Here’s the Most Popular Slang the Year You Were Born

No matter how young we may forever feel at heart, each of us is influenced by the times we grew up in. That includes the slang we use! Some slang terms have a way of sticking around, but it’s also really fun to look back on which forgotten ones were all the rage back when we were born. So check out this list of popular slang in each year, for instance:

1940: Baby Blues

The perfect label for captivating eyes.

1941: Dreamboat

Meaning a beautiful man. So, you might have said “Look at those baby blues on that dreamboat…”

1942: Hyper

I’d swear this was 1980s slang, but apparently “hyper” has been around a long time.

1943: Duh

It’s no surprise that this one has stuck around–it’s the perfect reaction to a silly comment.

1944: Tag-along

“Mildred asked if she could tag along. She’s a little hyper, but I said it was fine.”

1945: Doh

Clearly, this one got started way before Homer Simpson.

1946: Cheese

As in “cheesed off,” meaning “angy.”

1947: Blockbuster

It started out as a term for a powerful bomb, but soon came to refer to a film or anything else that makes a big impact.

1948: Gas

A slang term meaning “great” (“That movie was a gas”), this never became as widespread as “cool.”

1949: Jet Set

Just picture people you envy zooming around the world at the start of the jet age.

1950: Beautiful People

Pretty much the equals of the jet set!

1951: Nerd

The world needed a slang opposite to all those beautiful people, and so “nerd” was born.

1952: Kook / Kookie

This one meant “silly” or “weird,” like “He’s such a kook!”

1953: Hippie

Though it’s usually associated with the 1960s, this term started taking off a decade earlier.

1954: Boonies

This term for an undesirable part of town was popular even before Billy Joe Royal’s 1965 hit “Down in the Boondocks.”

1955: Cool

This one has to be one of the longest-lasting slang terms!

1956: Dig It

It’s not clear what the origin of this phrase is, but it has stuck around in culture.

1957: Split

As they might have said in 1957, “They sure burned some rubber when they split.”

1958: Nuke

This was the nuclear age, after all.

1959: Hot-dog

Frankfurters had been around for a while, but “hot-dog” started to catch on as a term for “wow” or “great” around this time.

1960: Dullsville

“My life is so boring — I might as well have been born in Dullsville, USA!”

1961: Bratty

Long before the “brat pack” of the 1980s, there was this slang word for a kid with attitude.

1962: Drop-dead Gorgeous

Slang that might have been used to describe the beautiful Marilyn Monroe, who died in 1962.

1963: Mickey Mouse

Not just the Disney character, this became slang for “goofing off.”

1964: Aw Skucks

The first known use of this term was in 1951, but it really took off around 1964.

1965: Grody

Meaning “gross” or “disgusting,” this one seems to stick around.

1966: Drag

As in “You lost your tickets to The Beatles’ last concert? What a drag!”

1967: Freak Flag

Thank Jimi Hendrix for this phase, which appeared in his ode to individual freedom, “If 6 was 9.”

1968: Groovy

“That flower girl is sooooo groovy!”

1969: Out of Sight

You couldn’t have made it through the 1960s without using this great way of saying, well, “great!”

1970: Dorky

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary says this word started appearing in 1970.

1971: Deadheads

This was around the time the Grateful Dead were getting more popular and gaining all their loyal fans.

1972: Guilt Trip

“Man, my parents are giving me such a guilt trip for skipping school to go see the Grateful Dead!”

1973: Dream On

Thanks in no small part to Aerosmith’s 1973 song “Dream On,” most likely.

1974: Carbo

As in “carbohydrates,” this term became part of 1970s fad diet slang.

1975: Detox

Something you might go through as part of one of those fad diets.

1976: Right On

This phrase was probably said in thousands of ’70s movies.

1977: Brewski

Bro-slang for “beer.”

1978: Do Me a Solid

As in “Do me a solid and pass me that brewski.”

1979: Get Down

This was the disco era, after all.

1980: Frizzy

When 1980s big hair began…

1981: Chill Pill

The phrase “Take a chill pill!” is forever associated with the ’80s.

1982: Gag Me with a Spoon

Moon Zappa’s song “Valley Girl” released this year helped popularize this phrase and other Valleyspeak, including “grody to the max!”

1983: Beat Box

Hip hop really began to develop on the ‘80s, giving us slang like this.

1984: Bodacious

Great slang for “beautiful” that might someday come back.

1985: Radness

This word birthed others, like “radtastic” and simply “rad.”

1986: Studmuffin

As in “That’s one bodacious studmuffin.”

1987: Couch Surfing

Long before the service CouchSurfing got started, there was the slang term.

1988: F-bomb

Another one that’s older than I thought!

1989: Gnarly

As in “Check out my new Polaroid camera. Totally gnarly!”

1990: Kewl

A deliberate misspelling (and mispronunciation) of “cool.”

1991: Trippin’

If you don’t appreciate ‘90s slang, you’re totally trippin’.

1992: NOT

As in “Garth’s totally kewl…NOT!” This term definitely got noticed because of its prominent use in the iconic movie Wayne’s World.

1993: Da Bomb

Thousands of things in the ’90s somehow became “da bomb.”

1994: Benjamins

Slang for $100 bills, featuring the face of Benjamin Franklin.

1995: As If

This phrase is forever associated with the movie Clueless, released this same year.

1996: Whatever

Also used in “Clueless,” this became the slightly annoying catchphrase of ’90s kids.

1997: Diss

Before there could be a diss-battle, there had to be this great word for putting somebody down.

1998: Phat

Like “bad” came to mean “good,” misspell “fat” and it suddenly means “great.”

1999: Bling

For any sort of gold, jewelry, or other flashy item that makes others jealous.

2000: Whassup?

Based on a beer commercial, this slightly annoying slang really became popular after being parodied in the parody of scary movies, Scary Movie, also from this year.