# What’s your favorite slang term from any time in history?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 24, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888 "2026-07-24T00:35:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/21 "2026-07-24T14:24:56Z")
Not exactly my favorite slang of all time, but I deliberately use “swank” and “boss” quite a bit.
“That laptop is boss!”
“Swank car!”
I was a west coast kid in the 60s. A lot of life was boss, tough, swank, cherry, or keen.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/22 "2026-07-24T14:38:31Z")
“Boss” was in heavy rotation when I was a kid…then I got my first job. Bosses are L7 to the max, dig?
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/23 "2026-07-24T14:43:04Z")
Calling people “man”. Hey, man.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/24 "2026-07-24T14:58:07Z")
My misread the question initially as “slang term _ **for** _ any time in history”. My reconsidered, more on-topic reply would be two terms from Swinging London: fab and gear.
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/25 "2026-07-24T15:11:32Z")
The roaring 20’s
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### Author:  [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/26 "2026-07-24T16:46:58Z")
Mine is “Nifty”.
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### Author:  [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/27 "2026-07-24T16:49:32Z")
I guess it must be my favorite because I say it all the time: “Coo”. Not ‘cool’. Coo. That, and “dude”.
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### Author:  [@Jaydubba77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaydubba77)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/28 "2026-07-24T17:01:56Z")
Back in the day I was always using “man”. “Hey Man!” was how I often addressed my brother, who was a Cheech and Chong fan. He still calls me “Pedro” to this day. IYKYK!
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/29 "2026-07-24T17:07:33Z")
Reet, daddio.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/30 "2026-07-24T17:17:12Z")
23 Skidoo, Daddy-O! Don’t grime sketchy or it’ll queer all the Clydes and Kellys on the Old Main Drag.
My Favorite is Groovy.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/31 "2026-07-24T18:16:23Z")
From the Beatles era: was that gear or grotty?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/32 "2026-07-24T18:58:23Z")
> [@ricepad](#):
>
> That, and “dude”.
Yeah, I like Dude also, and we forget that Okay was originally a slang term
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/33 "2026-07-24T19:36:27Z")
For a while a common slang was ‘That’s bad’ meaning it’s great. My 65year old mother tried to adopt it as part of her lingo. Mom, just no. Please, just no.
She was a bookkeeper. It did not fit at all.
Otherwise, I like DaddyO from decades gone by.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/34 "2026-07-24T19:42:36Z")
Badass.
Hornswoggle; meaning to trick or deceive someone.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/35 "2026-07-24T19:44:22Z")
I have always liked the use of “deadly” by indigenous Australians to mean anything special, exciting, excellent.
> **[As NAIDOC turns 50, what is 'deadly' and what does it mean to you?](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-04/naidoc-what-is-deadly-and-what-does-it-mean-to-you/106860796?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other)**
>
> As official NAIDOC celebrations get underway across the country, the ABC's Matt Francis asks what is deadly and what does it mean to the Indigenous community across the country.
>
>
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### Author:  [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/36 "2026-07-24T20:39:08Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> My Favorite is Groovy.
Groovy was very slightly before my time.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2026, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/37 "2026-07-24T22:19:41Z")
I used to have a book of Tijuana Bibles that was a wealth of old-timey filthy slang. The one that stands out was calling a penis a “kidney disturber”.
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2026, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/38 "2026-07-25T01:20:31Z")
[quote=“aurora\_maire, post:10, topic:1031888, full:true”]
I like “groovy” for the times it represents but neither I, nor any other hippie I knew, ever said it…[/quote]
Same here. But 60 years later I still say “far out,” and not always ironically.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2026, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/39 "2026-07-25T01:26:05Z")
Some time in the 70’s a friend of mine started using “scooby” for “cool/neat/fabulous/etc”. It stuck and my friends and I use it to this day.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2026, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-your-favorite-slang-term-from-any-time-in-history/1031888/40 "2026-07-25T01:27:08Z")
> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> Me? I can’t beat _bitchin_ for cool. Surfer culture, Southern California, circa 1960s.
I was in Orange county during that era and when the student editor of the yearbook wanted to use “bitchin” in the _text_ of the book the faculty advisor put her foot down. It was appealed to no avail.
It was bound in paisley, though.
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