moded

adj. tricked, trumped, or beaten (at a contest of wills or skill). Also moated. Subjects: California, English, Slang

Editorial Note: This term appears to have originated in, and is especially common in, California.

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Citations: 1988 Angie Cannon San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Nov. 25) “Teachers in S.F. Grab Rap Music As Educational Aid” p. B13: When people try to bother you,/Don’t play their game./Just think twice before you’ve exploded./Let the other guy be the one who’s moded! 1992 Kathleen Moloney, Mary McNamara Los Angeles Times (Apr. 26) “L.A. Speak” p. 10: moated v. to trump someone, get the final word, get them in trouble. “I got Priscilla moated for capping on me.” 1992 Alfee Enciso Los Angeles Times (Dec. 28) “Community Essay Living Under ‘a Veil of Denial’ Bias” p. 5: I asked the males in my class, “What’s the first thing you guys do when you’re together discussing a ‘freak’ or a ‘fox?’ You ask, “Hey, what she look like?…Oh, man! She’s real fine, man. She’s light-skinned,” at which the class got quiet and smiled. Then a young girl said, “He’s right…” while the rest of the students giggled, easing the embarrassment of being “moded.” 2004 Official U.S. Playstation (July 1) “They Fought the Law; And the law won” no. 82,: Getting moded by the FBI: priceless. 2005 Ava Swartz @ San Francisco University High School SFUHS Update (San Francisco) (Mar.-Apr.) “Sweet, Tight and Hella Stupid” p. 2: moded—beaten.

Posted 4 Apr 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I recall using this word in Palmdale as early as 1985. It was common slang at Palmdale High School. Our English teacher at the time speculated that it has it’s origins in the word ‘mote’. Who knows?

by Shane Harris 03 Mar 06, 0618 GMT

I certainly used this word in the 1980s in the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve never been sure how to spell it (I always used “moated” although it didn’t look right - I prefer “moded” now that I’ve seen it) nor, indeed, what the heck it is supposed to actually *mean* (etymologically). As children we used it roughly equivalent to “busted” (caught doing something you weren’t supposed to do, for instance) and not specifically for “tricked or outdone”, although I suppose if you are caught, you were outdone in stealth… “Oooooo, modeddddd!”

by tass 25 Jun 06, 0719 GMT

This was very popular among teens in Los Angeles in the mid-70’s. It was actually “moted”, short for demoted but was pronounced more like “moded.”

Sometimes we would say “Moded, corroded, you butt exploded.”

by Marco 09 Dec 06, 0634 GMT

I’m a young person… in college, and from San Francisco. We use the word to mean demoted, like what Marco said, but also just being embarrassed when you thought you knew something, but then it turned out you were wrong.

For example, if my friend says something, I contradict him, then someone else backs him up, they’ll say- ooo hella moded.

by Mirah 14 Dec 06, 1200 GMT

I heard this constantly in junior high school in Long Beach, CA, 81-84

by Moded Kuroda 24 Apr 07, 0257 GMT

I’m from Jersey, and I grew up hearing my mom use that term all the time…later I moved to California and everyone said it there too. I just moved back to PA and my boyfriend asked me what it mean’t when I proclaimed that I’d been moded, it tripped me out, ‘cause I’d assumed this was a national slang term…my Mommy must have picked it up when she lived out west, and brought it home to the east coast. Guess I’m double moded!!

by Mellany 13 Jun 07, 0852 GMT

Popular sing-song taunt when I was in middle and high schools during the mid-80’s:

“You’re moded, corroded, your booty got exploded!”

How one’s ‘booty’ got exploded’ I’ve never learned. \:-/

San Francisco native here! :)

by Baddy 13 Aug 07, 0135 GMT

“Moded corroded, your booty exploded” was very popular in San Francisco in the early 80’s. Now looking back at the word, it could be a corruption of the word outmoded, meaning no longer in fashion or obsolete.

Moded. I’m bringing that back!

by agltbialik 19 Aug 07, 0607 GMT

Native Californian here born in the mid/late 60s in LA, and grew up in LA, San Diego, and SF. I remember it well in use in the early 70s and on. I live on East Coast now and have worked hard to bring it back because it just needs to be. I hear “Burn” (thanks That 70s Show) a lot now as well as “hella” (thanks South Park), it’s time for moded to sweep the nation.

by SoCalNative 28 Nov 07, 0821 GMT

Popular in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Modifiers were almost exclusively “so” (with the “oh” sound extended over 10 seconds) and “totally”. Never heard “very moded” or “really moded”, for example.

To my memory “so moded” was the future tense, as in “When Mom gets home you are going to be soooooo moded”

“Totally moded” usually used in the past tense. “So, like, when he saw me at the Galleria, I was toootaly moded!”

Any local differences in modifiers out there?

by ValleyDude 03 Dec 07, 1032 GMT

When I was in elementary and junior-high schools, (80-89) we used moded as a jibe during insult contests along with “faced” or “face”
I never tried to spell it. Some of the kids would say “molded”. Hmmm…

by Adam 12 Dec 07, 0948 GMT

I started using MODED heavily since starting elementary school in the 80’s and still use it occasionally now that I’m in my 30s. My grade-school aged nieces and nephews also use it regularly today. Here in the Bay Area it’s used almost exclusively to describe being extremely embarrassed as a result of saying or doing something silly or turning out to be wrong after vehemently insisting you’re correct. You can even take it a step further by being “HELLA MODED”. I even remember the word mutating into “MODATION” at some point.

by Hella Moded 13 Feb 08, 0909 GMT

...lived in Orange County in the early 80’s…typical phrasing was, “you feel moded” or “ooo moded”...moved to Texas in 1984 and got plenty of blank stares when using the term…what a great memory…i loved the language in CA in the early 80’s…

by Defjam 22 May 08, 0831 GMT

I grew up in a LA suburb and used the word as early as the mid ‘70s. We understood it to mean embarrassed and used it when someone thought they knew something and were proven wrong or got caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. My sisters and I still use it today.

by Carla 14 Aug 08, 0403 GMT