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.
1870s — 10 terms
Showing top 10 by viewsOscar Asche
1871🗺️ Regional & Other
all-rounder
1875⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
Robertson screwdriver
1879🗺️ Regional & Other
donkey's years
1876🗺️ Regional & Other
malarkey
1877🗺️ Regional & Other
German sparrow
1870🗺️ Regional & Other
telephone
1876⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
one-horse town
1871🗺️ Regional & Other
eat crow
1870🗺️ Regional & Other
rain check
1877⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
Jap
1872⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
Jimmy Britts
1879🗺️ Regional & Other
dinkum
1879🗺️ Regional & Other
boiled shirt
1873🗺️ Regional & Other
criminal tribe
1871⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
muslin
1875🗺️ Regional & Other
lollygag
1871🗺️ Regional & Other
two solitudes
1875🗺️ Regional & Other
platypusary
1873🗺️ Regional & Other
hitch one's wagon to a star
1870🗺️ Regional & Other
Johnson hole
1878🗺️ Regional & Other
blessed assurance
1873🗺️ Regional & Other
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.