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.

121700 31710 21720 41730 31740 21750 21760 31770 31780 91790 161800 81810 81820 141830 101840 141850 111860 101870 181880 241890 231900 231910 321920 291930 361940 271950 521960 431970 501980 761990 742000 1382010 2212020

1850s — 14 terms

Showing top 14 by views

use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

get down to brass tacks

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.