. Explosives. Also see instant cave. 2) Pepper spray or other similar incapacitating agent (AKA "liquid knuckles".)

Chernobyl Packet:

ph. (Net) A network packet that induces network meltdown (failure), named in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. Such a packet can occur either accidentally or an act of deliberate malice.

Cherry:

n. (Mil.) Any new, inexperienced member of a unit or team.

Chill:

n. Street term for Freon, a comodity now, available only to the rich, who still have air-conditioners.

Chilled:

adj. To be cool, together.

Chinese Take-out:

ph. Anything extremely jumbled or messy. (e.g. "That riotgun made his chest look like Chinese take-out.")

Chipped:

adj. Senses, skills, reflexes, and so on, enhanced by cyberware.

Chombata, Chomba:

n. (Bantu) Friend. Buddy.

Choo:

n. Slang for CHOOH-2, a synthetic meta-alcohol fuel.

Choob:

n. Jerk, nerd, weirdo.

Chop:

n. A credcard or credchip.

Chop shop:

n. A black clinic.

Chopping:

v. The process of cracking a stolen credcard or credchip.

Chow Chit:

n. See Kibble Card.

Chrome:

n. 1) Flash, glitter, bells and whistles, tinsel. Material used to spice up the appearance of something. 2) Sexy features on a program, not needed for functionality but radiating style (e.g. a guillotine instead of a trash can icon.) 3) Generic reference to cyberware.

Chrome-Bangers:

n. Derogatory term for the C-SWAT team or "PsychoSquad." (AKA "Circuit Breakers.")

Chromer:

n. A member of a gang dedicated to hard (chromatic) rock music (usually a specific band) and mindless violence. The original "party animals."

Chuck:

n. Caucasian person. Usually derogatory.

Chummer:

n. "Pal" or "Buddy." May be used sarcastically.

Chunk:

v. (Thr.) To damage your wheels so they have pits or missing pieces. (I.e. "I chunked my tires.")

Chunking:

v. Eating on the run, eating as a secondary activity.

Circling the Drain:

ph. (Med) Slang for a patient near death who refuses to give up the ghost. Now generally used to describe anything that lives beyond its time, but will not die.

CIRS:

n. Cybernetic Implant Rejection Syndrome: a psychotic aberration suffered by excessive users of cyberware.

Citybuster:

n. (Mil.) A MIRV from a nuclear missile. Sometimes also referred to as a "Crowd Pleaser."

Clacker:

n. (Mil.) The small hand-held M57 firing device used with a claymore mine. More colloquially, any remote detonator for an explosive device.

Cleaner:

n. (Cov.) An assassin (or team of assassins) used to eliminate all traces of a mission, including the participants.

Client-Server Action:

ph. (Net) Net euphemism for having sex. "I went to the Oracle party the other night hoping for a little client-server action."

Clock:

v. To watch someone or something very closely for a long period. ("Damn, she's been clocking me all night!")

NEW ENTRY! Next new entry.

"Clothing by DuPont":

ph. Euphemism referring to human suicide bombers (usually religious fanatics or terrorists) who strap high explosives to their own body and them detonate them manually once they arrive at a specific target location. (FYI, from 1802 until the end of the 20th Century, the DuPont Corporation was one of the largest manufacturers of commercial and military explosives in the North America.)

Cobweb Site:

ph. (Net) A World Wide Web site that hasn't been updated for a long time. A dead Web page.

Code Grinder:

ph. (Net) A corporate programmer.

Coke:

n. Cocaine. AKA "blow," "C," "charlie" and "white lady."

Collar:

n. (Derogatory) A white-collar worker, usually a low-level employee of a megacorp.

Combat Zones:

n. Areas of urban decay in major cities, characterized by high crime rates, unmaintained streets and buildings, poor police coverage, high concentrations of homeless people, and frequent outbreaks of (often gang-related) violence.

Comic Book, Comics:

n. Color, fan-folded (military) map. ("Pass the comics. I think we're lost.")

Comm:

n. 1) Communication equipment. 2) Telephone.

Config:

v. (HR) To arrange something.

Content Free:

ph. (Net) Lacking any sort of useful information.

Corp:

n. Corporation.

Corpse:

n.A corporate executive, a CORPorate Sleaziness Expert.

Cortex bomb:

n. A small, implanted explosive device (usually in the skull) that detonates in response to a timer or remote signal. Usually implanted against the wearer's will to keep him in line. Most cortex bombs will detonate automatically if tampered with.

CostCo Cadillac:

ph. Street name for a shopping cart used by the homeless to carry their possessions. AKA "FoodMart Ferrarri."

Cowboy:

n. A very hot, professional deckjockey.

Coyote:

n. (Mex.) Some who smuggles (usually illegal immigrants) across the U.S./Mexico border.

Crack:

n. A smokable form of crystallized cocaine. AKA "rock," "crank," "baseball," "white tornado" and "gravel."

Crash:

v. (Aq.) To seriously screw up.

Crash Test Dummies:

ph. Individuals who pay for unstable, not-ready-for-prime-time software marketed by greedy computer companies.

Crease:

v. To kill. - Creased: Killed.

Cred:

n. Money, typically electronic funds.

Credcard:

n. A personal electronic debit card commonly carried in place of actual currency.

Credchip:

n. See Credcard.

Credstick:

n. See Credcard.

'Crete:

n. (Thr.) Abbreviated term for "concrete." (E.g. "He dumped his board and smeared himself all over the 'crete.")

Crickets:

ph. (Rock.) Quiet, as in "It's so quiet one could hear the crickets chirping." (E.g. "We thought the song was great, but the first time we played it to an audience, we finished and it was, like, crickets.")

Crispy:

adj. A compliment. Extremely nice. (E.g. "I'll bet that monitor looks really crispy in the dark!".)

Crispy Critter:

ph. (Med.) A severe burn patient.

Cruiser Mode:

ph. (LEO) Anyone in a state of mind such that they require a brief delay before they are able to respond to a situation. From the police practice of carrying a shotgun in the police cruiser with a full magazine but with an empty chamber, requiring the officer to "rack the slide" before bringing the shotgun to bare.

'Crypter:

n. (Net) Cryptographer. Either person or program.

CSC:

acr. A "Computer Sabotage Consultant." A tactful form of address for a netrunner. See Deckjockey.

C-SWAT:

acr. (LEO) Cybernetic Special Weapons And Tactical squad, the police elite unit who tackle cybered up criminals. AKA MAX-TAC.

CT:

acr. (Med.) Computerized Tomography (the follow-on to CAT (Computer Aided Tomography) scans.) A series of closely-spaced X-Ray cross-sections of a body area, which are then computer processed to yield a 3-dimensional model of the area being scanned.

Culture Vulture:

ph. A member of the media.

Curse, the:

n. Phonetic pronounciation of "CIRS".

Cut and Paste:

ph. (Med.) To open a patient, discover that there is no hope, and immediately sew him up. Well, almost immediately. Sometimes young surgeons practice surgical techniques for a while first.

CVA:

acr. (Med.) Cerebro-vascular Accident. Generic term for a vascular occlusion or hemorrhage in the cranial cavity.

C-YA:

acr. Pronounced as "see ya," acronym for "Cover Your Ass."

Cyberaxe:

n. Any musical instrument (although typically a guitar) that is equipped with a cybernetic interface.

Cyberdeck:

n. Hardware used to access cyberspace through a DNI link.

Cyberpsychosis:

n. A psychotic aberration suffered by excessive users of cyberware (See CIRS.)

Cyberspace:

n. 1) The conceptual space within a computer. 2) The conceptual medium within which computer communication takes place, e.g. electronic bulletin boards, online services, databases, or in general the program space of any computer which can run a communication program. 3) A slang term for the global computer network.

Cyberware:

n. Any cybernetic/bionic body implant which replaces or augments a specific body function.

Cylon:

n. Derogatory term for corporate security personnel.

- D -

D-Crew:

n. (Aq.) Corpse underwater, esp. those found in sub wrecks.

D5W:

acr. (Med.) Dextrose 5% in Water. A common mixture, given intravenously, to rehydrate a patient.

Daddy:

n. An "add-on" chip; a cyber-data chip containing a programmed skill which augments existing skills or provides new ones. These chips provide "instant" training of a normally unknown ability (i.e. flying a jet.)

Dai uy:

n. (Viet.) "Captain." (Pronounced "die-WE".)

Danger Close:

ph. (Mil.) An air strike or artillery mission within 100 meters of your position.

Dark, the:

n. (HR) Space. (See Big Black.)

Dark Fiber:

ph. When high bandwidth data-comm fiber-optic cable that has much more capacity than is currently being utilized, the unused capacity is said to be "dark". This is usually done deliberately, in anticipation of future growth.

Data Freight(er):

ph. (Net) The long haul transportation of bulk digital data. Some companies exist explicitly to provide high bandwith trans/intercontinental channels for high-volume data "freight".

Data Mining:

ph. (Net) Extracting useful information from an enormous database. Corporations have to "mine" value from the often bewildering bedrock of (seemingly) unrelated statistics and numbers collected from various sources.

Dawn Patrol:

ph. (Net) Compulsive netheads or hackers who are still at their decks when you get back to them the next morning.

DDR:

acr. An expert in "Difficult Data Retrieval." A tactful form of address for a netrunner. See Deckjockey.

Dead Baby:

ph. (Cov.) A false identity. Originates from the wide-spread practice of searching hospital and/or church records for the names of children who have died at birth or in infancy and obtaining a copy of their birth certificate for use as a basis for a new (phony) identity.

Dead Cat Bounce:

ph. (Fixer) A brief response from an otherwise stomped object or individual that gives the illusion of imminent recovery.

Dead Presidents:

n. Old (pre-collapse) United States paper currency.

Dead Tree Edition:

ph. The paper version of a publication available in both paper and electronic forms. (E.g. "The dead tree edition of the San Francisco Chronicle...")

Death Star:

ph. (Net) The spherical At&T datafortress, resembling the space fortress from Star Wars.

Deb, Debbie:

n. 1) A derogatory term for male-to-female full-body sex change recipients. 2) (LEO) phonetic pronounciation of "D.B.", which is police and medical examiner shorthand for "dead body."

Deceleration trauma:

ph. See Cement poisoning.

Deck:

n. See Cyberdeck.

Decker:

n. See Deckjockey.

Deckhead:

n. 1) A SimSense abuser. 2) Anyone with a datajack or chipjack. 3) Derogatory term for a netrunner.

Deckjockey:

n. An expert cyberdeck user, usually a specialist and covertly accessing and stealing from corporate databases.

Deep:

adj. To have many members in your gang.

Deep Reality:

ph. The real world we live in. As opposed to the realities we create for ourselves within our minds (e.g. fantasy games) and in our processors (e.g. cyberspace.)

Deep-six:

ph. (Aq.) To sink, also; to kill or be killed.

DeeVee:

v. Devalue. To make something worthless.

Defilade:

n. (Mil.) 1) Protection from hostile observation and fire provided by an obstacle such as a hill, ridge, or bank. 2) A vertical distance by which a position is concealed from enemy observation. 3) To shield from enemy fire or observation by using natural or artificial obstacles.

Delta:

n. A smuggling aircraft.

Deltajock:

n. A hotshot pilot.

Deniable Asset:

n. (Mil./Cov.) An independent contractor, with little or no ties to his/her/thier source of employment. In the event of exposure during an operation, the employer can later disavow all knowledge of the contractor, and no solid connection can be made.

Derm:

n. An adhesive skin patch used to apply medication. (These tend not to be very effective during trauma, since epidermal vascularization is usually the first thing to shut down when a person goes into shock.)

De-Rezz:

v. 1) To terminate a program. 2) To kill someone.

Detcord:

n. (Mil./Solo) Olive-drab, 3/16 inch diameter flexible PETN-based plastic explosive cord used as a cutting or breaching charge.

Detsheet:

n. (Mil./Solo) Olive-drab, 10-by-25 inch flexible PETN-based plastic explosive sheet used as a cutting or breaching charge.

DF Module:

ph. The "Dumb F**K" responsible for the current problem.

DI:

acr. Digital Intelligence. A computer intelligence made up of the recorded knowledge of one or more human experts. This is less complex and expensive than developing an AI.

Di:

v. (Viet.) "Go." (Pronounced "DEE".)

Dialed In:

adj. Any system where all the variables are set perfectly.

Diaper Change:

ph. One of several daily visits by a tech-support person to the desk of a particularly cranky, lazy, or technically incompetent user. (e.g., "Sorry I was late, but I had to do a diaper change down in Accounting.")

Didi:

ph. (Viet.) Slang from the Vietnamese word 'di', meaning "to leave" or "to go."

Didi mau:

ph. (Viet.) Slang for "Go quickly."

Die of the measles:

ph. In military parlance, an assassination which makes the death appear to be of natural causes.

Digital Kudzu:

ph. Software which places artifacts into every nook and cranny of a computer's file system. All attempts to delete such applications miss at least some of the artifacts, which then interfere with other processes forever after.

Dike Out:

ph. (Net) To remove with extreme prejeduce. Originally from mechanic slang for Diagonal Wire Cutters. I.e. "Then their sysop decided he had to try and kill me, so I diked out most of his higher brain functions..."

Dim:

n. Derogatory term for a person suffering from diminished mental capacity (i.e. mentally retarded.)

Dirt{boy|girl}:

n. 1) (Rig.) Airborne rigger slang (derogatory) for a non-flyer. 2) (HR) A dirtsider.

Dirtside:

n. (HR) A reference to a planetary surface (as opposed to space.)

Dirtsider:

n. (HR) Derogatory term for someone who rarely or never is in space.

Dirty:

adj. 1) Derogatory term for low-tech (paper & pencil, walking, etc.) 2) Any traceable illegal item. 3) Contaminated.

Dirty Power:

ph. (Net) Power that is full of spikes and brownouts. Useable for lights and toasters, but bad for computers.

Dis:

v. Disrespect; to treat with disrespect.

Disappear:

v. To cause a person, and all known references to that person, to become difficult or impossible to find.

DNI:

acr. Direct Neural Interface. A high-speed digital interface directly into the brain, usually through jacks in the wrists, on the scalp at the base of the hairline. (AKA BCI.)

DNR:

acr. (Med.) Do Not Resuscitate.

Do <someone> Ugly:

ph. To beat up or be beaten up (e.g. "Boy, somebody sure did him ugly!")

DOA:

acr. (Med.) Dead On Arrival.

Dock:

v. (HR) To have sex.

Dodgy:

adj. (Brit.) Risky, unsafe, borderline illegal.

Doi Moi:

n. (Viet.) Literally "reconstruction" or "renovation." Derisive term for government-sponsored "urban renewal" that has an overall negative impact. (E.g. foreclosing on inner city homes and compensating the homeowners at below market value, only to use the property for substandard, low-cost housing for the poor.)

Dome:

n. (Aq.) Underwater platform.

Donkey Whang:

ph. (Net) A really thick piece of cable. Usually an inch or more in diameter.

Door Stop:

ph. (Net) A not-so-heavy peice of dead hardware.

`Dorph:

n. A synthetic analogue for endorphins (organic painkillers produced naturally by the human body.) Used to suppress pain and shock. Addictive.

`Dorpher:

n. Member of a gang primarily identified by heavy and frequent drug use. Very unpredictable.

Dot:

n. (Rig.) Refers to how a distant aircraft looks on the horizon, ("I'm a dot" means "I'm out of here").

Double Tap:

v. Two rapidly placed, closely spaced gunshot wounds. (E.g. "Someone double tapped him right between the eyes.")

Doughboy/girl:

n. Derogatory term for someone wearing too much body armor.

Down:

v. (Rig.) Broken, not flying. A sick pilot is "down".

Download:

v. See Fuse.

Downtime:

n. Free time; off the job; rest; night.

Draga:

adj. (Hng.) Expensive.

Drek:

n. Common curse word (From Yiddish, meaning "shit".) adj: drekky.

Drift Factor:

ph. (Rig.) If you have a high one, you aren't reliable.

Drig:

v. Copulation. Expletive.

Droid:

n. (Net) A low-level, unimaginative worker.

Drooler:

n. (Med.) A catatonic patient.

Drop a Dime:

ph. (Crim.) Archaic. To inform ("squeal") on someone.

Drowd:

n. (Med./Tech.) A plug-in transformer that attaches to a socket which has been surgically installed the skull. It is designed to feed low voltage current directly into the brain for the purpose of stimulating the brain's pleasure centers. It is commonly used by wirehead addicts and is illegal.

Dry Op:

ph. (Cov.) Sitting around, soaking up information gathered by others, and then filing a report without ever leaving the desk.

Dumped:

v. Involuntarily ejected from the matrix.

Dung lai!:

v. (Viet.) "Stop!"

Dust:

v. (Mil.) To Kill.

Dustbuster:

n. A phone call or e-mail message you send to someone after a long silence - just to "shake the dust off" and see if the connection still works.

Dust-off:

ph. (Mil.) Emergency (usually medical) evacuation by helicopter.

- E -

E-Tool:

n. (Mil.) Entrenching tool. Folding shovel carried by infantrymen.

Eating In:

ph. (Med.) Intravenous feeding.

ECG:

acr. (Med.) Electro CardioGram.

Eddies:

n. Phonetic pronunciation of "EDs," meaning Eurodollars.

Edge:

n. The fringe of society, where many engage in illegal or semi-legal acts or lifestyles.

Edgerunner:

n. Someone who lives on the edge.

Edgezone:

n. A strip, grey area, area of potential "coolness."

EEG:

acr. (Med.) ElectroEncaphaloGram.

Ego Surfing:

ph. The act of searching public electronic bulletin boards and other information sources in cyberspace to see how many references to one's self can be found.

Eleven Bravo:

ph. (Mil.) The MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) of an infantryman in the U.S. Army. More commonly, a reference to cheap, expendable ground troops. (I.e. "Send in more eleven bravo.")

Elvis Year:

ph. The peak year of popularity for an item, individual, or group. (E.g. "Barney the Dinosaur's Elvis Year was 1993.")

EOD.:

acr. (Mil.) Explosive Ordinance Disposal. A team that disarms explosive devices.

Euro:

n. Eurodollars.

Eurodollar:

n. The most commonly accepted standard currency in the modern world.

Eyeballs:

n. (Media) Slang for a (potential) viewing audience.

Exotic:

n. An obviously biosculpted individual, usually with non-human features (fangs, fur, tail, etc.)

- F -

Fab:

v. (Net) Fabricate. Build from scratch. Never fabulous.

Faceman:

n. A sub-fixer in the employ of a major fixer, supporting that superiors network.

Faddie:

n. Someone who follows all the trends. Usually derogatory.

Fandango on the Core, Do A:

ph. (Net) To thouroghly hose a system.

Fast Mover:

ph. (Mil./Rig.) Any high-speed aircraft.

Faulty:

v. A person or item not to be trusted (or believed.)

Feet, Foot:

n. Derogatory term for police. (From flatfoot.)

Fem-bot:

n. Derogatory slang term for a female given to excessive, but sophisticated use of expensive cyberware. This term is frequently applied to high-priced female solos or bodyguards of rich, famous, or otherwise important persons.

Ferryman:

n. Term for an expert assassin. Believed to be derived from the famed Eurosolo Charon, who took his handle from the figure in Greek mythology who ferried the dead across the river Styx to Hades.

Film at 11:

ph. Used in conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic implication that these events have earth-shattering importance. (E.g. "I'm not wearing any pants; film at 11!")

Fire Ant Warefare:

ph. (Mil./Solo) Weapon systems in which hordes of small, smart weapons swarm a target.

Fire Lane:

ph. (Mil.) Area designated as the field of fire, from a specific position, or by a specific weapon emplacement.

Fire Mission:

ph. (Mil.) Specification of a target for an artillery barrage.

Firewall:

n. (Net) Defensive software in a datafort, designed to prevent unauthorized users from doing damage or accessing restricted files.

Five-Oh:

n. See 5-0.

Fixer:

n. A go-between, deal maker, information broker. Also a fence or mover of illegal goods.

Flash:

1) v. Anything spectacular (e.g. "That deck has a lot of flash!") 2) n. Hard currency (e.g. "Loan me some flash.")

Flash Crowds:

ph. (Net) Swarms of users on a computer network that appear, then disappear, in a flash. (The term originates from a short story of the same name by Larry Niven. In the story, riots break out when thousands of people pour out of teleportation booths to see major social events.)

Flash Traffic:

ph. (Mil./Solo) An incoming emergency communication, usually from a superior.

Flashbang:

n. (Mil./LEO/Solo) Disorientation device used by hostage rescue teams.

Flat:

n. From an old theatrical term for a piece of scenery, an actor in a braindance recording who is not wired for braindance, but merely forms part of the background for a scene. An extra.

Flatline:

n. A state of death (ref. flat EEG traces upon brain-death) which may refer to either a machine (usually a deck or other computer) or a person. Usually a result of an encounter with black ice during a netrun. v. To die.

Flea:

n. (Net) A non-netrunner who accompanies a netrunner on a netrun by using a `trode set.

Flight Risk:

ph. (Corp) Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or department soon.

Flip a Bitch:

ph. (GoGang) To pull a sudden U-turn while driving.

Flip the Script:

ph. To lie. (I.e. "Man. Don't flip no script on me!")

FLK:

acr. (Med.) "Funny-looking Kid." Usually a mongoloid.

Floater:

n, (LEO) Besides the obvious reference to a waterlogged corpse, this term is also used to refer to drifters, urchins and other waterworld vagrants.

Floor Routine:

ph. From gymnastics, a (usually futile) attempt to dodge automatic weapons fire.

FLP:

acr. (Med.) Parents of an FLK.

FM:

acr. (Rig.) Abbreviation for "f*cking magic": very high-tech; used to describe how something you don't understand actually works. The ASQ-81 Magnetic Anomaly System works by "FM".

FNG:

acr. (Mil.) F*cking New Guy.

FOD:

acr. 1) (Net) Finger of Death. Any really powerful anti-personnel program. 2) (Rig.) Foreign Object Damage. Damage to an (air)craft during take-off or landing caused by flying debris.

Fodder:

n. A derogatory term fixers use for solos.

Fold:

1) n. A slang term for flexible (paper or plastic) currency. 2) v. To shut down something or someone (e.g. "This operation is about to fold.")

Footprint:

n. A characteristic "hacking" style; consisting of such elements as speed, number and length of pauses, commonly-appearing commands, words, phrases, and mistakes.

Four F-er:

ph. (Med.) A gallbladder patient. "Fat, forty-ish, flatulent female."

Fossil:

n. 1) An elderly person. 2) Someone who refuses to give up old ways. 3) Any old or obsolete item.

Frag:

v. 1) Common curse word. adj: Fragging. 2) n. (Mil.) A fragmentation grenade. 3) v. (Mil.) The assassination of an officer by his own troops, usually by the use of a fragmentation grenade. 4) v. To kill someone with a fragmentation grenade.

Frak:

v. A general purpose expletive.

Freakers:

n. See Berserkide.

Fred:

n. 1) Any straight, unimaginative citizen, usually a shirt. 2) An elder person or someone who clings to outmoded ideas or practices (from Fred Flintstone.) See Fossil.

Free Fire Zone:

ph. (Mil.) Area where everyone has been deemed hostile and is a legitimate target by friendly forces.

Frob:

v. To alter control settings in a random or mischievous fashion.

From the shoulder:

ph. To attack hand-to-hand.

From out of pocket:

ph. To attack with a handgun.

Frosty:

n. Derogatory term for an eldery person (in reference to their grey/white hair.)

Furball:

n. 1) Any sort of confusion, snarl-up, or traffic jam. 2) An intense, chaotic battle.

Furvert:

n. Derogatory slang term for anyone with exotic skin, cranial, or other animalistic anatomical modifications, especially when the individual uses the feature(s) in conjunction with a deviant sexual practice.

Fuse:

v. To kill someone possessing large quantities of cyberware. (AKA "short-circ" or "download.")

- G -

Gaijin:

n. (Jap.) A derogatory term for a foreigner or outsider.

Game Over:

ph. Exclaimtion. An acknowledgement of catastrophic failure.

Gamma Software:

ph. (Net) Implying a level of untested-ness even in excess of Beta Software. (I.e. the programmer just finished compiling it an hour ago.)

Garbage Detail:

ph. (Corp) A retaliatory raid, usually against a streetgang or street-ronin, which takes corporate solos into non-corporate controlled parts of the city. (AKA "trash run.")

Gato:

n. (Mex.) A smooth operator, cool person; a Fixer.

'Gator:

n. (Rig.) A tread or recap from a blown tire. Creates a road hazard.

'Gator Bait:

ph. (Rig.) Bits and pieces of a blown tire.

`Gauge:

n. Gang slang for a shotgun.

Gearhead:

n. (Tech.) Someone with an obsessive interest in acquiring new hardware.

Geek:

v. To kill or die.

Generica:

n. Those features of the American landscape (strip malls, motel chains, prefab housing) that are exactly the same no matter what part of the country you're in. "We were so lost in Generica, I actually forgot what city we were in."

Gewalt:

n. (Ger.) Violence.

Ghost:

n. A deckjockey who assists a "physical entry team" by entering and controlling the computer of the target site.

Ghost in the Machine:

ph. (Net) See Gibson.

Ghosting:

v. Unpleasant residual sensory stimulus caused either by excessive use of braindance or by using a braindance playback unit with the output boosted above safe levels. The effect may last from seconds to days, depending upon the strength and/or length of the playback.

Gibson:

n. 1) Someone who tells the future; a psychic. 2) (Net) Unexplained phenomenon in the Net. (AKA "Ghost in the Machine.")

Giri:

n. (Jap.) A debt of honor; duty or obligation.

Glass:

n. (Rig.) In aviation, a 'glass' cockpit has digital displays/info systems, whereas an older "steam gauge"/"rope start" cockpit has mechanical, analog instruments.

Glass Roots Campaign:

ph. Grassroots campaigns conducted via the Net.

Glazing:

v. Corporate-speak for sleeping with your eyes open. A popular pastime at conferences and early-morning meetings. "Didn't he notice that half the room was glazing by the second session?"

Glom:

v. To group or gather. (I.e. to glom at a concert, or they glommed at the mall yesterday.)

Go Away:

ph. (Rig.) What something does when you hit it with a missile.

Go Cyrillic:

ph. (Net) When a graphical display (LED panel, bit-mapped text and graphics) starts to display garbage. "The thing just went Cyrillic on me."

Go LEO:

ph. To make a trip into Low Earth Orbit.

Gob:

n. (Brit.) Mouth. (E.g. "Shut your gob!)

God Spot:

ph. (Mil.) Sniper's position, so called because it is typically a high position with an unobstructed field of view in the target area.

Going Postal:

ph. Euphemism for being totally stessed out and losing it in a violent fashion.

Gomer:

n. (Med.) A senile, messy, or highly unpleasant patient.

Gomi:

n. (Jap.) Junk, garbage.

Gone Camping:

ph. (Med.) Reference to a patient in an oxygen tent.

Gonk:

n. Idiot or fool.

Gormless:

adj. (Brit.) Stupid, brainless. (E.g. "You gormless plonker!")

Got a Free Tattoo:

ph. Used to describe any situation in which someone is on the receiving end of abrasive blunt trauma: a Surfer doing a Wilson on his plank, having one's head bounced off a dumpster, etc.

GoTo:

n. A dossier, usually illegally compiled.

Gothic:

n. A member of a posergang whose motif is death and old black & white movies.

Gravity Check:

ph. Any act of falling down or off something. Almost always painful and usually fatal. (E.g. "Walt just did a gravity check of the Century Plaza tower!")

Grazing Fire:

ph. (Mil.) Fire approximately parallel to the ground where the center of the cone of fire does not rise above 1 meter from the ground.

Grease the Weasel:

NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANS! GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER!! ph. To schmooze, mingle, make yourself known to others (especially at parties, clubs, or other social gatherings.)

Green Machine:

ph. (Net) Military hardware. So named for the uniform olive drab coloring all of them have.

"grepping":

ph. To search for something in a very methodical manner. Origin: from the Unix line command grep (short for "global regular expression print"). The command would search through a bunch of files looking for specific string in them.

Grok:

v. See Suss.

Grounder:

n. A (usually derogatory) term used by highriders for planet-side residents.

GSW:

acr. (Med.) GunShot Wound.

Guardian Angel:

ph. Solo on a bodyguard job. (AKA "bullet-stopper.")

Gumby:

n. From Monty Python, an act of minor but conspicuous stupidity (e.g. "Pulling a gumby.")

Gumby Suit:

ph. (LEO/Mil.) The protective gear worn by military and police bomb squad personnel.

Gun Bunny:

ph. (Mil.) Attack helicopters (and the crew that fly them.)

Gutter Tribes:

ph. (Nomad) Nomadic bands of homeless people in their teens and early twenties who travel from city to city, making their living primarily through panhandling.

- H -

Hackware:

n. Software produced by amateurs. Distinguished by the fact that it works and is ready 2 years before the professional version. Characterized by non-standard code, lack of comments, and great chrome.

Hairball:

n. See Furball.

Haircut:

n. (Brit.) See Corp.

Halogen Handshake:

ph. (Rig.) The act of flashing headlight highbeams at an oncoming vehicle, to encourage the other car to lower their highbeams.

Handle:

n. A nick-name or working name, by which you are known on the street.

Hanlons Razor:

ph. (Net) "Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity."

Hard:

adj. Cool, hip, tough. A flattering term.

Hard Rice:

ph. Weapons, ammunition, and other conflict-related material being shipped under the guise of humanitarian aid. See Pigs and Rice.

Hardsuit:

n. A suit of powered armor.

Hardwired:

v. (Net) Not modifiable.

Harry:

1) adj. Complimentary term applied to an especially lethal piece of hardware. 2) n. a slang term for Heroin.

Hatbox:

n. (Med.) A cylindrical, hand-carried biohazard container, so-called due to its similarity in appearance to cardboard hatboxes of the early 1900s.

Head Up:

ph. To start a fight.

Heisen-Bug:

n. (Net) A software bug that changes behavior or location when you attempt to locate it.

Hexed:

adj. 1) Afflicted with cyberpsychosis. 2) Obsessed with the Net.

Highrider:

n. Someone who lives or works in space (typically, all of his life.)

Hinky:

adj. (LEO) Nervous or spooked.

HINT:

acr. (Media) Happy Idiot News Talk. The vacuous and silly banter that occurs between newscasters on local TV news.

Hit and Run:

ph. (Med.) The act of operating quickly, so as not to be late for another engagement.

Hole-in-One:

ph. (Med.) A gunshot wound through the mouth or rectum.

Holo:

n. 1) A holographically generated image. 2) A Eurodollar.

Holovision:

n. See ThreeVee.

Honolulu Slingshot:

ph. Generic term for any sub-orbital flight from a major city in North America to Hawaii.

`Hood:

h. Neighborhood.

Horse:

n. Heroin. AKA "H," "scag," "smack" and "joy powder."

Hose:

v. 1) Make a mistake; screw up. 2) adj. To spray someone with automatic weapons fire.

Hot LZ:

(Mil.) An LZ that is currently under (usually intense) enemy fire.

Hound-Tipping:

n. Popular street practice of ambushing and reprogramming police robohounds.

Huge Pipes:

ph. (Net) A high bandwidth Net connection.

Hurricane:

n. (Aq.) Anything powerful or of extreme physical size.

Hydro, "H":

n. Shorthand term for hydrogen fuel.

- I -

"I see no [X] here.":

ph. (Net) Whatever the person is looking for is not present.

Ice:

n. 1) Security software. Intrusion Countermeasures, or IC. 2) A form of crystal methamphetamine. AKA "glass" or "crystal."

Ice, The:

ph. The most common nickname for Antarctica, as in, "How long you been on The Ice?"

Icebreaker:

n. Any program or software designed to penetrate or foil ice.

ICU:

acr. (Med.) Intensive Care Unit.

Idea Hamsters:

ph. (Net) Individuals who constantly seem to have a new idea to offer or try out, no matter how crazy it might be.

Identity Hacking:

ph. (Net) Constructing a false identity in the net.

In Country:

ph. (Arch.) Viet Nam. (Con.) Any 3rd world shit-hole assignment.

Indie:

n. Independent, underground, self-employed.

Infobahn:

n. (Net) Pretentious name for the net.

Info Bro:

n. Information broker.

Input:

n. Girlfriend, female companion.

Instant Cave:

n. Explosives. Also see chemical persuasion.

Instant Foxholes, box of:

ph. (Solo/Mil.) A case of hand grenades.

Intel:

n. Useful information.

Inverse Vandalism:

ph. Making things because you can. "Why did you write SoulKiller in the first place?" "Because I could."

Involuntary Dismount:

v. To crash a bike or motorcycle.

Iron:

n. Usually weapons, but can also refer to vehicles.

Iron, Big:

n. Heavy duty weapons or vehicles.

Irritainment:

n. (Net) Something that is supposed to be engaging, but turns out to be really annoying.

IV:

acr. (Med.) Intravenous.

- J -

Jack:

1) v. Jack In, or enter cyberspace. Jack Out, or leave cyberspace. 2) n. A DNI connection (usually in the skull) for a cyberdeck. 3) n. Money. 4) v. To hold up or rob someone.

Jackhammer:

n. An MRAM chip that incapacitates the user, either through constant pain, pleasure, or some other excessive stimulation. Most chips of this type include locks which prevent them from being removed without a key or special command. All types are black market devices.

Jack-in-the-Box:

n. A portable programmable device designed to display phoney fingerprints.

Jake:

n. 1)A homosexual (male) prostitute. 2) A hustler. (Both uses are derogatory.)

Jam:

1) v. To fight or run away. 2) To have sex.

Jam Hole:

n. (Brit.) Hiding place.

Jerry's Kids:

ph. Disparaging term for any individual who exhibits signs of a mental or physical handicap, usually applied to mildly retarded homeless people.

Jink:

v. (Rig.) To maneuver violently to avoid a threat.

Jock, Jockey:

n. A person with technical skills of a high order (e.g. deckjockey, deltajock, panzerjock.)

Jones:

n. Retro-1950s term for an addiction or expensive habit.

JoyBoy/JoyGirl:

n. Prostitute.

Juice a Brick:

ph. (Tech/Media) To recharge the big, heavy NiCad batteries used in portable video cameras. "You better start juicing those bricks, we've got a long shoot tomorrow."

Juve, Juvie:

n. A juvenile.

- K -

Kack:

v. To murder someone. Kill.

KED:

acr. (Med.) Kendrick Extrication Device. A portable head, neck, and back brace, frequently used by EMTs to minimize spinal injury while removing a victim from an auto wreck.

Keiretsu:

n. (Jap.) A cartel or conglomerate where the suppliers are owned by the same group as the manufacturers. For example, an automotive keiretsu might include a mining company (iron supplier), a tire company, an electronics firm, a foundry, the actual auto manufacturer, and a series of auto dealerships. Each company would be separately owned, but all would be part of the same keiretsu. (Note that a keiretsu is always a zaibatsu, but a ziabatsu is not always a keiretsu.) See also Zaibatsu.

Khorosho:

adj. (Rus.) Good. OK. Fine.

Kibble Card:

ph. Government food ration card.

Kick-Artist:

n. (Crim.) A person hired to threaten/beat-up not to kill.

NEW ENTRY! Next new entry.

"Killing Baby Seals":

ph. Attacking a significantly inferior (basically defenseless) opponent.

Klepto, Kleptoid:

n. Thief, prowler.

Kludge:

n. A makeshift or temporary solution to a problem, usually sloppy and inefficient.

Knife Fight in a Phone Booth:

ph. (Rig.) Close-in, slow-speed aerial dogfight with a nimble adversary. Often just called a "knife-fight".

Kobun:

n. (Jap.) Yakuza clan member. (Literally, a henchman or subordinate.)

Kodak Courage:

ph. An extra dose of (usually foolhardy) daring brought on by being filmed or photographed. (I.e. "Look! No hands!" BAM! "Look. No head.")

Krovvy:

adj. (Rus.) Bloody.

"Kuso shite shinezo!":

ph. (Jap.) "Die shitting!" (Not a nice thing to say...)

- L -

Landing Hot:

v. (Solo) A landing fast under hostile fire or in a damaged vehicle.

Latch Jockey:

ph. Digital hardware designer

LD 50/30:

(Lethal dose 50/30) The dose of radiation expected to cause death to an exposed population within 30 days to 50 percent (LD 50/30) of those exposed. Typically, the LD 50/30 is in the range from 400 to 450 rem received over a very short period of time.

Leash:

n. A corporate safeguard implanted into an employee to ensure loyalty and continued service. Cortex bombs and sabotaged chipware are common examples.

Lector:

n. Complimentary term used by boostergang members about a non-gang member when impressed by that individuals ability to perform acts of extreme violence.

Leech:

n. Street-doc or med-tech.

LEN:

acr. (Net) Light Emitting Neuron. Used to refer to the result of some exceptionally nasty lethal programs. 'Then the Liche hit Fred and bam, LEN's everywhere!'

LEO:

acr. 1) Low Earth Orbit. 2) Law Enforcement Organization.

LER:

acr. (Net) Light Emitting Resistor. Another 'dead hardware' phrase.

Let the Smoke Out:

ph. (Net) Fry hardware. See Blue Smoke.

Letterbomb:

n. (Net) A type of anti-personnel program that activates when read.

Light Up:

ph. (Mil.) To shoot at. (E.g. "Frag!! Cops!! Light 'em up!!")

"Like kicking dead whales down the beach":

ph. Any slow and disgusting job or process.

Liquefier, Liquidizer:

n. Any weapon capable of inflicting obscene amounts of damage to the human body, particularly automatic shotguns.

Lizard Brain:

ph. a cold, calculating, unemotional person, somebody always running in pure floating point mode (e.g. Mr. Spock.)

Lolly Pop:

See LP.

Loose Change:

ph. (Med.) A dangling limb in need of amputation.

Lost the Bubble:

ph. (Rig.) Got confused or forgot what was happening.

Lo-Tek:

n. Derogatory term for poor individuals who are unable to afford the day-to-day technological benefits of modern society, and either use cast-off, jury-rigged versions of common high tech equipment, or they do without.

Loud Peddle:

ph. (Rig.) Throttle or accelerator. ("Hit the loud peddle and let's get out of here!")

LP:

acr. (LEO) Licensed (legal) Prostitute. AKA "Lolly Pop".

LZ:

acr. (Mil.) Landing Zone.

- M -

Mad Minute:

ph. (Mil./Solo) A brief period of indiscriminate automatic weapons fire.

Mad Turtle:

ph. (Mil.) Combat aviator slang for anti-aircraft ground armor.

Maglev:

n. Shorthand term for a magnetic levitation train.

Make a deposit in the body bank:

ph. to die.

Malf:

v. Malfunction.

MAST:

acr. (Med.) Military Anti-Shock Trousers. Inflatable pants that can be placed on the victim and inflated to force blood back into the upper body, thus helping to reduce shock by blood lose.

Matrix:

n. Another term for cyberspace.

MAX-TAC:

acr. (LEO) Maximum Force Tactical Division. See C-SWAT.

McJob:

n. (Corp) A generic term for the endless stream of low-pay, low-brain, no-future jobs available to the hordes of over-educated young people entering the job market.

Meat:

n. (Net) Your body, the real world. To "meet in the meat", for example, means to meet someone face-to-face rather than in the net.

Meat Puppet:

ph. A prostitute whose memory and/or senses are disabled temporarily.

Mega, Megacorp:

n. Large (global or extra-planetary) corporation.

Mentat:

n. Brainy individual, specifically one who will stare at a problem without moving for a while and come up with an answer without doing any apparent intermediate steps (like writing things down.)

Metalhead:

n. Individual with a fully mechanical body - a full `Borg.

Metro, the:

n. The subway or underground.

Mezzed:

v. To be so attentive or involved in something or someone as to be totally oblivious to one's own surroundings. Mesmerized.

MI:

acr. (Med.) Myocardial Infarction.

Microsoft:

n. See Biosoft.

Midair Passenger Exchange:

ph. (Rig.) Grim air-traffic-controller speak for a head-on collision. Midair passenger exchanges are quickly followed by aluminum rain.

Mileetsya:

n. (Rus.) Corruption of the Russian pronunciation of "Militia," typically used in reference to corporate security or the military.

Milking mice:

ph. (Corp) Expending a large effort for a disproportionately small return.

Mil-Spec:

adj. Meeting military specifications, usually used to indicate that the piece of hardware is incredibly robust and usually expensive.

Mira:

(Mex.) Lit. "Look" (third person singular); (I.e. "Hey, mira. Who's Snow-White?")

Moddy:

n. A personality module. A cyber-data chip which allows the user to assume (and become totally submerged in) the personality of another person (real or fictional.)

Molly Guard:

ph. (Net) Something that keeps you from accidentally hitting the Big Red Switch. Named after an early programmers daughter.

Mongolian Hordes Technique:

ph. The act of assuming that a large number of inexperienced people can accomplish a task as well (or better) than a small number of skilled ones. A popular management philosophy and the very embodiment of Brook's Law ("Adding manpower to a late project makes it later.")

Monkey:

n. The business term for an expendable person. See Scratch Monkey.

Monkey Trick:

ph. A job in which a monkey is not expected to survive intact.

Moray:

n. (Aq.) Any Corp, esp. a visiting corp on a platform.

Morningstar:

n. Generic term for incendiary or fragmentation grenades or devices.

Motorhead:

n. A rigger or mechanic.

Mouse Around:

ph. To explore in a very low profile manner (e.g. "Let's mouse around the perimeter and see if we can find a way in.").

Mouse Potato:

ph. The online and interactive-TV generation's answer to the couch potato.

Mozambique Drill:

ph. (Mil.) A highly efficient method of neutralizing a single opponent, using a firearm. The sequence consists of two shots placed in the center of mass (upper torso) as rapidly as possible, followed by briefly assessing the opponent. If the opponent is still a potential threat, a third shot, placed in the "occular-cranial cavity" (the bridge of the nose, between the eyes), is fired.

MRAM:

n. Modular Random Access Memory chip. Provides synthetic skills not based on physical activity, like Electronics or Cyberdeck Design.

MRI:

acr. (Med.) Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Mr. Johnson:

n. Any anonymous employer or corporate agent.

Mr. Who:

n. (Also "The Who") label for an employer or person of higher authority.

Mule:

n. Someone who smuggles contraband on their person.

Multi-mediocrity:

ph. Boring, poorly done CD-ROMs (or any other multimedia platform). (Heard on NPR.)

MuscleBoy/Girl:

n. A person with muscle grafts.

Mushi:

n. (Jap.) Computer glitch.

Muzak-Man:

n. Derogatory term for a rocker who has sold out to an entertainment corporation. (AKA "synth-soul" or "castrato.")

"My Fun Meter is Pegged":

ph. (Rig.) Sarcastic comment for, "I am NOT enjoying this."

MVA:

acr. (Med.) Motor Vehicle Accident.

- N -

Nanofortnight:

n. (Net) 1.2 milliseconds.

Nav:

n. (Aq.) A course, map, or chart, also; location, as in "What's our Nav?"

NCA:

acr. (Mil./Gov.) National Command Authority. Specifically, the President, or someone in his absence with the authority to deploy military forces or release nuclear weapons.

NCIC 2000:

acr. (LEO) National Crime Information Center. Replaced the old NCIC in 1995. NCIC 2000 will perform the existing NCIC functions augmented with new capabilities. New and improved capabilities of the NCIC 2000 include:

• Addition of image processing (i.e., mugshot, signature, identifying marks)
• Addition of automated single-finger fingerprint matching
• Access to external databases (e.g., the Canadian Police Information Center (CPIC) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons' "SENTRY" database)
• Automatic collection of statistics for system evaluation.

Ne, Neh:

exp. (Jap.) Interrogative; "Right?" or "you know?"

Nerdlings:

n. Immature nerds, implying inconsequential, generally annoying. Pejorative term.

Nerks:

n. Agents or officials of the National Emergency Resource Control Commission (under the Provisional U.S. government.)

Net:

n. Another term for cyberspace.

NetFet:

n. Net Fetishist. Derogatory term for a netrunner who can only relate to life in the Net.

Netrun:

n. A session spent interfaced to a cyberdeck and exploring the matrix (cyberspace), usually in the course of invading a corporate database.

Netrunner:

n. See Deckjockey.

Net Spider:

ph. (Net) Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of time in the net, moving constantly from one BBS to the next. Usually well-known (and considered annoying) by other BBS users.

NewTek:

n. An item or device exhibiting the very latest technological advances.

NIMQ:

acr. (pronounced "nihm-kyoo") "Not in My Queue." Said in response to suggestions to take on additional tasks or projects when you're already overwhelmed. Similar to the more common "It's not my job."

Nine:

n. A pistol (from 9mm.)

No Bic:

ph. (Viet.) "I don't understand." See Bic.

No Doubt:

ph. A way of agreeing without really listening.

NOE:

acr. (Rig.) Nap-Of-the-Earth flying. Flying as low as possible (literally, following the terrain) to avoid detection.

Nostril Shot:

ph. (Media) Unflattering footage of a subject.

NEW ENTRY! Next new entry.

"Not-So-Smart Bomb":

ph. Derogatory reference to a human suicide bomber. See also "Clothing by DuPont".

NPVA:

Acro. No Practical Vertical Application, someone useful only for sex.

Nuke:

v. (Net) Seriously destroy a system and all attached devices.

Nutrisoy:

n. Cheap processed food product derived from soybeans, fortified with most essential vitamins.

- O -

O2:

acr. (Med.) Oxygen.

OD:

acr. (Med.) Overdose.

'O' Sign:

ph. (Med.) The letter 'O', as formed by a patient's gaping mouth.

On:

adj. (Brit.) Fashionable. (E.g. "That's very on!")

One and Twenty, the:

ph. The twenty-first century.

Ohnosecond:

n. (Net) The amount of time it takes to realize that you've done something you didn't want to do, after you've already done it and it's too late to change your mind.

Oo'zhas:

v. (Rus.) Awful. Terrible.

Open-Collar Workers:

ph. People who work at home or telecommute.

Orange Suit:

n. See Radcal Suit.

Orbit:

v. (Thr.) Term used by surfers who make long, wide circles to burn off speed.

Organitskaya:

n (Rus.) The Russian Mob.

Output:

n. Boyfriend, male companion.

Out There:

ph. Strange, weird. ("Frak! That dude was really out there!")

Oyabun:

n. (Jap.) Head of a Yakuza clan. (Literally "Parent of high status.")

- P -

Paint Monkey:

ph. (Media) Someone with a less-than-glamorous entry-level computer graphics job. A paint monkey may spend months on a nanosecond of digitized film footage, painting mattes, or doing monotonous touch-ups.

Painting the Cat:

ph. Response to the question "What are you doing?" when it should be completely obvious.

Panic Mechanic:

ph. A psychiatrist, mental health therapist, or other professional whose supposed task is to relieve the pressures of stress in urban society.

Panic Merchants:

ph. (Corp/Media) Businesses, media outlets, and morality groups that make their living by capitalizing on common fears and anxieties. AIDS, escalating crime, ecological degradation, porn on the Internet, and antisocial rap lyrics are some of the fears exploited by panic merchants.

Panzer:

n. Any ground-effect combat vehicle.

Panzerjock:

n. An expert panzer operator.

Paper Weight:

ph. (Net) A really light peice of dead hardware. See Boat Anchor.

Paranoid:

adj. Someone who has all the facts.

Party Lights:

ph. (LEO) The flashing lightbar on top of a police car. See also Ski Rack.

PASGT:

acr. (Mil.) Personal Armor System, Ground Troops. The technical classification given to modern military protective equipment, such as current standard issue Kevlar "Fritz" helmets.

Paydata:

n. Datafile worth money on the black market.

Paygrounds:

n. Indoor pay-to-play kid parks such as Discovery Zone. Substitute for the now mostly extinct public playgrounds that previous generations used for free.

PEBIAC:

acr. (Net) "Problem Exists Between Interface and Chair." Tech. Support slang for "It's the users fault."

Peep:

v. To look at. (E.g. "Yo, peep the tourists!")

Percussive Maintenance:

ph. The fine art of whacking the crap out of a machine or device to get it working again.

Peripherals:

n. 1. A person's entourage. 2. Bodyguards 3. A person's date, especially if primarily for image. Also perfs.

PERL:

acr. (Med.) Pupils Equal and Reactive to Light. An immediate check done on trauma victims to determine whether any cranial trauma has occurred which might have impaired brain function.

Permalancer:

n. A permanent freelancer. A person hired on a per-project basis who lives a benefits-free existence.

Perp:

n. Perpetrator. A criminal or suspected criminal.

PET:

acr. (Med.) Positron Emission Tomography. A method used to examine neural activity in the brain, by building a computerized 3-D model of electrical activity.

Pet Goldfish:

ph. (Solo) A favorite weapon or other item which may not actually represent the best example of that device. (E.g. "That Sternmeyer jams a lot, but it's Stinger's Pet Goldfish, so don't dis it to his face.")

Pet the Cat:

ph. Any maneuver that requires a crouch and constant, extended arm movement to maintain one's balance.

Peter Pan:

ph. (LEO) The act of committing suicide by leaping to one's death from a high place. (E.g. "We had him cornered, until he did a Peter Pan out that 42nd floor window.")

Peter Panning:

ph. (Corp/Media) The process of reattaching a shadow to an object in a graphics application such as Photoshop. Named after the boy who asked Wendy to sew his shadow back on.

Pharming:

v. (Tech/Med) Short for pharmaceutical farming. The process of genetically engineering crops to protect them or their consumers from disease. For example, researchers at Texas A&M and Tulane University have genetically altered potatoes to include antigenic material from E. coli bacteria, one cause of diarrhea. Theoretically, such potatoes could both feed people in developing countries and vaccinate them against E. coli.

Phreaking:

v. (Net) The art and science of making free phone and net calls.

Pig-Rig:

ph. A police car.

Pigs and Rice:

ph. Generic term for humanitarian supplies, usually for a under-developed and currently disaster-stricken part of the world.

Pinky Cheater:

ph. (Med.) Latex finger cover used in gynecological and proctological examinations.

Plank:

n. (Thr.) Surfer term for a skateboard.

Plex:

n. A metropolitan complex, or "metroplex."

Plonker:

n. (Brit.) A foolish person, idiot or moron.

Plug:

n. (Corp) Term for either a temp worker, or a new addition to a work staff, who covers work overflow. "He's a plug for Jean until she gets back in June."

Plug-and-Play:

ph. (Corp) A new hire who doesn't need any training. "The new guy, John is great. He's totally plug-and-play."

Pod, Pods:

n. 1) People who are very much alike in thought, behavior, and appearance. Pejorative term. Also Podlings - particularly immature variations of the Pods. 2) (Thr.) Slang for "Partner" (a term of affection or friendship.)

POETS day:

ph. (Brit.) A slang term for Friday. POET is an acronym for "Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday."

Polymer One-shot:

n. A cheap line of polymer plastic, non-reloadable handguns. Very inexpensive, and very unreliable, they come in a variety of colors.

Pond, The:

ph. (Aq.) Underwater. NuSCUBA depths.

Pony:

n. A low-level streetdealer, lower on the social scale than a Fixer. (Origin: from a pony's ability to carry, but possibly also from London slang: pony = 20 pounds(£); ponies very rarely sell expensive items.)

Poppers:

n. Pop-up weaponry concealed in a cyberlimb.

Porky:

n. Someone who loves or collects weapons, and is usually bristling with them (from "porcupine".)

Poser:

n. Any gang members who model themselves after a famous (usually dead) individual, even to the extent of having themselves surgically altered to resemble the famous person.

Post Time:

ph. Time to start, to get going. (From horse racing slang.)

Power Puke:

ph. (Rig.) Projectile vomiting, a symptom of extreme airsickness.

Prang:

v. (Rig.) To bump, crunch, or break an aircraft/vehicle.

Principal:

n. (Solo) Body guard term for the individual being protected.

Priority Interrupt:

ph. (Net) Something in the real world forcing you to stop running, usually trivial things like gunfights, the imminent shelling of your position, or your building being on fire.

Probe:

n. (Mil) A tenative assault designed to evaluate the strength of the opposition force.

Professional Casualty:

ph. (Solo) Usually refers to a mercenary who is considered by the unit or the employer to be expendable.

Progs, Proggies:

n. Agents or officials of the Provisional Government of the United States.

Proles:

n. Lower class individuals, usually non-citizens; Street scum. See Zero.

Pucker Factor:

ph. Degree of fear or apprehension.

Pulling Glass:

ph. (Tech) Laying down fiber-optic cable.

Punch:

v. Any form of recording piracy, including, but not limited to: audio, video, braindance, software, and chipware. (I.e. "I can punch a dozen copies of this 'demolition' chip by tomorrow.")

Puppet:

n. See Meat Puppet.

Put up the Dog Ears:

ph. Listen VERY carefully.

'Puter 'Buser:

ph. (Net) short for COMputer Abuser. All underground programmers and runners.

- Q / R -

Q:

n. (Media) A celebrity's recognizability quotient.

'Q' Sign:

ph. (Med.) A patient giving the 'O' sign with his tongue hanging out.

Quakers:

n. Missiles or rockets.

Query:

n. (Net/Rig/Tech) This is a general term for any type of signal either sent by or directed towards a cybernetic trode, jack or uplink jack.

R&P:

ph. "Rape and Pillage." To engage in an activity with excessive force or violence.

Rabbit:

v. (LEO) Flee, run away. (I.e. "Watch it! He's going to rabbit on us!")

Rack:

n. Bed, bunk.

Radcal Suit:

n. Positive-pressure biohazard suit with a battery-powered air supply. For use in fieldwork with extreme airborne biohazards. Also known as an Orange Suit.

Rainbow File:

n. The research and development data of a company.

Ram:

n. Personality (from computer jargon, RAM.)

Rat-Lab:

n. Prisons in the Provisional U.S., where prisoners are used as experimental subjects for medical research, cyberware development, chemical warfare tests, etc. Most consider a sentence to a rat lab to be no different than a death sentence.

Ray-Ban Mode:

ph. wearing shades.

Razor{boy|girl|gal|guy|etc}:

n. Heavily cybered samurai or other muscle-for-hire.

Read you 5 by 5:

ph. Communications Protocols meaning "I read you loud and clear". Used to let the sender know how well you are receiving them. The first number was how loud the line was (5 being the best) and the second number was how free of static and other line noise.

Real Estate Appraisal:

ph. Checking out attractive members of the opposite sex.

Reality Junkie:

n. Addicts to Virtual Reality, Braindance, the Net, or video games.

Reconfig:

v. To kill or die in a particularly messy fashion, usually with a knife.

Recycling:

v. Environmentally friendly act of killing someone and taking the corpse to a body bank.

Red Book:

ph. (Net) Originally a Manual on the PostScript page description language, now a generic term referring to any low-level computer manual.

Reduce:

v. Slang for physical violence. (e.g. "Hey asshole, shut down your screamer or I'll reduce your face!") AKA pack, spindle, stomp, etc.

Reduction:

n. The act of reducing something or someone.

Reflex Chip:

n. See Apter.

REMF:

acr. (Mil.) Rear-Echelon MotherF*cker. Someone who gives orders for a hazardous task, while they remain in a safe location.

Rhodesian Ready:

ph. (Mil.) A common method of carrying a rifle (or other long-arm) in a relaxed, semi-vigilant posture, with the stock tucked under the armpit and the muzzle forward. While this posture does not offer as quick a response as some others, it is well-suited for long patrols in that it is less fatiguing on the arms.

Rigger:

n. A specialist driver, pilot, or other vehilc operator. Riggers have an uncanny affinity for the vehicles they operate, and seem to be able to make them perform impossible feats. Many riggers have cybernetic vehicle-control interfaces, which allow them to directly link their own brains to the computer controls of the vehicle.

Right:

adj. (Brit.) Real, extreme. (E.g. "E's a right bastard, an' no mistake!")

Rimbo:

n. A gun-totting sex kitten (a rambo bimbo).

Rimm Job:

ph. A bogus academic study masquerading as legitimate science. Named after Marty Rimm, author of the dubious "cyberporn" study from Carnegie Mellon University that Time magazine gullibly took as gospel.

'Riph:

n. (Net) Short for peripheral.

Ripperdoc:

n. A surgeon who specializes in implanting illegal or unregistered cyberware.

Roach Whacker:

ph. (Net) A program that performs some useful, but not terribly important, function.

Road Map:

ph. (Med.) Injuries incurred by going through a car windshield face first.

Road Rash:

n. (Thr.) Any wound associated with unintentional momentum reduction induced by contact with pavement.

Rock:

v. To kick or punch someone violently, especially in the head.

Rocker:

n. Any musician or stage performer who uses his art to make political or social statements. As opposed to "rockstars" who are "owned" by recording companies or other corps. and are apolitical.

Rogue:

n. An AI which has "escaped" from it's node in cyberspace and is no longer under human control.

Rogue Hunter:

n. A netrunner who tracks down and captures (or eliminates) rogues.

Ronin:

n. A freelance assassin or mercenary. Usually considered to be untrustworthy.

Rooters:

n. (Med.) Indigents and hangers-on who gather in big-city emergency rooms in order to be entertained by legitimate cases.

Rotate:

v. 1) (Mil.) To return home at the end of a tour of duty. 2) Leave. (E.g. "Let's rotate outta here!")

RTFM:

acr. (Net) Read the F*cking Manual. The usual response when someone asks you a really stupid question for which they could have easily looked up the answer.

RTO:

ccr. (Mil.) Radio Telephone Operator. The radioman in a team.

Run up on:

ph. To rob by means of a sneak attack.

Running the Line:

ph. (Rig.) To carry contraband from one location to another.

- S -

Sacrificial Host:

ph. (Net) A computer server placed outside an organization's Internet fire wall to provide a service that might otherwise compromise the local net's security. Spotted in Cheswick & Bellovin's Firewalls and Internet Security.

Sagans:

adj. (Net) "Billyuns and billyuns..." From the 20th century science advocate Carl Sagan. (E.g. "The datafort was surrounded by sagans of black ice icons!")

Salmon Day:

ph. The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed in the end.

Samurai:

n. (Jap.) Mercenary or muscle-for-hire. Implies code of honor. (AKA Street samurai.)

Sanitize:

v. (Solo) A military term referring to an after-the-fact clean-up of some event (anything from completing a report to assassinating someone) that might otherwise compromise individuals or agencies involved.

Sand:

v. Phonetic pronunciation of the phrase "S-and-D," for "Search and Destroy." To sand someone or something is to locate and severely damage him or it.

Sarariman:

n. (Jap.) A corporate employee.

Sardine:

n. A soldier wearing powered armor.

Saturday Night Special:

ph. (Net) Really cheap and badly written program.

School(ing):

v. People hanging out, working together or otherwise acting in close association.

Scratch:

n. Money.

Scratch and Sniff:

ph. (Med.) A gynecological examination.

Scratch Monkey:

n. (Obsc. hacker ref.) Any expendable substitute used in place of a more valuable item, on the offchance that it might be damaged or destroyed.

Screamer:

n. 1) Slang for mouth (e.g. "Hey asshole, shut down your screamer!" 2) Something fast, sleek, and sexy, used as an expression of admiration (e.g. "She/He/It's a real screamer!) 3) Somebody who screams a lot while being reduced. 4) Somebody who screams a lot while being tightly interfaced. 5) Credstick (or card) or other ID that triggers computer alarms if used.

Screamsheet:

n. Fax-type hardcopy newspapers, available by-the-page from street corner dispensers, especially one catering to non-issues of the minute (e.g. USA Today, National Enquirer.) Coined by Walter Jon Williams.

Scroll, the:

ph. 1) The constant, unremitting, and overwhelming barrage of information absorbed by everyone in modern society from the modern media, from cyberspace feed, from the grapevine, and from any other means we have of tuning in to the world state. (E.g. we find out about the latest war in the Middle East, the latest hardware, the latest vaporware from The Scroll.) 2) The term used to describe the messages, bulletins, and other data daily being produced and scrolled off various cyberspace systems.

Scenery:

n. (Corp) Members of the Board of Directors chosen for their unblemished reputations in order to make an otherwise shaky company look good.

Seaweed:

n. (Aq.) Anyone annoying or useless, esp. scientists and biotechs.

Severe:

adj. Bad. Also, anyone with an unusually bizarre appearance, or just the ability to look extremely mean when needed

NEW ENTRY!

Shake:

v. To search a place surreptitiously.

Shank:

v. To stab.

Shirt:

n. A white-collar worker, usually a low level corporate employee.

Shoe:

n. A new set of (false) ID. An elaborate version can include corroborative data in corporate and government computers.

Shoemaker:

n. Someone who specializes in providing false IDs. A forger.

Short-circ:

ph. See Fuse.

Shortwire:

v. To burn out, flame out, splash down and generally crash mentally.

Shotgun:

n. The front passenger seat of a car or truck; riding next to the driver.

Shredder:

n. A minigun or auto-cannon.

Shut Down:

ph. to shut up, used as an exclamation (e.g. "Hey asshole, shut down!")

Shutter Trouble:

ph. (Rig.) To fall asleep (as in "can't keep your eyes open.") (E.g. "He ran off the road. Must of had shutter trouble.")

Sidecar:

n. (Net) A peripheral that hooks to the side of your computer in its own little box.

Sidewalk Outline:

ph. A recently deceased individual, or one expected to die soon. The reference is to the chalk outline drawn around a dead body at a murder scene by the police.

Sidewalk Souffle':

ph. (Med.) A patient who has fallen from a building.

"Sign here.":

ph. Used to inform someone that they have made a terminal mistake, or that they are doomed.

Silly Putty:

n. (Mil./Solo)Plastic explosive.

SimSense:

n. Simulated Sensory input, usually from a commercial recording.

SimStim:

n. Simulated stimulation of the senses, usually from a DNI recording.

SIN:

n. State/Single/System Identification Number. An ID number unique to each citizen. Many streetpeople (nomads, derelicts) are said to be "SINless," i.e. without a SIN. This makes them unknown (non-existent) to the system. It allows them to move about in society more freely than a "recorded" citizen, but also allows the enforcers of society (police and corp. security) to punish/abuse them without due process since, technically, they "do not exist."

SIN Card:

n. A registered citizens universal ID card. It functions as a combination ID card, driver's license, medical data, organ donor, residence, and ATM card, all in one. Losing this card can have serious side effects for the owner.

SINless:

adj. someone without a SIN. See Blank.

SitRep:

n. (Mil.) Situation report.

Skank:

n. Derogatory term for an unattractive person, usually a female.

Skeleton:

n. All the collected electronic records kept on an individual; their electronic identity.

Ski Rack:

ph. (LEO) The flashing lightbar on top of a police car. See also Party Lights.

Skillsoft:

n. See Apter or Biosoft.

Skin Paint:

ph. An object of individual whose presence is known, but who is unidentified. (From Air Traffic Control, Skin Paint is an object that is being painted by Radar, but is not emitting a transponder identification signal in response.) (E.g. "Then some skin paint walked into the store and Joe capped him.")

Skirt:

n. An ordinary (defenseless) person (male or female.)

Skitch:

v. (Thr.) To hold on to a moving automobile to get a free ride across part of town or up a hill. An amalgam of "skate" and "hitch". (I.e. "I skitched a ride downtown on a Mercedes this morning.")

Skyball:

n. A satellite (usually surveillance).

Slam:

v. To assault or beat up (e.g. "Let's go slam some `dorphers.")

Slam it:

ph. Generic expletive (AKA kiss off, up yours.)

Slap Patch:

n. See Derm.

Slice:

n. 1) A credit card. 2) An electric-powered racing cycle.

Slice n' Dice:

n. A mono-filament cyberweapon, usually mounted in the tip of a finger, which is used as a garrotte or whip. It will cut through almost all organic material and most plastics.

Slicer:

n. One who rides a slice.

Slipping:

v. Being careless.

Slot:

v. 1) Mild curse word. (i.e. "Slot THIS, chummer!") 2) To plug a moddy or daddy into a DNI. 3) To have sex.

Slot and run:

ph. Hurry up, get to the point, move it.

Smart:

n. Any device which has been augmented to interface with a user via cyberware; usually applies to weapons or vehicles.

Smart Seats:

ph. The seats found in VR entertainment venues that are equipped with motion bases and wired to respond to actions on the computer screen.

Smoke:

v. To kill someone.

Smoking Hole:

ph. (Rig.) What an aircraft leaves in the ground when it crashes.

Smudge:

n. Pronunciation of the acronym SMG (SubMachineGun); thus, a submachinegun.

Snag:

v. (Brit.) To arrest.

Sneeze:

v. To let go of all a craft's hard kill weapons (missiles, torpedoes, what have you) at once, normally in an escape or last-breath effort.

Soap:

n. (Cov.) Nickname for the truth drug Sodium Pentothal, written shorthand as "So-Pe" and hence pronounced as "soap." It has come to more generically refer to any truth drug.

So ka:

ph. (Jap.) I understand, I get it.

Social Engineering:

ph. (Net) To try and get computer access codes and other useful information by fast-talking them out of the operators of a system.

Solo:

n. A mercenary who works the streets. A "for-hire" combat specialist. Used as bodyguards, assassins, and soldiers, individually or in groups.

Soykaf:

n. Coffee substitute made from soybeans.

Space:

n. (Aq.) Deep dive or Hardshell dive depths.

Spam:

v. (Net) To transmit huge, unwanted amounts of irrelevant data across the net, mostly to destinations that would have no possible use for it.

Sphincter Factor:

ph. A level of disgust, nervousness, or fear (usually on a scale of 1 to 10.)

Spill:

v. To spend money.

Spit Jockey:

ph. On camera (video) news reader, anchor, host. (AKA Talking Heads.)

Splash:

v. To shoot down. E.g. to splash an idea, or "Splash that bastard!"

Splat job:

n. A dead body, usually messy. Also sometimes used to describe a person (or persons) who are "cannon fodder" and are not expected to live much longer.

SplatMaster:

n. Generic term for any paintball-type air pistol. Formerly a trademarked name.

Sprawl:

1) n. A huge metropolitan area, usually consisting of several merged mega-cities, covered a large portion of a landmass. 2) v. The prone position the bronze order perps to assume.

Sprawling:

v. A corporate pass-time, involving visiting dangerous areas town, with minimal protection. Also slumming.

Sprung:

adj. Crazy.

Squared Away:

ph. (Mil.) Wise, experienced, in control.

Squid:

n. (Aq.) Military personnel, also; derogatory term for a C-dee.

Squirt the Bird:

ph. (Cov./Media/Mil.) To transmit a signal up to a a satellite. "Crew and talent are ready... what time do we squirt the bird?"

Stack:

v. To save money.

Stall:

n. (Thr.) When you jump up on an object, hold still for a couple of seconds, and then jump off.

State of the Art:

ph. 1) Hipper than hip. 2) To be on the edge.

Steel-collar Worker:

ph. (Corp) Assembly-line robots.

Stepford:

adj. Android-like. From "The Stepford Wives", a 1970s film about a bunch of robotic hausfraus in the suburbs. n. Stepfordification.

Stick-Throttle Interconnect:

ph. (Rig.) Mock-technical term for a pilot/driver.

Stoked:

v. A totally intense feeling that you just did (or are about to do) something awesome.

Straightener:

n. A less than affectionate form of address for a psychiatrist. AKA "shrink."

(Dr.) Strangelove Ocean:

ph. Ecology slang for an ocean where pollution has killed all the life forms near the water's surface, making it look like a nuked wasteland.

Straphangers:

n. Derogatory term for commuters.

Stress Puppy:

ph. A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

Stringer:

n. (Cov.) A freelance agent or operative, who owes no permanent allegiance to any organization.

Stud:

n. See Jack.

Stunning:

adj. Mind-bogglingly stupid. Used sarcastically.

Stylin':

adv. Looking or performing in an exceptionally outstanding fashion.

Sucker Pockets:

ph. (Crim.) Pockets on the outside of a garment, easily accessible by pickpockets.

Suit:

n. A straight citizen, usually a corporate employee.

Sumimasen:

ph. (Jap.) "I am sorry" or "excuse me."

Surfer:

n. (Thr.) What thrashers call each other.

Surprise Party:

ph. What your opponents are likely to get if you break your Trauma Team card during a firefight.

Suss:

v. To solve a problem, figure out something, understand.

Svoluch:

n. (Rus.) 1) Derogatory term for an individual without honor. 2) A bastard.

Swarm:

n. Any large nomad convoy.

Sweedack:

ph. Concurrence, or "I agree." From the French-Canadian "Je suis d'accord."

Sweet:

adj. (Rig.) Nice; Up and working.

Swiss:

adj. (Brit.) Expensive.

Synthespian:

n. (Media) Synthetic actor. Used in 3-D computer animation to describe sophisticated human forms that can be imported into a virtual world. Also "electronic puppets," "dolls," or "vactors."

Synth-soul:

n. See Muzak-Man.

Syrette:

n. (Med.) collapsible tube of morphine attached to a hypodermic needle. The contents of the tube were injected by squeezing it like a toothpaste tube.

- T -

Taking on space:

ph. Sure it doesn't actually happen, but this is a hull breech on a space craft. As in "we're taking on space."

Tag:

1) n. (Gang) A graffiti signature. 2) v. To kill someone.

Tag Team:

n. A (usually corporate-sponsored) gang whose fights with other Tag Teams are covered by the vid networks as a commercial combat sport.

Talking Head:

ph. See Spit Jockey.

Tango Uniform:

ph. (Rig.) Polite phonetics for "tits up"; broken, not functioning.

Tape the Gerbil:

ph. To study hard. (E.g. "Man, I really had to tape the gerbil to knock out that perimeter security!")

Tapdance:

n. See Floor Routine.

Tchort:

n. (Rus.) Literally "Devil." A common expletive.

Team:

n. A gang.

Teamster:

n. A gang member.

Techno Scum:

ph. A personally very unpleasant, but technically brilliant individual.

Tek:

n. 1) An item of a highly technical nature. 2) A technician of any kind.

Term:

n. Short for "terminal", as in "computer terminal" or "data terminal." (Brit.) Friend or trusted person.

Thank you, Captain Obvious:

ph. Thanks for telling me something I found out on my own or already knew. (E.g. "It looks like your pen isn't working." "Thank you, Captain Obvious.")

Thirdman:

n. See Fixer.

Thrasher:

n. A dedicated skateboarder or in-line skater. Someone who considers it not just a sport, but a life-style.

ThreeVee:

n. A 3-dimension projection system which has superceded the television as the primary form of information delivery.

Throttle Back:

ph. (Rig.) To slow down, take it easy.

Throwback:

n. Derogatory term for an exotic.

TIA:

acr. (Med.) Transient Ischemic Attack (mini-stroke).

Tiger:

n. (Net) A military netrunner.

Tiger Team:

ph. (Net) Professionals hired to break into a facility to test the security. Just about the only real job you can have and still be respected by below the law 'runners.

Tight:

v. To be best friends.

Tight Interfacing:

ph. To have sex.

Tin Can:

n. A suit of Powered Armor.

Tip:

n. A token credchip; a very small amount of money.

Toss:

v. (LEO/Cov.) To surreptitiously enter and search a location. (I.e. "We tossed Nicks condo, but didn't find the papers.")

Tourista:

n. (Gang) A stranger; anyone not recognized in the `hood.

Trash Run:

ph. See Garbage Detail.

Tri-Dee:

n. See ThreeVee.

Trog:

n. Short for troglodyte. A derogatory term meant to indicate that an individual is subhuman or extremely ugly or misshapen.

Trolls:

n. Street term for older gay men who cruise the streets at night in search of young male companionship.

Tuning Up:

ph. (LEO) Beating a prisoner to elicit a confession.

TV Parking:

ph. Finding a parking space right in front of where you want to be. A phenomenon that only happens in TV shows.

Twinkie:

n. A naive, defenseless, vulnerable, or otherwise useless person.

Twitch:

n. A careless, scatterbrained, or otherwise unreliable individual.

Twitchers:

Taser and, by extension, any electricity-based weapon.

Two Pot Screamer:

ph. (Aus.) Someone who can't hold their liquor.

- U / V -

UCM:

ph. (LEO) Also known as "Low Ready", this stands for "Uniform Cover Mode" and is the position a police officer would hold their sidearm while assessing a target or scanning for threats. The sidearm is held in both hands (in a Weaver, Chapman, or Isoseles stance) with the barrel pointed approximately 30 degrees below horizontal.

Under the Paint:

ph. (GoGang) The act of hunching down on a motorcycle's gas tank to reduce wind resistance.

Undocumented Feature:

ph. (Net) A bug.

Uninstalled:

v. 1) Euphemism for being fired. 2) Killed.

USAMRIID:

acr. (Mil.) U.S. Army Military Research Institute on Infectious Diseases.

User Hostile:

ph. (Net) An interface that is incredibly annoying or difficult to use.

User Obseqeous:

ph. (Net) An interface that patronizes and limits you.

Valkyrie:

n. An assault helicopter or hover vehicle in attack mode.

Valuta:

n. (Rus.) Literally "foreign currency." Refers to any hard currency, either electronic (cards, sticks) or scrip.

Vatjob:

n. 1) A person with extensive cyberware replacement. 2) Organic enhancement by means of vat-grown tissue or muscle.

Veg, Veggy:

n. (Med.) A patient requiring intensive care, incapable of movement.

Very:

v. Hip term for "cool" or "in." Alternately, may be used derisively, i.e. "Oh, how very," as in "big deal."

V-fib:

acr. (Med.) Ventricular Fibrilation. A condition in which the heart no longer beats rhythmically, but rather convulse in an arhythmic fashion.

VICAP:

acr. (LEO) Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. An FBI program designed to facilitate cooperation, communication, and coordination between law enforcement agencies and provide support in their efforts to investigate, identify, track, apprehend, and prosecute violent serial offenders.

Vidflick:

n. Flat screen entertainment that predates 3D or holographic projection. Old style TV or movie.

Vidiot:

n. A virtual reality or video game addict.

Voice Novel:

ph. A voice-mail message that goes on forever.

VRcade:

n. A virtual reality, Braindance, and/or video game arcade or parlor.

- W -

WageSlave:

n. See Shirt.

War Shot:

ph. (Mil.) Live ammo.

Water Burner:

ph. A fusion power plant, or any craft that uses fusion. Stems from those power plants you can refuel with water.

Wearing Color:

ph. Usually associated with streetgangs, to wear clothing with colors or designs which identify you with a specific gang.

West Coast turnarounds:

ph. (Rig.) Benzedrine, Speed. So-called because a driver could (theoretically) take these and drive from the East Coast to the West Coast, turn around, and drive back to the East Coast without stopping to sleep.

Wetfoot:

n. (Aq.) Someone who's never been underwater.

Wetware:

n. 1) human augmentation mechanisms based on biochemical methods. E.g. biochemical processors, custom crafted DNA, custom biological tissue, brain implants/grafts, mind/body altering drugs (rare). As opposed to hardware which is based on artificial, physics based methods, e.g. chips. 2) Slang for cyber-augmentation of skills or other mental functions. 3) The human brain (a backhanded reference to normal organic thought processes.)

Wetwork:

n. Assassination. Murder.

WGASA:

Acr. Pronounced "wig-assa", it stands for "Who Gives A Shit Anyhow?

Whack:

v. To kill.

Whacked:

adj. High on drugs, mentally unstable, or irrational.

Whacking Roaches:

ph. (Net) Wasting time. Remember that most 'runners live in cheap housing. Also, debugging, but usually meaning eliminating bugs that are annoying, but not life-threatening.

Whale:

n. (Aq.) A Corporation.

Whirlpool:

n. (Aq.) Chaotic environment, as in "I can't do anything in this Whirlpool!".

White Load:

ph. (Mil.) Live ammo.See War Shot

Wilson:

n. (Thr.) Surfer term for wiping out. (I.e. "He did a Wilson into a tree.")

Winchester:

v. (Mil.) Navy. Out of ammo.

Window:

n. (Solo) A narrow interval of opportunity.

Wired:

adj. Equipped with cyberware, especially increased reflexes.

Wirehead:

n. 1) Someone addicted to computers or electronic communication (e.g. a person who would rather hack then eat or have sex). 2) Someone addicted to electric stimulation directly applied to the pleasure centers of the brain.

Wiz:

v. Very impressive.

WOMBAT:

acr. "Waste of Money, Brains, And Time."

Word, the:

ph. The latest gossip or rumors on the street.

- X / Y / Z -

Xin Loi:

ph. (Viet.) A Vietnamese idiom meaning "Sorry about that." (Pronounced "Zin LOY.")

Yard Sale:

n. A horrendous crash or fall that scatters your gear all over the ground as if on display for sale.

Yardstick:

n. (Rig.) Mileage markers alongside a highway, so-called because they are about one yard tall.

YODA:

acr. Young Opinionated Directionless Artiste. An arts major or related hanger-on who lingers in coffeehouses spewing strong opinions and perennial wisdom without doing much to make a difference.

Yono:

n. (Kor.) A person who is scum or a low life. (From the Korean "Yonomoseki".)

Yubitsume:

n. (Jap.) The ritual Yakuza act of slicing the joint off the little finger to atone for a mistake.

Zaibatsu:

n. (Jap.) A group of corporations that cooperate on an informal basis for the purpose of mutual defense or financial gain. (Originally, a zaibatsu would have been controlled by a single family, but this practice was forcably ended by the American Occupation Forces after World War II.) Typically, a zaibatsu will include one or more privately held banks as a part of its overall holdings. See also Keiretsu.

Zero:

1) n. See Blank. 2) v. To delete or destroy a piece of software. 3) v. To kill someone. 3) Midnight (From zero-hour.)

Zone:

n. See Combat Zones.

Zoned Residential:

adj. Pregnant.

Lexicon of keywords & abbreviations used in this glossary:

List of Origin keywords:

List of other abbbreviations and/or keywords:

Sources & Credits:

• Cyberpunk RPG by R. Talsorian Games.
  
• Shadowrun RPG by FASA.
  
• USA phrasebook by Lonely Planet Publications.
  
• The Edge column of the Oregonian newspaper.
  
• GURPS RPG Cyberpunk/Cyberworld supplements.
  
• CyberSpace/CyberHero RPG by Iron Crown Enterprises.
  
• Misc. Cyberpunk Fiction by William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, George Alec Effinger, John Brunner, et. al.
  
• Collins Third Street-Slang Dictionary by David Perry (Challenge magazine, issue 68)
  
• The Neo-Anarchists Guide to Everything Else, Volumes 1-4, by Jerry Stratton.
  
• Additional terms by Gus Silber, Britt Klein, Ridley McIntyre, Robert G. Pippen, Marc Brenowitz, and Mark Cook.
  
• Majority of Netrunner terms by Rev. Jonathan Bastow.
  
• AquaPunk slang terms from the Firestorm Stormfront datastore, courtesy of John Janek.
  
• The American Slanguage Site, owned and operated by Mike Ellis.
  
• The StreetSpeak web-site, managed by Greg Sanders. (Alas, the StreetSpeak page has gone private. If you want to visit, you gotta pay.) :^(
  
• A HUGE "Thank you!" to Gareth Branwyn of Wired magazine for tons of cutting edge terms.
  For a look at more jargon from Wired magazine, check out their WWW site by clicking HERE. You can also pick up a copy of his killer reference book Jargon Watch at any of your better bookstores (ISBN 1-888869-06-2).
  
• Editing and proofreading by Julie Prince.
  
• Really slick page-title graphic by Amy Luther.