# Slang terms and idioms that have stood the test of time
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 11, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317 "2022-02-11T14:40:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/21 "2022-02-11T21:04:37Z")
Cool may still be in use but its meaning seems to have changed from “awesome” to “not a problem”.
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### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/22 "2022-02-11T21:07:09Z")
Cool is definitely still used. I think it might actually have become, eh, uncool to use it in the early 90s or so, but it was definitely still used and it’s ubiquitous now.
Awesome has also definitely outlived the surfer popularity.
Wicked is still used - not as widely as the other two, but it wouldn’t sound out of place or ironic.
(I used to be a teacher, and also just checked with my daughter).
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/23 "2022-02-11T21:20:48Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Wasn’t “cool” used pretty commonly by Bart Simpson in the early Simpsons episodes?
Relevant:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udJw-CzX7sA)
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/24 "2022-02-11T21:55:14Z")
People rarely talk about 4x4 quarter-ton trucks.
But they often talk about jeeps.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/25 "2022-02-11T22:07:25Z")
> [@erysichthon](#):
>
> I don’t know if this meets the OP’s criteria, but the first thing I thought of was the use of “suck” and “sucks” to describe something bad, undesirable, unpleasant, etc. I remember hearing it quite a bit when I was in high school (early 1970s), but it had definite vulgar and sexual overtones, and you wouldn’t use it around your parents, teachers, or other polite company. Now you hear it almost everywhere, and it’s considered an inoffensive way to say that you don’t like something.
I noticed the same evolution of that term. I remember the very first time I ever heard it: it was Junior High, start of the school year. Mid-to-late 70s. I walked past an area just off school grounds on my way there where the ‘bad’ kids would hang out and smoke before class. A girl asked one of the kids “how do you like school so far?” and he replied “it sucks d\*\*\*.” That was pretty shocking to my innocent ears.
Then, as you say, over the years I witnessed the gradual PG-izing and mainstreaming of the term “sucks” until I swear I heard it used on a sitcom.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/26 "2022-02-11T22:09:46Z")
That’s an interesting observation. It currently means both to me, and I hear my 5- and 7-year-old use it to mean “awesome” or “very good” (“That’s so cool!!”) or “popular”, but also in the sense of “no problem” or “I understand.” I don’t know if those latter meanings were in use when I was growing up; I can’t quite remember. It doesn’t feel like they were, so it’s possible this additional meaning has gained prominence over the last couple decades.
Beavis and Butthead were certainly using “cool” during the early 90s:
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/296jHs4im-U/hqdefault.jpg "Beavis and Butthead "Cool"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=296jHs4im-U)
I seriously have no recollection of “cool” ever being out-of-date during that time period. It’s possible, though, that I was simply uncool enough to ever have noticed. 🙂
Now “hip” is a word that I seem to remember not really being used in my formative years in the 80s and 90s, but I feel like that one’s kind of normal again. Or maybe it’s just me.
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### Author:  [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/27 "2022-02-11T22:45:07Z")
When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, “cool” was associated with an pose of hip, ironic detachment. Charles Schulz mocked this attitude with Snoopy’s sunglasses-wearing “Joe Cool” persona. If “cool” declined in popularity, it was probably because it was seen as dated and old-timey—redolent of beatniks, bongo drums, Maynard G. Krebs, etc.
The current use of “cool” is much broader these days, but it still encompasses some of those earlier connotations, particularly when people say they are “cool” with something (meaning that it doesn’t bother them). I’m sure there are lengthy articles in scholarly journals about the evolution of “cool,” but I am too lazy (or too cool) to go look for them.
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### Author:  [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/28 "2022-02-11T23:13:15Z")
What a nifty topic! (which goes back to 1900-ish).
But I can’t add more, so I feel like a dick. (1600-ish).
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/29 "2022-02-11T23:23:54Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> I’m not sure if it is experiencing a resurgence, but it seems to me that there was a period - maybe in the 90s or so - when use of “cool” was decidedly “uncool.”
Replaced by the cringy “awesome” in that decade.
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/30 "2022-02-11T23:33:18Z")
Bitchin’ and “radical” didn’t survive the late 70s/early 80s, except [ironically](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitchin%27_Camaro). But “cool” was cool then and now.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/31 "2022-02-11T23:35:33Z")
I keep finding myself using the word “dig” for “like”. It’s not a habit I got into when I was younger so I’m not sure where I picked it up. It’s still rather archaic, isn’t it?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/32 "2022-02-11T23:48:59Z")
It’s funny, because I was thinking of the word “bitchin’.” Where I’m at, or at least among my peers, it had a renaissance c. 1991/1992 before just disappearing again. I didn’t realize the word went back that far.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/33 "2022-02-11T23:51:25Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I keep finding myself using the word “dig” for “like”. It’s not a habit I got into when I was younger so I’m not sure where I picked it up. It’s still rather archaic, isn’t it?
“Dig” for “like” or “appreciate” is in my contemporary vocabulary. I’m not entirely sure when it became so. I don’t feel like I used it in the 80s or early 90s, but maybe late 90s?
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/34 "2022-02-11T23:53:56Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> Wasn’t “cool” used pretty commonly by Bart Simpson in the early Simpsons episodes? I feel like it was (along with a bunch of slang that fell out of date.) So I feel like “cool” was still considered “of the time” back then.
That’s back when we all tied onions on our belts, which was the fashion of the time.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/35 "2022-02-12T00:05:42Z")
I once puzzled my nephew by calling his clothes “snazzy.” I tried to recover by telling him it probably translated to “rad,” but apparently that was obsolete, too.
I worked with a guy who used “the cat’s ass” to mean the best possible option. I wondered when the cat’s pajamas became the cat’s ass, and how many body parts were tried and rejected before settling on ass.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/36 "2022-02-12T00:28:16Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> I’m 61 and have used “cool” for decades.
I’m 71 and still use “cool” non-ironically. It was part of our vocabulary when I was in 6th Grade (1962), and probably earlier. Seems to me it was something TV beatniks said while snapping their fingers.
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### Author:  [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/37 "2022-02-12T01:13:21Z")
“Awesome” was already all over the place by the early 80’s. I remember my grandmother so observing when Frank Messer used the word to describe Ron Davis’s coming in to strike out five consecutive A’s on May 3 of 1981 (he was ever more awesome the following day vs. the Angels, fanning eight straight. On the other hand, he would go on to surrender three “walk-off” [pardon the anachronism] home runs that season).
In 1982, after Reggie Jackson, in his return to Yankee Stadium with the Angels, homered off Ron Guidry the crowd started chanting “Steinbrenner sucks”. In the next day’s paper, Dick Young would report ‘“Steinbrenner stinks”, they almost said’.
He’d probably disclaim any such responsibility, but I felt that when Ken Jennings publicly used “sucks” in some such negative way, the word was as of then not particularly vulgar. Kind of like when Alex Trebek said “scumbags” on air.
IMO, “cool” is clearly _the_ champion American slang expression of the 20th Century. I object somewhat to the phrase “before it was cool”, but I suppose it’s usually said with a wink, and that “before the squares thought it was cool” is the implied meaning.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/38 "2022-02-12T01:28:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> “Dig” for “like” or “appreciate” is in my contemporary vocabulary. I’m not entirely sure when it became so. I don’t feel like I used it in the 80s or early 90s, but maybe late 90s?
We used it, back in the '60s. “I can dig it.”
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/39 "2022-02-12T01:28:39Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> afaik
It hasn’t been around long enough to be tested by time.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/40 "2022-02-12T01:31:08Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> Swear words, though I guess they’d count as a type of slang, are different-- they seem to take on an inter-generational immortality.
The meaning is not always immortal. John McWhorter, a linguistics professor, did a podcast recently where he talked about how “asshole” was commonly used decades ago but had a slightly different meaning than today.Then it was more like “just another average undistinguished guy.”
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