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.
1780s — 4 terms
Showing top 4 by views80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
chalet
1782🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊jiffy
1780⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊abolitionist
1788🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊international
1780⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊Rafflesian
1781🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊sprote
1780🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊libertarian
1789🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
bluesky
🔊Buckley's chance
1780🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
🔊Cubitopolis
1788🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊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.