When my mom died a few years ago, I got a couple of boxes full of pictures and old mementos. Among the random things she had kept was an old junior high school yearbook, from the mid 60s, in Southern California.
Reading the messages of the fellow students, one word stood out for its frequency: bitchin
“Have a bitchin summer” was a common refrain. My mom was also a “bitchin girl”.
Thinking back on that the other day got me thinking: what is your favorite slang term, from any time in history?
Slang is pervasive throughout history, so there’s tons of options. Most probably relate to sex. Something from Shakespeare? The old west? Maybe you heard a funny one from the kids the other day (modern times are a part of history!) Or perhaps something from your childhood.
Me? I can’t beat bitchin for cool. Surfer culture, Southern California, circa 1960s.
‘Cause my mom was a bitchin girl destined for a bitchin summer.
Same in my late ‘70s yearbooks. That slang had legs, at least, in Southern California.
I’ve adopted a lot of 1960s slang for personal use. The word “dig” (for “enjoy” not “understand”) is in daily use. I also like the phrase, “Zero cool, chicky baby!”. I think that one is from Roddy McDowell in The Cool Ones.
I like “groovy” for the times it represents but neither I, nor any other hippie I knew, ever said it. I think “man” (as in “ah, man, that sucks” or “hey, man, let’s go”) is the one slang term that’s lasted my whole life. I kind of like “wicked” but it’s another I’ve never actually used.
Cone
From the Saturday Night live Coneheads. It means a smart person who excels at academics. Similar to nerd but without it implication of social ineptitude.
“She’s a total cone, she gets straight A’s without even having to study”
It was ubiquitous when I grew up in Los Alamos NM in the 80’s, but highly local, which I realized when I went off to college and got blank stares when I used it.
I have a fondness for “How’s tricks?” or “What’s tricks?” as slang for “How’s it going/What’s up?” but can’t really use it without having to explain to a bunch of squares what I meant.
