Word Watch

This was a new one on me, but I like it. In an uncharacteristically grouchy recent post the The Phantom Professor mentions “trustafarians”.

Interestingly, definitions of “trustafarian” vary. I would have guessed a meaning like this one from False Positives:

Trustafarians : trust fund babies who live supported solely by the trust fund income (i.e. they don't work for a living): Paris Hilton, various members of the Kennedy clan, the characters of The Talented Mr. Ripley, or Hugh Grant's character in About a Boy come to mind. Down market Trustafarians would be those with a bohemian lifestyle, but with hipper accessories, living off he money of parents. (ski bums who don't have to wash dishes.)

But apparently, there's other somewhat different meanings about, as seen from these proposed definitions in the Urban Dictionary,

1. trustafarian

a. a spoiled rich white kid who smokes pot.

b. a person who, in an act of rebellion has taken to smoking pot, pan-handling, and following grateful dead rip-off bands during the week, and then returning to his or her parent's cozy home in the suburbs during the weekend.

c. one who lives with poorer people in an attempt to gain credibility, or street-cred, while disguising the trust fund they actually live off

Don't let that guy smoke any of your stash, he's a trustafarian, and never has his own to share.

2. trustafarian

priviliged white kids who subsribe to the hippie lifestyle (because they can) since they have no worries about money, a job etc. They can then devote their lives to eating organic, following Phish, and wearing dreadlocks (no need for job interviews).

Sarah is a trustafarian. It's totally evidenced by the combination of her brand new car and nice digs with her “earthy” clothes and dreadlocks.

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4 Responses to Word Watch

  1. tde says:

    I’ve always used it to mean 1b, minus the panhandling.

  2. SEO says:

    Never heard of the word… But if i had to guess it would of been someone who is very trusting, or bases their principals on trust.

    Guess i’m just not “Down wit da slang yo!”

    Carly,

  3. Cool Art says:

    Always a good idea to improve your vocabulary, I think I’ll try that one on a few people and see if they can figure out whether I just complimented them or not. 🙂

  4. Jeremy says:

    I first encountered the concept when I was living in Eugene, Oregon. Lots of trustafarians settled in there when there wasn’t a Dead-related tour or a Phish tour to follow after.

    Negative on the fancy car… It applied to kids who appeared to be homeless, hung out in the streets, dressed “tribal” like the rest of the Deadhead crowd, had lots of tats and piercings and dredlocks… but also had (unseen) money.

    Rumor had it that it was hard to buy dope at the beginning of the month, since that’s when a lot of them got their monthly checks, and they would spend most of it on weed….

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