You're listening to Away With Words. I'm Grant Barrett. And I'm Martha Barnett. I've never been to an ABC party, but you know, Grant, I'm tempted to throw one just to see what everybody would wear.

ABC party? Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? I don't actually know what that is.

This is a term ABC party, which means anything but clothes.

So you go to the party and you wear anything but clothes.

So maybe duct tape or, I don't know, monopoly money, candy bar wrappers.

Wouldn't it be great to throw an ABC party?

Yeah, maybe.

As long as it wasn't all saran wrap.

Who uses this language? Apparently college kids. I was just reading online. There's an article

by Emily Greer. She's a sophomore at Penn State University. And she was just collecting

some college slang from her peers for incoming freshmen.

And one of the terms is ABC party, where you wear anything but clothes.

Oh, cool.

And apparently, there are a lot of different kinds of parties in college slang.

Yes, there are.

Who would have thought?

I know that was a long time ago, Martha, but yes, they still party in college.

Well, in my day, they didn't have tight and bright parties.

I hesitate to ask.

Well, you just have to wear clothes that are really bright and really tight.

Oh.

And she says that apparently in lieu of toga parties, which was more my era, now you have

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