History of American Slang Words

 

Starting Dates of Slang Words

One of the best ways to learn the meaning and origin of slang words is to look at a dictionary of slang words. The dictionary will tell you what a slang word means and when it started being used. For example:

• “bad” has been used to mean “good” since 1897
• “dude” which means a “guy”, first appeared in the 1870s

Each decade has had slang words appear during that time. Here are five common slang words and expressions from each recent decade:

• From the 1950s: boo boo - mistake or injury; cool - slow down; garbage - nonsense; hot - sexy or attractive; neck - hug or kiss; hood - juvenile delinquent;
• From the 1960s: crib or pad - where you live; bread - money; far out - amazing; hassle - annoy; spacey - odd, eccentric; vibes - feelings; chill - take it easy
• From the 1970s: bogus - unfair; gross - disgusting; horn - telephone; no brainer - easy problem; zip - nothing
• From the 1980s: go postal - go crazy; melt down - total collapse; wannabe - someone who wants to be something; wicked - excellent or very cool
• From the 1990s: bling - glitter; loot - money; po-po - police; senior moment - memory loss
• From the 2000s: buzz - shave your head; cougar - older woman dating younger man; holla - call on the phone; peep - person; tat - tattoo

Language constantly evolves and the meanings of words in it change, including the slang words.

Defining Slang

Slang refers to words or phrases that begin to be used in a widespread way. This way, our language renews itself and changes with the times. Slang words show the attitudes of the group or sub-culture that uses them.
Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning for an existing word, an abbreviation for a word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning.
It may help to go over what is not considered slang. Slang is not dialect colloquialism, or catch phrases, where both parties are familiar with the references, like “Beam me up, Scotty” from Star Trek. It is not jargon, which is limited to a certain field, or slogans used in advertising. Graffiti is not slang, nor is any special language used in a secret group.
By the 18th century, the differences between America and other English speaking countries prompted the evolution of slang. For a time, any words not used in Britain were considered slang. Originally considered to be the language of foreigners and criminals, slang began to be used by writers in the 1900s.