happening - adjective (Lifestyle and Leisure) In young people's slang:
trendy , up-to-the-minute, 'hip', that is 'where the action is'. Etymology: Formed
by shortening the phrase what's
happening or where it's (all)
happening and treating
happening as an adjective. During the
teenage revolution of the sixties, the noun
happening was widely used to mean any fashionable event, especially a pop gathering, and
happenings is a slang name for narcotics; the phrase what's
happening? is a popular street greeting among US teenagers, perhaps originating in the language of
jazz . History and Usage: One of the
happening words of the late eighties,
happening as
an adjective started in California in the late seventies; in her pastiche of Californian life The Serial (1977), American writer Cyra McFadden makes one of
her characters say: Who could live
anywhere else? Marin's this whole high-energy
trip with all these
happening people...Can you imagine spending your life out there in the
wasteland someplace? The word then became enshrined in Valspeak in the early eighties, and eventually emerged in the pop and rock music world generally around the middle of the decade. In the UK it is still used
mainly in writing for young people, but has also started to crop up in fashionable magazines and newspaper colour supplements. 'Me
and George Michael,' she adds, lapsing into pop-speak, 'may turn out to be a pretty
happening scene.' Sunday Express Magazine 1 Feb. 1987, p.
13 Nothing looks sadder than a
man wearing voluminous, '
happening' dungarees but with a bemoussed hairstyle that is pure Bros. Weekend Guardian 21 Apr. 1990, p.
25 Manchester is this year's
happening place. Sunday Times Magazine 6 May 1990, p. 36
