"Hook up," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a verb that means to establish a link or to make a connection with.
But to people in their teens and 20s, "hook up" means physical intimacy that can range from kissing to sexual intercourse.
This word is just one of many that belongs on the unwritten list of vocabulary used to describe relationships and activities between two people who are intimately involved with each other.
Because of its very unwritten nature, "hook-up vocabulary" promulgates misunderstandings and misconceptions. The very language is age, gender and location-specific, making it a hard tongue to learn for those who don't naturally discern the shades of confusing connotations associated with the relatively ambiguous terms.
For example, it is less than likely that U.S. students will hear the words "pull" or "snog" in reference to sexual activity.
But in the United Kingdom, "snog" is synonymous with what American young people call "making out," or passionate kissing, and "pull" is used the way Americans use "hook up."
Pulling, like hooking up, is a non-specific term, and people seem to enjoy this ambiguity. Both words allow their users to talk about their sexual exploits without describing play-by-play actions.
Many of these terms are necessarily known to foreigners or people from diverse parts of the United States itself. One Dutch student remarked that "hook up" is the term he would use for a cable television connection.
A student of Korean descent said that hook up, to some Korean immigrants, means to live together with another person of similar descent after moving to America.
The phrase "suck face" is one that is currently on the rise. It is a lewd way of describing deep "French" (tongue) kissing, especially such activity that occurs in inappropriate venues, such as on a dance floor.
The terms "get with" and "get together" are seen by many as a masculine term of conquest used in a bragging manner. These words don't necessarily connote sexual intercourse, although such an implication would not be inappropriate.
"Get with" and "get together" are less suggestive, more palatable and less negative ways of expressing "f---" and "screw," terms that also typically express male conquest.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the verb "f---" dates back to poetry written in 1503. It defines the term as, "To copulate with; to have sexual connection with," noting that the subject of the verb is rarely female.
It defines "screw" the same way, but says "screw" only dates back to 1725. In common usage, both words are offensive and crude, but "screw" is slightly less so.
"Bang" and "shag" are other words with negative connotations that refer to sexual intercourse.
"Sleep with" and "make love" are used in romantic or affectionate manners to describe sexual intercourse and often imply emotional connections as opposed to purely physical intentions.
"Hook up" vocabulary varies vastly from generation to generation, both in terms of specific words and in terms of word usage.
For example, most students understand "sex" to be the act of intercourse, an interpretation in lines with The Oxford English Dictionary's definition.
But many adults, with the exception of the most recent U.S. president, argue that sex is more than just intercourse.
These older individuals contend that oral sex also falls under the classification of "sex."
Students disagree with this assertion, explaining that this is too general a definition, and adding that distinctions between activities such as oral sex and sexual intercourse must be clarified.
"Petting" is another term that is affected by age difference. This term was popular with older generations to describe intimate touching, but has fallen out of common usage.
The origins of most of these terms are unclear. Much of the vocabulary becomes popular by way of regional slang. The media, particularly magazines, television and movies, popularizes other terms.
