Chenzed (adj)

Means: Exhausted (or sometimes, intoxicated)

Usage: “No way am I going out partying tonight, I’m chenzed.”

The origin of this week’s expression is mysterious: it could be an invention from nowhere but, despite what many think, that is almost unheard of in English, even in slang. Despite looking exotic and odd (that’s part of the point) virtually all examples of Yoofspeak are traceable back to a logical source, typically to Afro-Caribbean patois, hip-hop street-talk, pop lyrics, video-gaming jargon, rhyming or back-slang. Being dead tired is a major preoccupation of adolescents, so Yoofspeak has an array of synonyms for what grown-ups know as “knackered”. First recorded by a language researcher in 2006, one user told me this one was Chinese, someone else that it was a misspelling, but they didn’t know of what. It seems to be especially popular outside the South East, so could even be from regional dialect. Ideas welcome.