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Jul 16, 2021 · Put yourself back in time with these common 1950s slang words and phrases. Brush up on some of this nifty slang and learn about this time.
- Mary Gormandy White
- Staff Writer
- admin@yourdictionary.com
- Michele Debczak
- Beatnik. 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.
- Cool. Originally part of African American Language (a.k.a. African American Vernacular, or AAVE), cool emerged from the jazz scene in the 1940s. In the 1950s, it became mainstream with the youth of America.
- Backseat Bingo. The 1950s saw the explosion of American car culture, and with it came a wave of new car-related slang terms. Backseat bingo referred to hanky panky that took place inside a vehicle.
- Pad. Though pad can 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 from having used) drugs.
- Contributor
- Wisenheimer. If you smugly thought you were just a little bit smarter than everybody else during the 1900s, you might have had this insult hurled at you—which, to our modern ears, sounds an awful lot like a hot dog brand.
- Knuckle sandwich. We're sure this '40s-era slang—an expressive way of describing a fist that's prepared to punch you right in the face—is intended to be intimidating.
- Arf'arf'an'arf. When loosely translated, this British term gives us another word for being embarrassingly intoxicated. And, when used correctly, represents the exact moment your drunk brain has had enough—and when the English language is no longer accessible.
- Ducky shincracker. Maybe we live in the wrong era, but when we think of cracking shins, the first thing that comes to mind isn't "they must be a good dancer."
- 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.
- like how "a wet sock" means a limp handshake.
- "Happy cabbage" is a sizeable amount of money to be spent on self-satisfying things. You know, like cabbage. This was the old days.
- "Pang-Wangle" is to live or go along cheerfully in spite of minor misfortunes, like Mickey Mouse who goes along cheerfully despite having a dog who's a friend and also a dog who's a dog and also, come to think of it, Thor, who goes on despite having Loki as a brother, and Yoda, who goes on despite Luke Skywalker's incessant whining.
- "In the ketchup" means in the red or operating at a deficit.
Aug 10, 2021 · Look no further, because we collected some of the ginchiest 1950s slang phrases. Popular 1950s Slang That’s Worth Knowing Ankle Biter. Meaning: a child, particularly a misbehaving one. Watching an old show like Leave It to Beaver, you might think all children were generally well-behaved back in the ’50s. Yet, as ever, kids back then were ...
Dec 1, 2023 · Modern American English slang owes a lot to retro slang, so it's worth looking back to see if there's anything else we should be using. Here's a list of 1950s expressions that are worth reviving. Most of them began with either hot-rodder or Beat subcultures, but quickly infiltrated teenage language everywhere.
