Chillax, old-timers! Don't freak out when the college student in your life casually mentions wifebeaters or sin. But do think twice before calling someone a ballerina, scud missile or hanging chad.

This is advice extrapolated from "U.C.L.A. Slang 4," the latest edition in the UCLA Linguistic Department's long-running Slang Project.

Every four years students in Pamela Munro's "Slang" seminar spend a quarter in hot pursuit of slang as an exercise in the complexities of language. Mostly undergraduates, the Bruins rack their brains for expressions, canvas their peers and even conduct word games in dorms. Recently, their efforts resulted in a 130-page dictionary, complete with parts of speech, definitions and, occasionally, details on the origins of a word or phrase.

For a team that doesn't set out to paint a picture of college slang across the country, the dictionary's authors nonetheless do a good job - thanks to their proximity to Hollywood and the media.

"A lot of slang originates in the West Coast and migrates eastward," said Munro, the dictionary's editor and an expert in more than 23 Native-American and pre-Columbian languages. She has produced eight other specialized dictionaries.

Munro has seen words and phrases first appear in "U.C.L.A. Slang" and then resurface in popular movies. Take "monet," an adjective for a female who - like an Impressionist painting - looks better at a distance than up close. The term appeared in the 1993 dictionary. Two years later, it figured in the teen comedy "Clueless" and reappeared in the 1997 dictionary. But it has since fallen out of favor, possibly obliterated by the more vivid synonym "scud missile."

The collection of more than 1,100 current slang expressions is available at UCLA's campus bookstore for $7.50. But the project is not - as the student authors would say - all about the bling-bling. As they struggle to define words they take for granted, the Bruins get a high-powered lesson in grammar.

"Even though slang words may not be appropriate for every occasion, most follow the same rules as ordinary English," said Munro, a professor of linguistics.

Over the course of the project, the student writers also come to understand the origins of slang, which evolves at a rate that, well, blows doors.

Combining familiar terms - such as "chill" and "relax" - is a common route. But taking a familiar term and giving it a surprising new meaning also works. Ergo, the term "wifebeaters" for the thin white tank-top underwear that's seen around campus. Meanwhile, "sin," at least among Christian students, has become a catch-all expletive for "ouch," "darn it," or "whoops!"

Being compared to a ballerina - once a compliment - is now an insult, evoking an immoral person with a moral facade. But at least being a ballerina is better being a "hanging chad." Once the center of a nation's attention, he's now nothing more than "an unwelcome follower" to those in-the-know.

-UCLA-
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