Streetslang

His own choomba shot him!

 — Judy Álvarez, Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunks live in cynical times. The influence of internationalism and the perversion of technology in all facets of everyday life have created new expressions of new ideas. Foreign words, technical jargon and general callousness are the earmarks of Cyberpunk's slang.

Common Jargon

• 2020 Hindsight: The wise act of watching your back.
• AI: Acronym for "Artificial Intelligence", a computer, robot or program with full self-awareness.
• Alien: Derogatory Earthside term for someone who lives in space. (see Highrider)
• AV: Common slang, pronounced "ay vee", for an aerodyne - an automobile-like flying vehicle powered by ducted jet fans.
• Badge: Police officer or security.
• Beaver or Beav: A derogatory term for suburbanites from corporate-controlled neighborhoods, based on the 1950s series Leave It to Beaver.
• Beaverville: A safe suburban neighborhood, mostly populated by mid-level corporate executives and their families.
• Bennie: An out-of-towner. (see Gaijin)
• Biz: Short for business.
• Black Lace or Lace: A designer drug that is a more powerful version of 'Dorph.
• Boga: (Spanish) Vogue, that which is in-fashion.
• Bonanza: The location of a big score: for example, an abandoned corporate facility.
• Booster or Boostergang: Any member of a gang that effects cyberware, leather clothing, and random violence.
• 'Borg: A full-body cyborg conversion. (see Metalhead)
• Bourgie or Bourgy: Common, low class (from bourgeoisie).
• Braindance or BD: A digital recording of someone's memory, including sensory input and emotions. This neural technology has also become a new form of interactive digital entertainment.
• Brain Potato: A braindance addict.
• Bridge & Tunnel Crowd: Commuters. (see Straphangers)
• Chip: Short for datachip, a data storage medium. Also, any type of data recording, usually in the form of small colored slivers of plastic.
• Chilled: To be cool. To be together.
• Chipped: To be implanted with cyberware. (see Chromed)
• Chippin' In: To buy cyberware for the first time. To cast your lot with a group. To connect with a machine.
• Chombatta or Choomba or Choom: Neo-Afro-American slang for a friend or a family member.
• Choo: Short for CHOOH2.
• CHOOH2: Sounds like "Choo-Two," and refers to the alcohol used in power plants and vehicle engines. The vast majority of vehicles in the Time of the Red are fueled by this advanced form of alcohol, which has a higher burning temperature than normal methanol. (see Hydro)
• Chop: A CredChip.
• Chopping: The process of cracking a stolen credchip.
• Chunking: Eating on the run, and eating as a secondary activity.
• Chrome: Cyberware.
• Chromed: To be implanted with cyberware.
• Chromer: 21st century heavy metal rock fan. A type of gang made up of chromers.
• Chrome Jock: A person who has implanted a notable - or excessive - amount of cyberware.
• Chromatic Rock: A type of heavy metal characterized by heavy electronics, simple rhythms, and violent lyrics.
• Circ: Short for circuit.
• Combat Drugs: Any one of a series of designer drugs created to increase speed, stamina, and reflexes.
• Conapt: A condominium apartment in a Corporate Zone.
• Corpse: A corporate worker, an executive, a corporate. Sleaziness expert.
• Crystal: Short for crystal clear, understood.
• Culture-Vulture: A media.
• C-YA: Sounds like "see ya," and stands for "Cover Your Ass".
• Cybered-Up: To be implanted with a notable - or excessive - amount of cyberware. (see Chrome Jock)
• Cyberspace: The Net.
• Cylon: Corporate security officer.
• Dataslate or Slate: A portable data storage device.
• Data Term: A street corner information terminal, which features a screen, NET inputs, and keyboard.
• Deckhead: A netrunner.
• Delta: To leave; to depart.
• Detes: Details.
• Dirty: Derogatory term for anything low-tech, as in pencils, paper, walking, etc.
• Disk: Record, recording; a laser disk.
• 'Dorph: Short for synthetic endorphin, a designer drug that increases healing powers, limits fatigue, and produces a "rush" similar to a second wind.
• Dorphhead or Dorpher: A drug addict, especially one with a Dorph habit. A type of gang made up of junkies.
• Downtime: Free time, time off the job.
• Doughboy or Doughgirl: Someone who is wearing too much armor.
• Draga: (Hungarian) Expensive.
• Eddies: Phonetic pronunciation of "EDs" used in the 2070s, meaning eurodollars.
• Edge: The fringe of society, where many engage in illegal or semilegal acts or lifestyles.
• Edgerunner: Someone who lives on the Edge. A cyberpunk, that is to say, someone who has immersed themselves in the era of technological change by implanting cyberware, enhancing their abilities, using weapons and/or their cunning and perceptions in order to oppose the megacorporations. They usually work outside of the law.
• Edgezone: A strip, a gray area, an area of potential coolness.
• Ebucks: Short for eurobucks and used in the 2020s, meaning eurodollars.
• Exotics: A human biosculpted with non-human elements such as fur, long ears, fangs, etc.
• Extreme Braindances or XBDs: Digital recordings of memories that feature gruesome and bizarre scenes, including various forms of violence, torture, and even rape and murder.
• The Face: The representative of a megacorporation for legal purposes.
• Faceman: A sub-fixer in the employ of a boss-fixer, supporting the boss' network.
• Feeder: A device that streams braindance data and streams it to a wreath. Also capable of monitoring the user's vitals and nurturing their body.
• Flatline: (verb, trans.) To kill someone. (verb, intrans.) To die. (noun) A dead person or thing.
• Flick: Send a file over to another person.
• Fodder: Derogatory fixer term for solos.
• Gaijin: (Japanese) Derogatory term for outsider (from the Japanese word for foreigner, gaikokujin). (see Bennie)
• Ganger: Short for gangster.
• Ganic: Short for organic. Commonly refers to those who have little or no implants, or an object made of non-synthetic material.
• Gato: (Spanish) A smooth operator; a cool person. Also, a fixer.
• Gewalt: (German) Violence.
• Ghost off: To disappear or fuck off.
• Gibson: Strong foresight. A prophet; someone who tells the future. A psychic. Originally derived from William Gibson, the Patron Saint of the cyberpunk genre.
• Giri: (Japanese) Closest translation is debt or obligation, but the concept entails much more. Often used by Yakuza to describe the basis for their "honorable" traditions: honor, duty, obligation.
• Go LEO: To make the trip into Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
• Gomi: (Japanese) Trash, junk, or garbage.
• Gonk: An idiot, fool, schmuck.
• Guardians: A self-defense gang; generally peaceful and often cooperative with the police.
• Gyro: Small one-or two-person helicopters, used mostly in police work and corporate strike operations.
• Handle: A nickname; a working name you are known by on the street.
• Hard: A flattering term, like cool, hip, tough, etc.
• Haze: Double-cross, betray.
• Hexed: Having cyberpsychosis. Also, being obsessed with the Net.
• Highrider: Earthside term for anyone born, or spend most of their time working, in space. (see Alien)
• Hound-Tipping: Popular street practice of ambushing and reprogramming police robohounds.
• Huscle: Hired muscle.
• Hydro: Streetslang for hydrogen fuel, used to power a sizable number of vehicles in the 2000s. (see CHOOH2)
• Indie: Independent, self-employed, underground.
• Info Bro: An information broker.
• Input: Girlfriend (in original Cyberpunk games). Casual lover (Cyberpunk RED). Boyfriend (in Cyberpunk 2077). (see Output)
• Iron: A gun.
• Jack: Money. (see Scratch)
• Joytoy: A sex worker.
• Keyboard: Streetslang for a computer interface deck with manual keys. A terminal.
• Kibble: Cheaply produced food product resembling dry dog or cat food, hence the name.
• Kleptoid: A thief or prowler.
• Klep or Klepped: To steal (from kleptomania, a compulsion to steal).
• Kombi: A large vehicle capable of carrying cargo and passengers, popularly used by nomads as housing on the road.
• Lawman: This term is synonymous with police officers and any other law enforcers. Originally derived from Captain Max Hammerman's post-war police task force, which was known on the street as "The Lawmen".
• Leadhead: Dumb person.
• Mainline: A term for your partner in a serious, long-term relationship.
• Meatspace: A term commonly used by netrunners to refer to the physical world.
• Metalhead: Someone whose whole body is mechanical, a full 'Borg; derogatory term for a 'borg. (see 'Borg)
• The Metro: The underground. (see The Street)
• The Mob: An organized crime; any crime syndicate.
• Mr. Who: A name for an employer, or someone in higher authority. Also, "The Who".
• Mushi: (Japanese) Computer glitch or bug.
• Netrun: To interface with the Net and use it to hack into Data Fortresses. Used also to refer to running the global information network until the advent of the Fourth Corporate War. After the DataKrash, the term came to mean to interface with a NET Architecture and hack into its programs and controls.
• Neh?: (Japanese) Expression meaning, "Right?", tacked onto the end of a sentence (as is done with the particle ne in Japanese).
• Night Market: Off-the-grid, temporary marketplaces set up by groups of fixers with solid connections. In the Time of the Red, a Night Market is the best place to find new cyberware and gear.
• Nova: Cool, awesome, dope. (see Preem)
• One Block: Neighborhood that borders a Combat Zone.
• Organiskaya: (Russian) The Russian Mafia.
• Output: Boyfriend (in original Cyberpunk games). Casual lover (Cyberpunk RED). Girlfriend (in Cyberpunk 2077). (see Input)
• Paranoid: Someone who has all the facts.
• Porky: Someone who loves or collects weapons (from porcupine).
• Polymer One Shot: Any cheap, plastic pistol, usually in the five to nine millimeter range.
• Posergang: Any group whose members affect a specific look or have a common bodysculpt job.
• Poser: Members of posergangers.
• Praying Mantis: A drug-dealer who primarily targets children.
• Preem: Cool, awesome, dope (from premium).
• Proles: The lower class, streetscum (from proletariat).
• Puppet: Any gang or gang member who hires themselves out to a corporation or criminal organization; a sellout.
• R.A.B.I.D.S.: A particularly deadly form of Black ICE spread throughout the Old NET after the death of their creator, netrunning legend Rache Bartmoss.
• Ram: Personality (from computer jargon, RAM).
• Recycling: Environmentally friendly act of killing someone and taking their corpse to a body bank.
• Reality Junkie: Addicts of virtual reality, braindances, the Net, or video games. (see Vidiot)
• Realspace: Real life.
• Rimbo: A gun-toting sex kitten (from rambo + bimbo).
• Ripperdoc: Surgeon specializing in implanting illegal cyberware.
• Ronin: (Japanese) A freelance assassin or mercenary. Usually considered untrustworthy.
• Rockerboy or Rockergirl: A musician or performer who uses his or her art to make political or social statements. Rockerboys are not the same as "Rockstars", who are usually "owned" by recording media corps and are apolitical.
• Sardine: A powered armor trooper.
• Sandy: Short for Sandevistan speedware.
• Samurai: (Japanese) A corporate assassin or mercenary, hired to protect corporation property or make strikes against other corporate holdings.
• Scratch: Money. (see Jack)
• Screamsheet: Newspaper.
• Scroll: To edit a braindance.
• SCOP: Acronym for "Single Cell Organic Protein", a common foodstuff that makes up 20% of all food items, meat-likes to vegetable-likes. Scop is often used as a derogatory for something low quality or particular person, i.e. "scopsucking" or "scophead".
• Shard: Short for datashard, a medium for storing and transporting data.
• Shoemaker: A fixer who specialises in creating a new identity for someone.
• Short-circed: Crazy, not thinking straight.
• Sitch: Situation, also synonymous with a briefing.
• Silvers: Handcuffs.
• Skeleton: All the collected electronic records kept on a person; their electronic identity.
• Slammit On: To get violent; to attack someone without reason.
• Stim: Any type of stimulant narcotic.
• Straphangers: Commuters. (see Bridge & Tunnel Crowd)
• Stuffit: To have sex. Also, to forget something.
• Svoluch: (Russian) Someone without honor, without giri. A bastard.
• SynthCoke or Synth: Synthetic cocaine.
• Terminal: A computer interface deck with manual keys. Also, a keyboard.
• Time of the Red: A slang term for the period from 2023 to the late 2040s, originally derived from the red skies common throughout the world as an aftereffect of the Fourth Corporate War.
• Tin Can: A suit of powered armor.
• Tip: A token credchip.
• The Street: Wherever you live, late at night. The subculture, the underground. (see The Metro)
• Throwbacks: Exotics.
• Yono: (Korean) A person who is scum, a lowlife.
• Vidiot: A virtual reality or video game addict. (see Reality Junkie)
• Virtu: An unedited braindance recording. Unlike commercial braindances, the sensory input and emotions in virtus are raw and unedited, essentially the real sensations and feelings that were recorded.
• VRcade: Virtual reality, braindance, and video game arcade or parlor.
• Wirehead: Someone who uses special hardware to directly activate the pleasure centers of their brain.
• Wreath: A braindance headset.
• Zero: or Zeroed: (verb, trans.) To kill someone. (adjective) Killed.
• Zombie: A member of a nihilistic movement dedicated to ending their lives in the most violent and spectacular way possible.

Solo Jargon

Being made up of combat veterans, solo jargon is mostly made of military terms.

• The AO: Area of Operations. (see Sharp End and, also, Injun Country)
• Bag Job: Surreptitious entry, usually to copy or remove material.
• Bombshell: Evacuate quickly, run.
• Close a Contract: Kill, assassinate. Also: neutralize, grease, wax, hose, pop, dust, smoke and vape.
• COMINT: Communications intelligence.
• Cut-Out: A go-between, used for security in a covert op.
• Deniable Person: Someone hired so that a government or organization can disavow any knowledge of that person or his activities if something goes wrong later.
• Dying of the Measles: A killing that is made to look "natural".
• ELSUR: Electronic Surveillance.
• Extraction: The removal of a team from its area of operations. Also: A corporate kidnapping.
• False Flag: To make an operative think he is working for one individual, group, or organization, when he is in reality working for another completely different person, group, or organization.
• Firelane: The clear area into which a weapon can put its shots.
• Hot LZ: A landing zone under hostile fire; to make a landing under fire.
• IA: Immediate Action drill. A set series of actions preformed by a combat team to speed reaction to combat.
• Injun Country: Enemy territory. (see The Sharp End and, also, The AO)
• Insertion: Delivery of a group to its target.
• Kill Zone: The body areas where a weapon used will kill its target. Also: The area of maximum destruction in an ambush situation.
• Landing Hot: Landing with a damaged vehicle.
• Ninjutsu: (Japanese) (忍術) Skill of stealth. Putting down enemies without being noticed.
• PZ: Pickup Zone. (see RV)
• Roll Up: To capture.
• RV: Rendezvous point. (see PZ)
• Sanitize: To remove all identifying marks, fingerprints, etc.
• Shoes and Shoemaker: False identities and IDs, and the fixers who specialize in creating and making them.
• Sleeper: Potential operative kept on tap for future use.
• Slipup List: Methodical collection of possible mistakes that might happen during a mission.
• Technical Penetration: The use of mechanical/electrical information gathering.
• The Sharp End: Enemy territory. (see Injun Country and, also, The AO)
• Tiger Team: Computer experts that test system security by attempting penetration.
• To Get Dirty: To be arrested, or otherwise harassed by police.

Netrunning Terms

• Ability: A function built into a Cyberdeck any Netrunner can use without a Program.
• Attackers: Software that deal damage and cause other effects to ICE, other programs or personnel.
• Black ICE: Mostly refers to anti-personnel ICE, often capable of killing the intruding hacker, such as Hellhound, Firestarter, or Soulkiller. However, also refers to anti-program ICE.
• Bodyweight Suit: A suit designed for Netrunners with built-in armor, Cyberdeck, and capable storage, and sometimes life support functions.
• Boosters: Software that improves a person's abilities in cyberspace.
• Control Node: A location in virtual space with allows for the control of a real world device.
• Cyberdeck: A computer that converts brainwaves into electrical impulses and vice versa. Without it, there's no Netrunning.
• Defenders: Software that stop or reduce attacks of programs or other Netrunners.
• Demon or Daemon: Black ICE intelligent systems, which operate Control Nodes to defend their NET Architecture or a physical space by targeting a Netrunner in Meatspace.
• Deep dive: Connect into the Net via deep dive port.
• Elevator: Cyberspace object allowing travel between floors.
• Floor: Cyberspace area containing one program or virtual object.
• ICE: Acronym for "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics", security programs designed to protect data and prevent intrusion by hackers.
• Interface Plug: Cyberware that allows one to plug their brain into a machine.
• Meat Action: Derogatory term used to refer to actions made in the physical world.
• Meatspace: A term commonly used by Netrunners to refer to the physical world.
• The NET or The 'Net: Cyberspace. Prior to the Fourth Corporate War, space and global travel was possible inside the NET. By the Time of the Red, Netrunners now have to travel to specific NET Architectures and Jack In directly.
• NET Action: Action taken inside the virtual world of cyberspace.
• Program: Software able to be slotted into a Cyberdeck to enhance functionality. Divided into Boosters, Attackers, and Defenders.
• R.A.B.I.D.S.: A particularly deadly form of Black ICE spread throughout the Old NET after the death of their creator, Netrunning legend Rache Bartmoss.
• REZ: Hit Points of Programs and Black ICE.
• Shell Trader: A nomadic buyer and seller of illegal programs, usually based in the Netspace version of Hawaii.
• Slot: A chunk of memory in a Cyberdeck allocated to a program. Better Cyberdecks have more slots.
• Virtuality Goggles: Goggles that overlay the cyberspace landscape onto one's field of vision.

Japanese Streetslang

Main article: Japanese Streetslang (2020)

Powered Armor Slang

• ACPA: Assisted Combat Personnel Armor.
• Acquire: To locate and successfully lock on to a target with guided or linked weapons.
• Aperture-Based: Very low quality, referring to ACPA with no VRI (Virtual Reality Interface). Often used to make crude sexual innuendoes.
• API: Armor piercing incendiary.
• Boris: Very large PA, especially Russian made.
• CHOOH-Head: Wild or undisciplined personnel or civilians (several derivations, historically connected to "beer drinking rednecks").
• Chromer: Someone who "loves" powered armor (by killing it).
• Critical: A bad-news term, refers to failure of equipment, or the tactical breakdown of a military scenario.
• DMZ: Battle location.
• Effer/Iffer: Stands for IFAR, Improved Finned Aerial Rocket, a large unguided explosive rocket measuring 2.75" in diameter.
• Fenner: Highest tech virtual reality ACPA user interface available; sometimes used like "finer."
• Getting Lacey: From the drug Black Lace. To start fighting in a berserk fashion.
• Hard: Target wearing exoskeleton; any heavily-armored object or position.
• H.E.: High explosive.
• Kipple: DMZ rubbish, taken from Vonnegurt.
• Mini-Grin: A mini-grenade launcher.
• Monkey: Someone using ACPA who is not well-trained to do so.
• Nudie: Personnel targets without ACPA or exoskeleton.
• PA: Powered Armor.
• Padre: From compadre, refers to friends or other members of a PA team.
• Reading: To detect/scan, similar to acquire.
• S.S.R.: "Suit Systems Read," inspection of the various status displays in the suit's monitor area.
• Trash: To make Trashed.
• Trash-Can: A stationary, perimeter-defense robot.
• Trashed: ACPA: Destroyed. Persons: Messed up/dead.
• Trooper: A PA soldier, anyone wearing PA, trained or untrained.

Cop Terminology

• Agent Man: LEDiv.
• Bag Man: Fixer.
• Baked: Burned.
• Banana Boys/Banana Bunch: MAX-TAC (Maximum Force Tactical Division) or Cyberpsycho/Psycho Squad. Also, C-SWAT (Cybernetic Special Weapons & Tactical) Squad, PSYCHE-DIV, and CYB-Enforcement.
• Bird: Aerial assistance.
• Blitzed: Drug warp.
• Boney: Corpse.
• Bust: Arrest.
• Cold One: Corpse.
• Creep: Anyone besides a cop.
• Crisped: Burned.
• Dealer: Fixer.
• Desk Jockey: White-collar person.
• Dough Boy: Money man.
• Easy Rider: Someone who travels often.
• Flatbacker: Hooker.
• Fried: Insane.
• Geeked: Killed.
• Going Down: Going to jail.
• Green: Unwell.
• Grifter: Con Artist.
• Headlining: Wanted person.
• Holding Down: Drawing and aiming a weapon.
• Hustler: Fixer.
• Iced: Killed.
• Iceman: No emotions.
• Inkman: White collar person.
• Jacket: File.
• Jo/Joanna: Nobody.
• Jumbo Bird: Heavy aerial assistance.
• Kid: Anyone else.
• Loser: Anyone else.
• Lost Boy/Lost Girl: Nobody.
• Lowlife: Anybody else.
• Maggot: Anyone else.
• Packing: Carrying a weapon.
• Part Timer: Corporate Cop/Bounty Hunter.
• Pasta Boys: Mafia.
• Paint Boys: Yakuza.
• Pencil Neck: White-collar person.
• Perp: Criminal.
• Pig: Cop.
• Player: Big time criminal.
• Punk: Anyone else.
• Ripped: Assaulted.
• Scum: Anyone else.
• Slag: Anyone else.
• Slime: Anyone else.
• Smelly: Corpse.
• Spiked: Killed.
• Sprung: Blown cover, escaped custody with outside help.
• Sticks: Beat Cops.
• Stiff: Corpse.
• Suit: Corporate person, straight man.
• The Man: Immediate superior.
• Torched: Burned.
• Tough Guy: Muscle.
• Trashed: Assaulted.
• Twisted: Drug warp.
• Wasted: Killed.
• Waxed: Killed.
• Whacked: Killed.
• Wise Guys: Mafia.
• Worm: Anyone else.

References

• PONDSMITH, M. Cyberpunk 2020 Corebook. 2nd ed., Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1990.
• PASS, G. Protect & Serve. Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1992.
• COLBURN, M. Maximum Metal. Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1993.
• PASQUARETTE, C. Pacific Rim Sourcebook. Berkeley, CA, R. Talsorian Games, 1994.
• PONDSMITH, M. Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook. Kenmore, WA, R. Talsorian Games, 2020.
• CD Projekt RED. Cyberpunk 2077. Video Game, Multi-Platform. Poland, CD Projekt S.A., 2020.