mongo

n. material or goods salvaged from items intended for disposal. Also as verb. Subjects: New York City, English, United States, Slang

Editorial Note: New evidence from the unpublished Lexicon of Trade Jargon, compiled by the Works Progress Administration, has a form of this word from before 1938: mungo, referring to the person who salvages discarded items, rather than the things being salvaged. This term appears to be specific to New York City.

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Citations: 1984 James Brooke New York Times (Sept. 10) “Sanitation Art Showings Brighten Workers’ Image” p. B4: Other exhibits at the gallery were a 1,500-square-foot transparent map showing the locations of Sanitation Department offices; three piles of televisions on which videotapes of sanitation workers were shown, and an old, department-section office furnished in “mongo,” discarded furniture salvaged by sanitation men. 1996 Mierle Laderman Ukeles (Spring) “Interview: Mierle Laderman Ukeles on Maintenance and Sanitaton Art” p. 20 @ Dialogues in Public Art (2001) Tom Finkelpearl: Besides furniture and bathroom, I crammed the section with a decor of “Mongo,” items workers selected from the waste flow, that they refused to put in the truck—art, religious figures, dolls. 2004 Jane and Michael Stern New York Times (June 20) “‘Mongo’: I Love Trash”: “Mongo” is slang for garbage salvaged from streets and trash heaps. Any rubbish can qualify, whether it’s edible, wearable, useful or indescribable. 2006 Ben McGrath New Yorker (Nov. 13) “Dr. Garbage”: Nagle’s interests lie more with the trash collectors than with the trash, although the two intersect on the subject of “mongo”—sanitation lingo for “redeemed garbage” or the act of collecting it.…“Within the department, if you mongo or if you don’t—there’s kind of a dividing line,” she said. “ ‘He mongos.’ ‘Do you mongo?’ ‘Oh, mongo, are you kidding? I wouldn’t mongo.’ ” She paused. “Hell, I mongo, absolutely. And I have some pretty nice things.”

Posted 21 Jun 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend