They keep doing this to us. Those kids keep inventing new words of obscure origin, and of even obscurer meaning. ‘Leng’ is the latest. According to the hyper-hip online Urban Dictionary leng ‘is a word that describes something super attractive; it’s a levelled-up version of “peng” and both words are roadman slang, used on the streets of Britain’. Hang on. At this point we need to interrupt this colourful explanation to check up on ‘peng’. (Unless you’re already completely au fait with ‘peng’? You’re not? Alright, let’s check.) The same Urban Dictionary tells us that ‘peng’ is ‘a very positive word used casually to show how attracted you are to something or someone’. The examples they give are, ‘He’s very peng’ and ‘Mmm, this tastes peng’. Okay, if it’s good, it’s peng. Got that. (And ‘peng’ goes back to 2008 – although how it came to be coined no one seems to know.) Now back to the word that is even better than peng – namely ‘leng’ which means ‘super attractive’ and a ‘levelled-up version of peng’. (Levelled-up, in this yoof speak means ‘just a little better than everyone else’.) From this point the definition carries on to say: ‘It can be used for males, females, or even inanimate objects, or just to describe something that’s really good. If you want to use leng, then the thing or person has to really, really be attractive’. They appear to be quite insistent on how we use ‘leng’ (not that anyone over the mental age of 15 would ever really use it). A ‘roadman’ by the way is a young thug who carries a knife and an aggressive attitude. What is confusing is that if we dig back into the ancient history of our language there really is a word ‘leng’ meaning: ‘Length (of time or space); in Old English also height, stature’. So, have the kids been searching the textbooks to find fascinating old words to revive? Or have they just invented ‘leng’ (from around 2019) out of their smart-phone-controlled imaginations? Whatever the answer, we don’t need to bother – this is not a word that grown-ups will ever need to use. Merry Christmas!