Sket (n)

Means: A promiscuous girl

Usage: “Lacey goes with anyone, she’s such a sket.”

When it comes to females who are considered “loose” or “easy” the Yoof can be surprisingly censorious. There is a whole lexicon of disparaging names for the “slapper”“skank”“skeeze”“what-up girl”“wastegirl”“tramp”“slusher”“sluzit”“apple”“ho”. In south London, “junge” (or “jonj”, spelling is optional) seems to be the current favourite, and I have heard the mysterious “zooley” used as a synonym, but probably the most widespread and enduring right across the yoofscape is “sket”. This originates, like much of Yoofspeak, in Caribbean English, where it started out as “skettle”, the local pronunciation of skittle, describing something cheap and disposable or someone who “falls down” easily. Maybe it is not a puritan streak among teens that produced all these tags, but old-fashioned misogyny, since there are far fewer nicknames for boys who come into the same category and those, like “playa”, “macker”, “stud” or “gallis”, sound admiring or envious rather than disapproving.