Slang time machine
Every English slang term has a moment it first showed up in print or on someone's lips. We've tagged 1,000 terms with a first attested decade — from 18th-century thieves’ cant through to 2020s internet vocabulary. Pick a decade below.
1750s — 5 terms
Showing top 5 by views50
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a cappella
1750⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊Caucasian
1752🍔 Food & Drink
bluesky
🔊nickel
1755⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊North American
1750🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Jefferson
1750🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊bespoke
1755👗 Fashion & Lifestyle
bluesky
🔊valedictorian
1759🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊cactus
1752🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊sham Abraham
1752🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊magtig
1752🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊corduroy
1756⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊shanks' nag
1758⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊cotillion
1750🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊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.