# 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:** 4
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/61 "2022-02-13T01:20:04Z")
I cannot state with utter confidence that I heard it used in the late '60s, as I was rather young, but it did seem to be around back then. Even “dweeb” is attested more than 50 years ago. It was one of those words, you just had to hear it used to grok what it meant. Kind of like “grok”.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/62 "2022-02-13T01:43:29Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> I cannot state with utter confidence that I heard it used in the late '60s, as I was rather young, but it did seem to be around back then.
FWIW, etymonline states that it originates in 1951 as US student slang (but also mentions it being used earlier by Dr. Seuss in 1950, I assume more as a nonsense word.)
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/63 "2022-02-13T06:30:53Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> But they often talk about jeeps.
Mostly cursing them as they walk home.
23 Ski-Doo! Excuse me while I vamoose this Dog and Pony Show…
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### Author:  [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/64 "2022-02-13T10:28:16Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Can ya dig it?
Cyrus steps up to the microphone. “Caaan you dig ittttt?” All the gang members in the city applaud, except for Luther and his boys.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/65 "2022-02-13T17:03:22Z")
> [@alovem](#):
>
> But I recall reading somewhere, maybe here at the SDMB, that it goes way back, coming from the expression “sucks eggs,” which might characterize a rube.
I know that from the adage, “teach your grandmother how to suck eggs,” meaning “don’t try to tell an expert how to do their job” and extended to “that’s so easy anybody knows how to do it.” The literal meaning is that two holes were punched at opposite sides of the egg and the raw egg sucked out leaving the shell intact and no mess.
Whether “go suck an egg” - an early politer way of saying “fuck off” - is derived from the same image is disputed. But I can easily imagine a point where sucking raw eggs was no longer a delicacy but disgusting. Something that “sucks eggs” would be equally disgusting, similar to “sucks rocks.”
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/66 "2022-02-13T17:06:07Z")
Hmmm…etymonline does seem to point towards fellatio as being the meaning hinted at with the slang “suck”. I apparently have much too innocent a mind:
> Meaning “do fellatio” is first recorded 1928. Slang sense of “be contemptible” first attested 1971 (the underlying notion is of fellatio). Related: Sucked; sucking. Suck eggs is from 1906. Suck hind tit “be inferior” is American English slang first recorded 1940.
> **[suck | Etymology of suck by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/suck#etymonline_v_22300)**
>
> SUCK: "draw liquid into the mouth by action of the tongue and lips," especially "draw milk from the breast or… See origin and meaning of suck.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/67 "2022-02-13T17:41:07Z")
> **[Banty Raids (1963) - SAPO Vídeos](https://videos.sapo.pt/2qFic7jErR0rbVDieqOv)**
>
> Banty Raids (1963)
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/68 "2022-02-13T19:31:56Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> I never heard “nerd” until it was used on _Happy Days_ .
“Nerd” and “geek” go back further, but their meanings have changed over the years.
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### Author:  [@PozhanPop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PozhanPop)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/69 "2022-02-14T03:05:10Z")
Saying ‘I am down’ to mean you agree with something or would join in something has always struck me as a curious usage . A visitor from India has no idea what my daughter was saying , one night when we were discussing dinner options.
I guess the visitor though my daughter was feeling bad about something 🙂
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/70 "2022-02-14T04:06:17Z")
> [@PozhanPop](#):
>
> Saying ‘I am down’ to mean you agree with something or would join in something has always struck me as a curious usage
“I am down to” / “I am up for” is the flammable / inflammable of colloquial agreement to participate…
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/71 "2022-02-14T04:24:56Z")
“My bad” for “my bad self,” usually said when someone makes a mistake or has said or done something embarrassing. I heard it in the 90s, but I don’t know if anyone still says it. I do.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/72 "2022-02-14T05:31:34Z")
> [@alovem](#):
>
> At some point in the last 10 years or so, I was also surprised to hear “sucks” used in mixed company (around kids and older people, and yeah, I’ve heard it in a sitcom). Back in my day, it bordered on profanity.
Geez, Grandpa, when was your day? I’m 44 and do recall my parents being bizarrely insistent when I was in middle school that it “sucks” was vulgar before apparently realizing that it no longer had the same suggestive connotation to kids as when they were young, and no longer objecting when we said it.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/73 "2022-02-14T07:28:59Z")
> [@Riemann](#):
>
> “I am down to” / “I am up for” is the flammable / inflammable of colloquial agreement
I believe the more common usage is “down with” not “- to”.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/74 "2022-02-14T10:45:19Z")
Both are used - “DTF”.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/75 "2022-02-14T10:50:52Z")
I’m down to clown. Are you with it?
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/76 "2022-02-14T15:04:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> “My bad” for “my bad self,” usually said when someone makes a mistake or has said or done something embarrassing. I heard it in the 90s, but I don’t know if anyone still says it. I do.
I still hear it and occasionally use it. I never knew it was short for “my bad self.” I just assumed it was nouning “bad” to mean “mistake” or “fault.”
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/77 "2022-02-14T15:22:26Z")
My bad. You may be right.
Interesting fact: The first known public use of the phrase was by Louis Armstrong to Ed Sullivan in 1956. Louis Armstrong wished Sullivan a happy birthday and then corrected himself, saying:
“Happy Aniversary. My bad.”
> **['My bad' - the meaning and origin of this phrase](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/my-bad.html)**
>
> The meaning and origin of the phrase 'My bad'.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/78 "2022-02-14T15:33:58Z")
> [@cochrane](#):
>
> “Happy Aniversary. My bad.”
Nice find on the early example of that phrase. Armstrong saying that to Ed Sullivan in 1956 sounds almost as anachronistic sounding as if Sullivan had replied “dude, that’s really cringe”.
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### Author:  [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/79 "2022-02-14T16:28:11Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> Groovy.
Unless your name is Ash, and you’re fighting the evil dead with your boomstick.
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### Author:  [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-terms-and-idioms-that-have-stood-the-test-of-time/959317/80 "2022-02-14T16:35:49Z")
Has anyone mentioned “neat”? I use “cool” and “neat” quite often.
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