Slang time machine
Every English slang term has a moment it first showed up in print or on someone's lips. We've tagged 4,786 terms with a first attested decade — from 18th-century thieves’ cant through to 2020s internet vocabulary. Pick a decade below.
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1750s — 53 terms
Showing top 53 by views50
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18 holes
1750🔊
summat
1750bluesky
🔊a cappella
1750🔊
Caucasian
1752bluesky
🔊Jefferson
1750bluesky
🔊sham Abraham
1752🔊
shanks' nag
1758🔊
cotillion
1750bluesky
🔊buddo
1750🔊
humpty
1750bluesky
🔊Andrew Miller
1750bluesky
🔊ginned
1750🔊
clamjamfrey
1750🔊
valedictorian
1759bluesky
🔊North American
1750bluesky
🔊nickel
1755bluesky
🔊breakbone
1750🔊
cactus
1752bluesky
🔊spalpeen
1750🔊
brand new
1750bluesky
🔊dew-beater
1750🔊
sculduddery
1750🔊
Billy Yank
1750🔊
crabs
1750bluesky
🔊country box
1750🔊
punch house
1750🔊
Indian file
1750🔊
peckish
1750bluesky
🔊goosegog
1750🔊
John Radcliffe
1750🔊
Chippewa
1750bluesky
🔊cat's water
1750🔊
clishmaclaver
1750🔊
inbye
1750🔊
skew-whiff
1750🔊
steeplechase
1750🔊
frogeater
1750🔊
bespoke
1755bluesky
🔊corduroy
1756🔊
backwoodser
1750🔊
blow the gaff
1750🔊
clubbable
1750🔊
magtig
1752🔊
nob
1750🔊
Frenchified
1750🔊
coniacker
1750🔊
blue tape
1750🔊
Nutcrack Night
1750🔊
scotched collops
1750🔊
blouze
1750🔊
musette
1750🔊
birthday-suited
1750🔊
cause célèbre
1750🔊
More on how slang travels through time
The lifecycle of a slang word
Mint, scale, ironize, retire — how every viral term moves through the same five stages.
Where slang is born now
The platforms and subcultures that mint vocabulary in 2026 — and why TikTok shifted everything.
AAVE and internet slang
The single biggest source of new mainstream English vocabulary, and why most of the words you used today started here.
Attestation dates come from etymologies originally sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0) and editorial expansion authored on Slangora. They reflect the earliest documented use we found for each term, not necessarily the moment it was coined.