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🔊
nickel
1755bluesky
🔊clamjamfrey
1750🔊
shanks' nag
1758🔊
ginned
1750🔊
humpty
1750bluesky
🔊Andrew Miller
1750bluesky
🔊North American
1750bluesky
🔊sculduddery
1750🔊
dew-beater
1750🔊
crabs
1750bluesky
🔊spalpeen
1750🔊
cotillion
1750bluesky
🔊brand new
1750bluesky
🔊punch house
1750🔊
skew-whiff
1750🔊
cactus
1752bluesky
🔊peckish
1750bluesky
🔊valedictorian
1759bluesky
🔊breakbone
1750🔊
bespoke
1755bluesky
🔊magtig
1752🔊
steeplechase
1750🔊
cat's water
1750🔊
clubbable
1750🔊
Chippewa
1750bluesky
🔊Indian file
1750🔊
nob
1750🔊
corduroy
1756🔊
inbye
1750🔊
clishmaclaver
1750🔊
goosegog
1750🔊
Nutcrack Night
1750🔊
scotched collops
1750🔊
Billy Yank
1750🔊
buddo
1750🔊
frogeater
1750🔊
blow the gaff
1750🔊
musette
1750🔊
coniacker
1750🔊
blouze
1750🔊
Frenchified
1750🔊
country box
1750🔊
backwoodser
1750🔊
John Radcliffe
1750🔊
blue tape
1750🔊
cause célèbre
1750🔊
birthday-suited
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.