When I was in high school back in the 80s’ my friends and I would say, when we thought something was cool, it was “killer”.
Are we ready to bring back “Gag me with a spoon”?
We are not.
One thing I’ve learned from being a wrestling fan and attending a bunch of indie shows is that you can make a GREAT first impression when meeting a wrestler, or anyone else in the business for that matter, if you address them as “brother”.
What’s your damage?
When I was in middle school in Indiana, people used to say “You got joaned on” when someone insulted you. I haven’t heard that expression used in decades.
I’m still trying to make “fetch” happen.
from back in 60-70’s “jive turkey”
I’ve been interested in a possible transition of ‘posh’ in the UK. My great uncle used it occasionally in a disgusted tone toward snobs in a letter during World War II.
Yet now a UK host Jamie Oliver uses it to promote a thrifty recipe. I’ve wondered if posh could be positive now. I think it’s still negative but wanted to ask about that.
Grody
Stoved up (Extremely tired or injured)
Lol
My dad used to call an umbrella a bumbershoot. I still use it occasionally.
I was once in the slightly awkward position of explaining what that meant to a young black man.
I still use “cool” and “boss.”
Can be either, IMO- it’s not really a value judgement in itself, it all comes down to context. It can be used in a positive way for something stylish or aspirational, or negatively to describe something snobby and pretentious.
Posh cocktails- probably positive.
Jacob Rees-Mogg- probably negative.
Odd that you picked up Jamie Oliver using the word as a positive, but missed Posh Spice, back in the '90s.
I can’t quite get past the crude but effective Australian term for ‘not here to waste time’; ‘I’m not here to fuck spiders’.
We used to say “cool beans”
I like “Rowrbazzle” myself from Pogo to denote frustration, but I never heard others use it.
As others have said, I think in today’s world “groovy” and “man” are perhaps the most widely understood and used classic slang terms. A person might not use the terms, but they certainly know what they mean. Any slang older than those starts to be effected or stilted IMHO.
You dont think “Okay” and maybe “dude” doesnt top that list? Okay is now International , spoken all over the world by people who otherwise do not speak a word of English.
I would argue that “okay” may have crossed over from slang to perfectly ok speech, largely for the reasons you cite. While other languages may have equivalents, “ok/okay” is spoken and understood practically universally.
Of course, I agree- but once upon “in any time in history” it was slang.
Ok, no need for me to split that particular hair, then!