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.
1880s — 13 terms
Showing top 13 by views80
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grand (Irish)
1880🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊club soda
1880🍔 Food & Drink
🔊civvies
1889🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Blighty
1886⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊blower
1880🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
bluesky
🔊dude
1883👗 Fashion & Lifestyle
bluesky
🔊AC
1880🎤 Black culture & AAVE
🔊Johnny onions
1880🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊afternoonified
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Four Hundred
1888👗 Fashion & Lifestyle
🔊billycan
1880🍔 Food & Drink
🔊jitney
1886⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊gamgee
1880🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊grand poobah
1885🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊Rand formula
1884💼 Corporate & Work
🔊jack up
1885⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊heffalump
1882🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊potatoes and point
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊derecho
1888⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bluesky
🔊nothingburger
1881🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊keister
1881🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊charley horse
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊racialism
1882⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊All-American
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Sherrin
1880🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
🔊mugwump
1884⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊rugger
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊lah-di-dah
1880⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊soccer
1885🇦🇺 Australian & NZ slang
bluesky
🔊count coup
1880⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊fraktur
1886🎤 Black culture & AAVE
bluesky
🔊Medicine Line
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊hamfatter
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊parrot and monkey time
1882🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊ride shotgun
1882🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊graduand
1882🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊corn-pit
1883⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊milquetoast
1885🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊doodad
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊last chance saloon
1883⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
🔊gurney
1883🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊granola
1886🗺️ Regional & Other
bluesky
🔊Duluth pack
1880🗺️ Regional & Other
🔊drunk as Chloe
1883🇬🇧 British & Irish slang
🔊gonad
1880🗺️ 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.