Vintage Slang — Back In Time
Before TikTok, before texting — the slang that built the language. Jive, flappers, beatniks, greasers, hippies and old-school hip-hop, all decoded with their real history.
183 words
A young woman — the beatnik counterpart to calling a guy a 'cat.'
To calm down, relax, and let go of tension.
Polari for to smarten, fluff or style up — the word that gave us modern 'zhuzh'.
Polari for a dull or unavailable man — 'naff' here meaning ordinary, possibly 'not available for...'.
Describing music or style with deep, earthy, irresistible groove and soul.
Boy-crazy for men in uniform — the 1940s term for a girl smitten with soldiers.
Lend me your ears, that is, listen up and pay attention.
GI slang for any gadget whose name you don't know — the thingamajig of the WWII era.
Stealing somebody's rhymes, moves, or style and trying to pass it off as your own.
Polari for wonderful or marvellous — a blend of fabulous and fantastic with extra flourish.
A stylish, confident woman who's sharp, sure of herself, and dressed to kill.
Your word is your unbreakable promise, a vow of total truth and honor.
Playing or performing perfectly, locked into the rhythm and feeling it just right.
Polari for a gay man — literally 'man-woman', a coded self-name under criminalisation.
Polari and wider British slang for a drink, usually alcoholic — short for 'beverage'.
A weak, fake rapper with no skills, the kind of MC real ones eat alive on the mic.
A working-class youth with slicked-back hair, leather jacket, and a love of cars and rock-n-roll.
Hopelessly square, dull, or worthless — going nowhere, leading nowhere.
The establishment, authority, or oppressive power structure.
A state of total boredom — a dreary, lifeless place or situation.
A fiery, spirited young woman with attitude and energy to spare.
Nonsense, lies, or foolish talk, the meaty cousin of 'applesauce.'
A swell person or a tune that 'sends' you, thrilling you to your core.
An illegal Prohibition bar, where the 'juice' flowed despite the law.
A disappointing, depressing, or unpleasant experience.
Polari for a woman or girl — likely from Italian 'paglione' or a Romance root.
Everything's fine and in order, a smooth, satisfying word whose origin nobody can fully prove.
Mature content — open to view.
Completely wrong or mistaken, the 1920s way to say you've got it backwards.
Prohibition-era nickname for liquor, named for the loose, laughing mood it brought on.
To show up where the action is — to attend, participate, and be part of the happening.
Mature content — open to view.
To astonish or overwhelm someone, often expanding their awareness.
An encouragement to keep going, stay persistent, and ride out whatever comes.
To lose emotional control, or to have an overwhelming reaction good or bad.
The overly keen recruit who volunteers for everything — sometimes a compliment, often a tease.
Jive-era slang for the telephone, named after the actor who played the man who invented it on screen.
The ultimate — the absolute end of the line in the best possible way.
The breakup letter every soldier dreaded — the homefront sweetheart calling it off while he's away.
So good it's almost wrong, the kind of skill that flips 'sick' into a compliment.
Just right, smooth and satisfying, everything as it ought to be.
A chaotic mess that's gone wrong in the usual, expected way — military acronym for 'situation normal, all fouled up.'
Flapper brush-off meaning no more kissing or canoodling tonight, fella.
To lose your cool, freak out, or get wildly excited.
Genuinely fine, excellent, the real thing, beyond reproach.
A sarcastic GI groan about a raw, rotten situation — the 'what a deal' nobody actually wanted.
An invitation to dance and move your body freely on the floor.
A car stripped down and souped up for speed, the centerpiece of greaser culture.
GI slang for the cramped troop transport that hauled men packed in like livestock.
A playful jive way to say 'give me a kiss.'
To go all out, give it everything you got, whether on the mic, the floor, or in a battle.
Set for life, guaranteed to succeed, with nothing left to worry about.
A beat-up, rattletrap old automobile held together by hope and tape.
Polari for none, no, or beware — a vital warning word in dangerous times.
To lose your composure — get wildly excited, blown away, or come unglued.
A great-looking body — a compliment paid to an attractive person, especially a girl.
A cool greeting or acknowledgment meaning 'what's going on' or 'right on.'
Polari for the eyes, with 'ogles' a pair and 'ogle riahs' the eyelashes.
An energetic swing dancer, or the wild, acrobatic dance they did to hot jazz.
To leave or take off — to clear out of a place, fast or casual.
The absolute best — the height of cool, with nothing better above it.
Mature content — open to view.
A rhetorical check meaning 'do you understand and agree with this?'
To an intense or wild degree — the beat-era way of saying 'a whole lot.'
Mature content — open to view.
Top-shelf praise of the Jazz Age, the best of the best, right up there with the cat's meow.
The guys, especially musicians and people who are hip to the scene.
An expression of strong agreement, approval, or encouragement.
Mature content — open to view.
The rugged little military runabout of WWII — and originally GI slang for any new, untested gadget or recruit.
An exclamation of awe at something amazing or wonderfully strange.
Delightful, darling, or just dandy, a sweet word of approval from the flapper set.
The hapless, bumbling soldier who can't catch a break — and any luckless screw-up since.
To tap-dance, to lay down some hot footwork on the floor.
A high-ranking officer — the 'brass' whose decisions the enlisted men had to live with.
To talk a lot, to run your mouth or chatter away.
To hang out and relax, or to drop a verse, depending on how you're using it.
A hidden illegal bar of the Prohibition era where you spoke easy to get in.
Describing something so excellent it's beyond belief or comparison.
Surreal, hallucinatory, or resembling a psychedelic experience.
Something so good it knocks you out, the absolute height of excellence.
The mischievous imaginary imp that RAF pilots blamed for every mysterious mechanical fault.
GI slang for canned milk — the only 'cow' the army could ship to the front.
Excellent, first-rate, or wonderful, a go-to word of approval in the jazz age.
In mint, like-new, perfectly maintained condition — said especially of a car.
The absolute best, the standout, the thing everybody's talking about.
A composed, stylish, in-the-know man — the very picture of beatnik cool.
A flapper's flirty question: do you want to kiss me now or later?
Your tight friend from the neighborhood, your ride-or-die from way back.
To excite or impress someone — that really thrills me.
To dance with full energy and joy, especially to funk or disco.
Honest, fair, and on the up-and-up, no tricks, no double-dealing.
Your finest party clothes, the beaded, fringed, dressed-to-kill outfit you saved for a night out.
To grab the microphone and command the crowd with serious skill and energy.
A flapper-era dandy, the smooth, idle ladies' man who lived for parties and easy charm.
Thrills and good times pursued for their own sake — fun, excitement, a buzz.
Mature content — open to view.
A hip, affectionate way to address a man — the beatnik equivalent of 'man' or 'dude.'
Your day-one girl from the block, the female counterpart to your homeboy.
A dull, boring, depressing situation or place — a total drag.
Mature content — open to view.
America's affectionate nickname for the Ford Model T, the car that put the nation on wheels.
Excellent, top quality, the highest grade, flipped from drug slang into pure praise.
Wordy, pompous, meaningless jargon — coined in 1944 by a fed-up congressman sick of bureaucratic babble.
The back seat of a courting couple's car, where a flapper had to 'struggle' to keep things proper.
The portable stereo you hauled on your shoulder to bring the party with you.
Polari for a man — from Italian 'uomo', and the root of many compound terms.
A punch in the mouth, served up as a threat.
Something or someone tremendously good, the most, an absolute riot.
Something hilarious or a really good joke — a big laugh.
To dance hard, party with abandon, or fully commit to having a good time.
Flapper slang for plastered, all buzz and no balance.
A small child or annoying little kid underfoot.
The name of the cant itself — and a verb meaning to talk — Britain's secret gay language.
A breezy goodbye meaning 'see you later' or 'until next time.'
To pine for someone who doesn't love you back, your flame still burning alone.
A rude raspberry blown to show contempt, named for New York's loudest borough of hecklers.
The gold standard of Twenties praise, the most stylish, splendid thing going.
The boss, the head honcho, the most important person in the room.
Roaring Twenties praise for the absolute best thing or person around.
Polari for the face — back-slang of 'ecaf', itself 'face' reversed.
Polari for to look at or to see — the verb of the discreet, knowing glance.
A phony, untrustworthy person who talks a big game but never backs it up.
To accelerate hard, spinning the tires — or to leave somewhere fast.
A Prohibition speakeasy dressed up as a sideshow, you paid to see the 'tiger' and got a drink free.
The soldier first in the mess line and last to leave — the unit's bottomless eater.
Polari for bad, naff or tacky — the opposite of bona.
Dancing to the breaks with footwork, spins, and freezes, the raw original form of breakdancing.
Smooth, sharp, and impressively stylish — or smoothly cunning.
A key to the door, in the playful coded style of pure Harlem jive.
The WWII GI's calling card — scrawled graffiti proving 'we were here first,' usually with a long-nosed peeping cartoon.
A swing-music fan or hep jitterbug, often a white enthusiast soaking up Harlem jazz.
Excellent, cool, or pleasingly in tune with the moment.
Jazz-age slang for the coolest, classiest, most wonderful thing going.
To start dancing, get moving, or do something the right way with energy.
Roaring Twenties for blind drunk, one of dozens of comic synonyms born under Prohibition.
A friendly term of address for a fellow hipster or musician, like 'pal' with jive flavor.
The hippie ethos of nonviolence, love, and passive resistance to war.
A great situation of comfort, prosperity, and good fortune.
Describing someone strikingly attractive, stylish, and alluring.
To beg off, make excuses, or back down and apologize.
The intuitive emotional energy or atmosphere a person or place gives off.
A 1920s cry of 'nonsense!' since horses have no feathers in the first place.
To sleep or stay somewhere, often informally and without plans.
Jazz Age for nonsense and slick flattery, popularized by a hit comic strip.
A short, flat-out car race from a standing start — or something boring.
Polari for good, fine or lovely — the warm thumbs-up at the heart of the cant.
Polari for a policeman — literally a 'searching man', the figure most feared by speakers.
Flapper-era way to call something nonsense, like saying 'baloney' or 'bunk.'
Polari for a toilet, lavatory or house — from Italian 'casa', and the root of Cockney 'khazi'.
To run off or flee fast — Polari and Cockney for making a quick getaway.
A Jazz Age layabout, a young man who slept all day and dodged work, the original slacker.
A sharp, in-the-know person who's wise to jazz, style, and the latest jive.
Polari for hair — simply 'hair' spelled backwards, a classic back-slang coining.
Polari and gay slang for masculine or tough — a presentation, not a slur.
GI gallows humor for insects — the bugs and lice that plagued soldiers in the field.
Polari for fortune or luck — a hopeful word from Romance roots.
An affirmation meaning 'excellent,' 'agreed,' or 'we're cool.'
Clean, new, and sharp, the look of somebody stepping out flawless head to toe.
To understand, appreciate, or pay close attention to something.
Money, cash, or earnings — the dough you work for.
So deeply into the music or moment that you've left ordinary reality behind — totally absorbed and excellent.
Cheap bootleg liquor, the rough stuff that flowed through Prohibition speakeasies.
Asking for trouble — headed straight toward a beating or serious consequences.
Twenties slang for so drunk you've gone stiff as bone.
Excellent, the best, top-tier, the word that named a whole record label.
A break-boy who lived for the breaks, throwing down on cardboard with footwork and freezes.
Polari for pretty, nice or sweet — as in 'your dolly old eek'.
Polari for legs — the singular 'lally' meaning one leg.
An explosive shout of excitement meaning something is fantastic or thrilling.
Polari for a house, flat or room — your lattie was your private safe space.
Your home, apartment, or place to hang out.
To panic, freak out, or flee — to come apart or bolt under pressure.
Jazz Age for just right, pleasing, or pleasingly attractive, everything's swell.
Kicking back totally relaxed and unbothered, cool with no worries at all.
Profound, serious, or emotionally intense.
An ironic reversal meaning extremely good, impressive, or tough.
Polari for make-up — the greasepaint of theatre folk, slapped on the eek.
A glamorous, alluring young woman of the jazz age, the female counterpart to a sheik.
Mature content — open to view.
A conventional, conformist person out of step with the hip scene.
A smooth, romantic young ladies' man of the 1920s, named after Valentino.
Mature content — open to view.