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.
370048004900123950391000410503110011150412008125011290361300101350337140015145074150051520315302154031155061560215701158031590391600816105162021630216404716504166031670316801169010817007171041720817306174053175011176010177012178020179079180018181024182044183035184023518503818602918705518805918902871900631910781920911930119194029219501331960136197020019803201990279200061220104882020
1000s — 39 terms
Showing top 39 by views00
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deacon
1000bluesky
🔊bake
1000bluesky
🔊flint
1000bluesky
🔊lassock
1000🔊
long
1000🔊
black
1000🔊
wag
1000🔊
abide
1000bluesky
🔊fellwalker
1000🔊
happed
1000🔊
kirkman
1000bluesky
🔊bite
1000bluesky
🔊dirt
1000bluesky
🔊shaggable
1000🔊
scrieve
1000🔊
Caesar
1000bluesky
🔊bearmeal
1000🔊
wanrestful
1000🔊
daleside
1000🔊
kirkbuzzer
1000🔊
ready, steady, go
1000🔊
howk
1000🔊
unheppen
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lamster
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laup
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moss-hag
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fiend
1000bluesky
🔊sharny
1000🔊
kistful
1000🔊
skit
1000bluesky
🔊aye man
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blot
1000bluesky
🔊bummock
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snecket
1000🔊
crousely
1000🔊
forget
1000bluesky
🔊yill
1000🔊
daftlike
1000🔊
beget
1000🔊
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.