My recent confusion about the meaning of the term "shorty" is not just mine, it would seem (thanks to Nick for this link). The term seems to have been in vogue for the last few years, but has only recently bubbled up into the sphere of popular culture that I monitor assiduously. Helpfully, its meanings seem to include separately: (i) Woman (ii) Man (iii) Child, which seems to have everything covered. With some websearching, the main meanings are (in decreasing order of popularity) Girlfriend; attractive woman; any woman; boyfriend; young child; short person; anyone at all. Well, at least it's all people (like Soylent Green).

Through all this confusion, there is of course but one definitive source, and that is of course Jonathan's TEEN LINGO dictionary (I think it came up on NTK or the reg a while ago, by the way), which has all the words the kids are using down the local clubs (youth clubs, that is). If, like me, you are a pastor with responsibility for keeping up with the younger elements, then this guide is absolutely invaluable for translating their slang ridden vocab into more understandable language. Finally cleared up the meaning of "hood rat" from 'I Wish' by Skee-lo for me after all these years, which was a blessing (hey, Skee-lo, if you do get the hood rats, well, that's better than nothing, surely?). Not to be confused with rugrats, of course.

Discovered in the course of researching this article - a new version of googlefight: NTK fight!
Klingon vs Jedi (the nerdy sci-fi references seem to be appropriate for NTK, y'see).