Mongo

Origin

Unknown

Full definition of mongo

Noun

1. (New York City) Still-usable things salvaged (by sanmen) from garbage. since the 1970s or 80s
• 1984, NYC Issue 1-6, page 51:The old room was furnished in "mongo," Sanit lingo for stuff picked out of the garbage. Mongo-picking, Ukeles explained, "is against the law. The garbage belongs to the City. But until a recent rehabilitation program, which is the first since the Depression, the Sanmen never had their own furnishings.” Prior to the show, the Sanmen voted on the worst facilities in the system and Ukeles selected the exhibition mongo from them—shabby, broken-down furniture, walls cluttered with cheap ...
• 2006, Fine Books & Collections, volume 4, page 56, reviewing MONGO: Adventures in Trash by Ted Botha (2004):Mongo refers to trash, or more specifically, to treasure found in trash: books, artifacts, furniture, even food. Ted Botha's book explores a whole culture, and various subcultures, that revolve around mongo. Those obsessed with mongo often live on the margins, ...
• 2013, Robin Nagle, Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks (ISBN 1466836733):Loading out on house-to-house can take many hours, but such routes have other perks, especially for someone who likes to mongo. As a noun, “mongo” is Sanitation slang for treasure salvaged from the trash, with an understanding that the definition of “treasure” is both broad and personal. As a verb, “to mongo” is to look for and rescue such wealth. Sal Federici didn't mongo, but he tolerated his partner's predilection for it. Ray Kurtz was not the district's acknowledged mongo king, ...

Further reading

• Cassell's Dictionary of Slang

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