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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1910s — 63 terms
Showing top 63 by views10
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lit
1910tiktok
🔊touch base
1915🔊
emma
1914bluesky
🔊napoo
1915🔊
cootie
1917🔊
blimp
1915bluesky
🔊A-ration
1916🔊
how's your father
1910🔊
knapsack
1913twitter
🔊Pygmalion word
1913🔊
ANC
1912🔊
jazz
1912bluesky
🔊boondock
1910🔊
refugee
1914bluesky
🔊Bubba
1912bluesky
🔊jamboree
1919bluesky
🔊jaywalker
1917🔊
Oreo
1912bluesky
🔊bush week
1919🔊
period
1911texting
🔊Saturday-night special
1917🔊
jellybean
1910🔊
pom
1912🔊
racialist
1910🔊
dinna
1912🔊
furphy
1914🔊
blue balls
1910🔊
donkey's ears
1916🔊
realtor
1916bluesky
🔊knees-up
1918🔊
pommie
1912🔊
Devdas
1917🔊
long drink of water
1918🔊
autistic
1913bluesky
🔊doohickey
1914bluesky
🔊Saxbe fix
1916🔊
grease monkey
1910🔊
scarper
1914🔊
poutine
1918bluesky
🔊hog waller
1915🔊
movie
1912🔊
national insurance
1911🔊
bullshit
1910bluesky
🔊bimbo
1919bluesky
🔊bolshie
1918🔊
Dixie cup
1919🔊
Chanakya
1915🔊
Robert Borden
1911🔊
flivver
1917🔊
bozo
1910bluesky
🔊Founding Father
1916🔊
ridge-runner
1917🔊
joystick
1910bluesky
🔊walk in the snow
1919🔊
go Dutch
1914🔊
Min Min light
1918🔊
live rent-free in someone's head
1918🔊
san fairy ann
1914🔊
rock and roll
1914bluesky
🔊roscoe
1910bluesky
🔊bum's rush
1911🔊
Jepson claim
1917🔊
copacetic
1919🔊
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.