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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1850s — 235 terms
Showing top 120 by views50
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alanna
1850bluesky
🔊butty
1850bluesky
🔊bidness
1850bluesky
🔊chessy cat
1850🔊
booling
1850🔊
dak bungalow
1850🔊
kurvey
1850🔊
chaw up
1850🔊
threadworm
1850🔊
East End
1850bluesky
🔊kokama
1850🔊
piccolo
1856bluesky
🔊peckerwood
1859🔊
noplace
1850🔊
amshom
1850🔊
nib-cove
1850🔊
callboy
1850🔊
maika
1850bluesky
🔊multee kertever
1850🔊
lob-crawling
1850🔊
rehra
1850🔊
braffin
1850🔊
no-account
1850🔊
Aryan
1850bluesky
🔊phony-baloney
1850🔊
doss out
1850🔊
wurley
1850🔊
ned
1850🔊
dog tent
1850🔊
eefer
1850🔊
have been to an Irish wedding
1850🔊
femalefolk
1850🔊
maum
1850🔊
padding-ken
1850🔊
all mops and brooms
1850🔊
houseraising
1850🔊
oont
1850🔊
front
1850bluesky
🔊gwineter
1850🔊
knock down
1850bluesky
🔊growler
1850🔊
riproarious
1850🔊
tea towel
1850🔊
boilermaker
1850🔊
analog
1850bluesky
🔊nish
1850bluesky
🔊amoeba
1850bluesky
🔊faintified
1850🔊
Irish buggy
1850🔊
native millet
1850🔊
plebe
1850🔊
butterball
1850🔊
accountancy
1850bluesky
🔊red lane
1850🔊
fishhooks
1850🔊
squiffy
1850🔊
dolly shop
1850🔊
lob-sneaking
1850🔊
about east
1850🔊
balloon juice
1850🔊
calico queen
1850🔊
affiant
1850🔊
raid
1850discord
🔊fella
1850bluesky
🔊hangashore
1850🔊
jomer
1850🔊
aegrotat
1850🔊
flatware
1850bluesky
🔊donah
1850🔊
toilet
1850bluesky
🔊chiselling
1850🔊
cornball
1852bluesky
🔊accumulator
1850twitter
🔊fish food
1850bluesky
🔊Fanny Adams
1859🔊
dogan
1850🔊
Smithereen
1850🔊
above a bit
1850🔊
roly-poly
1850🔊
tank-worm
1850🔊
jerkwater
1852🔊
namous
1850🔊
Calamity Jane
1852🔊
carbuilder
1850🔊
hole up
1850🔊
flaghopper
1850🔊
bread and honey
1850🔊
essence peddler
1850🔊
goshdarn
1850🔊
billypot
1850🔊
eighth grader
1850🔊
hog island
1850🔊
baguette
1853bluesky
🔊Saratoga chip
1853🔊
trundler
1850🔊
guest of Her Majesty
1850🔊
and that's flat
1850🔊
Cullum number
1850🔊
kegling
1850🔊
deekies
1850🔊
piggy-wig
1850🔊
brickfielder
1850🔊
baggage-smasher
1850🔊
facety
1850🔊
deep freeze
1851🔊
hog-wallowing
1850🔊
Gateway to the West
1850🔊
larruped
1850🔊
baller
1850bluesky
🔊Irish confetti
1850🔊
Gentle Annie
1856🔊
finif
1850🔊
balaclava
1854🔊
limey
1850🔊
flitterjigs
1850🔊
Kansas Territory
1854🔊
dumbo
1850bluesky
🔊copper chopper
1850🔊
rubberneck
1850🔊
clyfaker
1850🔊
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.