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.
1810s — 5 terms
Showing top 5 by views10
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aluminium
1812🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊back of beyond
1816🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
🔊gerrymander
1812⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊thug
1810🎤 Black culture & AAVE
bluesky
🔊daddy longlegs
1810🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊Jeames
1811🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊chestnut
1816🌐 Internet & Memes
bluesky
🔊critter
1815⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊feist
1811🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Rip Van Winkle
1819🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Lady Canning
1817🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊boost
1815🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊beat Banaghan
1811🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊eavestrough
1813⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊dogsbody
1818🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊Victoria Day
1819🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊More on how slang travels through time
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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.