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.
2001: Whale-Tail
This slang doesn’t refer to the graceful mammals of the sea, but rather the unfortunate problem of a thong showing above your waistline.
2002: Hella
“Hella good!”
2003: Freegan
Playing off of “vegan,” this slang describes someone who only eats free food.
2004: Muffin Top
After this year, we could never look at muffins the same.
2005: Fo Shizzle / Fo Sheezy
Thanks, Snoop Dog, for gifting these gems to the world!
2006: Sick
Meaning “great,” as in “That list of slang words was sick.”
Which words have stuck around? Do you still use any of these?
Sources:
Midnight Believer via Flickr