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May 6, 2024 · 1950s slang wasn’t particularly colorful compared to other eras. The slang of the 1960s, with its drug and protest culture, was a paradise of slang. In the 1950s, hot-rodders and Beats were a source of inspiration. Some of the slang terms below were actually insults that are still used today. People would use phrases like “square” to mock ...
- Beatnik
- Cool
- Backseat Bingo
- Pad
- Ginchy
- Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’
- Dreamboat
- Squaresville and Cubesville
- Endsville
- Antsville
These days, the term beatnik defines the most prominent subculture of the 1950s, but the word wasn’t coined until 1958. That year, columnist Herb Caen added -nik (a suffix derived from the satellite Sputnik, which launched in 1957) to beat to describe members of the Beat generation. A typical beatnik was a free-spirited artist who rejected societal...
Originally part of African American Language (a.k.a. African American Vernacular, or AAVE), coolemerged from the jazz scene in the 1940s. In the 1950s, it became mainstream with the youth of America. Anything trendy and desirable—from a fashionable outfit to a catchy song on the radio—could be described as cool.
The 1950s saw the explosion of American car culture, and with it came a wave of new car-related slang terms. Backseat bingoreferred to hanky panky that took place inside a vehicle. Parking was a less colorful way to describe the same activity.
Though padcan refer to any place of residence today, it had unsavory connotations in the mid-20th century. A 1950s beatnik may have used the term when referring to a place to crash, or a room to use (or recover fromhaving used) drugs.
If a friend said you were“the ginchiest”in the 1950s, that would have been high praise. Unfortunately, ginchy—which meant “excellent” or “attractive”—didn’t have the same staying power as its synonym, cool.
This phrase can be interpreted multiple ways. Originally, if was someone was cruisin’ for a bruisin‘ in the 1950s, they were looking for an excuse to pick a fight. Sometime in the 1970s, the meaning changed from cruisin’ to give a bruisin’ to cruisin’ to geta bruisin’. A person insulting their friend with a short temper would qualify for the second...
The word dreamboat first surfaced in the 1940s, but it really took off in the following decade. It described any person (usually a man) worth swooning over. Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, and James Deanall qualified as dreamboats.
If you really wanted to ramp up your slang game in the ‘50s, all you needed to do was slap a -ville at the end of a well-known term. For example, you could take square and cube, which were both used to describe a boring person, and amplify them to encompass an entire fictional town full of dullards. That ho-hum co-worker of yours who barely says a ...
On the other end of the spectrum, there was endsville, which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as a fictional place full of all the good things (and people) in life—like a town where your favorite bands and restaurants reside.
Any spot that made a person feel like they were packed into an ant farm—whether it was a movie theater or a sockhop—deserved the designationantsville.
- Michele Debczak
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- Daddy-O. Your daddy is your actual father, but your daddy-O is just a generally cool dude… Who for some reason you're calling daddy. Example: "Whatever you say, daddy-O!"
- Made in the shade. Today, being in the shade means you're avoiding sun damage to your skin. But in the 50s, being made in the shade meant things are going well for you and you don't have a care in the world.
- Ginchiest. A way to tell somebody you admire their appearance or personality. And for more fun facts, here are 20 New Words Introduced in 2017. Example: "Baby, you're the ginchiest!"
- Burn rubber. No point in having a hot rod if you're not going to show off its speed. And when you press that pedal to the metal, your tires are gonna burn some rubber.
May 16, 2024 · Slang words go in and out of fashion – just look at these words popular in the 1940s and 1950s. Remember, these are not strict, traditional definitions, but rather how the words have been adopted to use in everyday speech.
Aug 10, 2021 · While words and phrases are common in slang, suffixes are a bit rarer. The habit of adding -ville after another word came into vogue in the 1950s, and it produced some memorable slang. Antsville — a place very densely populated, so it looked like an area overrun by ants. Coolsville — a place that was, well, cool.
Slang and new words in the 1950s. agricats, “Washington agricultural autocrats”. A-Man, a U.S. government detective. amble-scramble, a system of pedestrian walking at street corners which, for short periods, permits pedestrians to go in any direction. armored vest, a vest worn for protection against bullets and shrapnel.
Dec 1, 2023 · Incredible 1950s Slang We Need to Bring Back Today. Robert F Mason. Updated December 1, 202382.0K views23 items. Ranked By. 14.2K votes. 1.6K voters. Voting Rules. Vote up the sick retro slang you’ll be working into everyday conversation. Every generation develops its own slang.
