Bants

Also, bantz, banta, from banter.

I feel I have come to the bants party a bit late. Not banter – I’ve been well aware of that and participating for over 30 years. Who doesn’t love a bit of office banter… and it’s an essential skill for self defence and social interaction at school.

But I wasn’t aware that bants had become a ‘thing’ in current popular culture, and not only has the heady status of appearing in the Urban Dictionary, but is also now in mainstream dictionaries (Origin: Early 21st century from banter).

These days it means exchange of playfully teasing or mocking remarks, or generally fun times, although the word has been, and probably still is, abused to justify apparently hilarious yet completely inappropriate and unacceptably abusive behaviour, and drive teachers to their “wits’ end” – as in “Siiiir, it’s just bantaaaa!”.

The word banter was around in the 1670s as a verb, and 1680s as a noun. The origin is unknown, possibly coming from London street slang. It used to have a less good natured intention than today, exchanges were more aggressive and vicious, and aimed to ridicule.

Sources
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bants
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/bants
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/27/hangry-bants-fatberg-new-words-in-oxforddictionaries
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-30234121
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/banter
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banter
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ban1.htm