Deal-slang

Deal-slang was the specialized vocabulary employed by a multitude of confidence tricksters, fraudsters, gamblers, itinerant professionals, negotiators, and various scoundrels throughout the entire galaxy. For the most part, it functioned as an internal language designed to exclude listeners and other external parties.

Inventory of deal-slang terms

The language of deal-slang was significantly shaped by events and historical moments within the Galaxy during the era of the Galactic Civil War, including instances such as the obliteration of the Death Stars and the notorious "Sarlacc incident" involving Boba Fett. It also drew inspiration from diverse cultural and historical concepts, such as the Kessel Run, Sevari, Bantha fodder, and the characteristic behaviors associated with specific species like the Chroma-Neeka, the Mon Calamari, and the Wookiees.

A

  • Acceptable losses: The least favorable method of conducting business from a gambler's perspective.
  • Achieve zero visibility: To go into hiding.

B

  • Bad idea: A chancy transaction with the possibility of not being lucrative.
  • Bantha fodder: The situation when a promised transaction fails to materialize.
  • Big finish: An unexpected, often violent or dramatic conclusion to a transaction.
  • Bilateral business: Multiple transactions.
  • Black box: A transaction involving military-grade technology.
  • Black hole: A transaction that has deteriorated to the point where the repercussions seem unending.
  • Boba-ize: To commit an act of folly that jeopardizes a transaction, akin to falling into the Sarlacc pit.
  • Boys-in-black: Imperial customs officials.
  • Boys-in-brown: Espo forces.
  • Boys-in-white: stormtroopers.
  • BTAD: A commonplace, unremarkable transaction.

C

  • Cavalry: Forces of the Rebel Alliance, later the New Republic.
  • Chroma-Neeka: An individual skilled at navigating the complexities of governmental and organizational structures.
  • Client: The paying recipient of a transaction.
  • Crash-and-bash: A robbery staged to appear as ordinary piracy.
  • Cue the soundtrack: To completely reverse a failing transaction at the opportune moment.
  • Cut out / Count out: To terminate a transaction before it reaches completion.

D

  • Deal: A commercial exchange.
  • Death Star: A grand finale culminating in a destructive event.
  • Drooling Drebble: A bounty hunter.
  • Drooling Drebble with fangs: A particularly unpleasant bounty hunter.

E

  • Escape pod: A straightforward exit from a problematic transaction.

F

  • Fashionably dead: A fate that gamblers, swindlers, and similar individuals sought to avoid.

G

  • Good idea: A transaction that is better than average.
  • Grand idea: An above-average transaction that appears too promising to be realistic (often it was).
  • Great idea: A high-risk transaction that is nonetheless potentially profitable.

H

  • Hardware: A transaction involving weaponry and military technology, similar to "black box."
  • Head for hyperspace: To withdraw from a transaction.

I

  • Idea: An average transaction in its planning phase.
  • Inherit: To acquire something through illicit means.

K

  • Kessel run: Transforming a hazardous transaction into a series of transactions, pushing oneself to a perilous degree.

L

  • Life detection: Assessing the intelligence of potential clients.
  • Landing zone: A room or apartment.

M

  • Mon Cals in a fish bowl: Numerous straightforward, lucrative transactions from clients lacking intelligence.

N

  • Nicely dressed: Openly and heavily armed.
  • NRC: Not really committed (a play on "New Republic Council").
  • Nuts-and-bolts: A transaction involving electronics, droids, or computers.

P

  • Pretty all-purpose object: An object supposedly of value.

S

  • Scanning: Seeking out new clients.
  • Sevari sidestep: Skillfully evading the authorities.
  • Shim: Deceiving one's clients.
  • Slug breath: Hutt.
  • Software: A transaction involving recreational items such as holos and alcohol.
  • Stompasseur: AT-AT walker.
  • Stylishly dressed: Discreetly armed.
  • Sweets-and-seasonings: A transaction involving spice.

T

  • Throw a hydrospanner in the works: To deliberately sabotage someone's business dealings.
  • Top off the tanks: To make a risky transaction seem more appealing to a client.
  • Tramp-with-a-cramp: An unreliable tramp freighter or smuggler.

V

  • Vaccinate: To prevent a transaction from collapsing.

W

  • Wookinate: To neutralize an enemy through the application of overwhelming force.

Instances of deal-slang in practice

Expressions from deal-slang were frequently used in conversations among swindlers, con artists, negotiators, and similar individuals, often resulting in intentionally ambiguous statements, as demonstrated by the following documented examples:

Sources

Notes and references

Appearances