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.
1860s — 9 terms
Showing top 9 by views60
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Copperheadism
1860🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊chuck wagon
1860🍔 Food & Drink
🔊chiseler
1860🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊skat
1864⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊Met
1863⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊AB
1860⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊Lincoln
1865🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊bicycle
1868⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊picky
1860🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
bluesky
🔊carburetor
1862?? Drugs & Substances
bluesky
🔊gasoline
1862🍔 Food & Drink
bluesky
🔊humbug
1864⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊scrimshaw
1865⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊scad
1869🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊red cent
1864🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊akether
1867🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊hellhole
1866🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊on the up-and-up
1863🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊honyock
1860🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Quaker gun
1862⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊Down syndrome
1860🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
🔊Gandhigiri
1869🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Juneteenth
1865🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Peter Witt
1869🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊slaw
1861🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Dad and Dave
1868🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
🔊farb
1863🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊poteen
1869🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊dumbocracy
1869🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊moke
1860🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊down the banks
1862🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊tenderfoot
1866🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊rising of the moon
1865🗺️ 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.