TUBULAR ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In young people's slang, originally in the US: excellent, wonderful, very good or exciting, awesome. Often in the phrase totally tubular, superlative. Etymology: Originally from Californian surfers' slang, in which a tubular wave was one which was well-curved (and so shaped like a tube); a hollow, well curved wave was the best and most exciting kind to ride on, so tubular soon came to mean no more than 'very good'. History and Usage: Tubular originated in the slang of Californian surfers in the seventies; in its more general sense it was one of the words taken up by Valspeak in the early eighties and spread to a whole generation of American youngsters. Although already considered a little pass÷ by teenagers, in the second half of the decade it acquired a new currency among younger children (partly as a result of its use by the Turtles and other screen idols). This later vogue extended to British English, at least among children. It would be nice to be able to say that last night's opening round of The Story of English (BBC-2) was 'tubular', 'the max' or just 'totally'. It was not up to that standard. But it was quite exciting. Daily Telegraph 23 Sept. 1986, p. 14 Hey Ron, you and Nancy were totally tubular, dude. I'm talking radical to the bone, buddy. Nobody can beat your admin, you know what I'm saying? Oh man, you were awesome, the best. USA Today 11 Jan. 1989, section A, p. 7 Donatello [one of the Turtles] is totally tubular when he's jamming on his hand-held keyboards. Daily Star 23 Oct. 1990, p. 19