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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1910s — 63 terms
Showing top 63 by views10
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lit
1910tiktok
🔊touch base
1915🔊
emma
1914bluesky
🔊napoo
1915🔊
cootie
1917🔊
blimp
1915bluesky
🔊how's your father
1910🔊
A-ration
1916🔊
Pygmalion word
1913🔊
knapsack
1913twitter
🔊Bubba
1912bluesky
🔊bush week
1919🔊
boondock
1910🔊
ANC
1912🔊
refugee
1914bluesky
🔊jazz
1912bluesky
🔊period
1911texting
🔊Oreo
1912bluesky
🔊hog waller
1915🔊
grease monkey
1910🔊
jaywalker
1917🔊
long drink of water
1918🔊
Saturday-night special
1917🔊
pom
1912🔊
autistic
1913bluesky
🔊jamboree
1919bluesky
🔊blue balls
1910🔊
dinna
1912🔊
jellybean
1910🔊
rock and roll
1914bluesky
🔊doohickey
1914bluesky
🔊Devdas
1917🔊
realtor
1916bluesky
🔊poutine
1918bluesky
🔊racialist
1910🔊
ridge-runner
1917🔊
movie
1912🔊
donkey's ears
1916🔊
national insurance
1911🔊
knees-up
1918🔊
bolshie
1918🔊
pommie
1912🔊
bullshit
1910bluesky
🔊Saxbe fix
1916🔊
scarper
1914🔊
flivver
1917🔊
Dixie cup
1919🔊
furphy
1914🔊
go Dutch
1914🔊
Robert Borden
1911🔊
bimbo
1919bluesky
🔊bozo
1910bluesky
🔊joystick
1910bluesky
🔊Chanakya
1915🔊
san fairy ann
1914🔊
live rent-free in someone's head
1918🔊
bum's rush
1911🔊
Founding Father
1916🔊
walk in the snow
1919🔊
roscoe
1910bluesky
🔊Min Min light
1918🔊
Jepson claim
1917🔊
copacetic
1919🔊
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.