147: Speaking of early black vocal groups, slang terms for the female genitalia or vagina, and errant pullulations in country music, mention might here be made of the Old South Quartette’s ‘Pussy Cat Rag’ of 1928 [...] From there, it was not far to Bo Chatman’s 1931 ‘Pussy ...
First, though, today's young people aren't the first generation to develop slang terms. The Baby Boomers gave us a lot of slang, some of which is still used today and others not so much. Here are some boomer slang terms that still tickle me:Groovy...
11. (US) a pimp, a prostitute’s boyfriend. 1937 1940195019601970198019902000 2010 1937 ‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 164: Daddy, forgive me for hollering. I deserve worse than you gave me. 1938 J.E. O’Donnell ‘Overcoat Bennie’ in Mss. from the Federal Writers’ Proj...
1920s scrap ( n ) A fight. He got into a scrap with a motorcycle gang and had his nose bitten off. 1840s scrap ( v ) Cancel. We had to scrap plans to go to the beach when we saw the weather report. 1900s scrap ( v ) To fight. He's a well-intended boy but he scrap...
Hopeless romantic spread as a phrase and character type in literature and literary magazines in the 1920 and ‘30s and was used for individuals who easily, recklessly, or repeatedly fall in love or chase after love for love’s sake, even when it’s impractical, unwise, or unseemly. The phr...
The sense of "very informal language characterized by vividness and novelty" is by 1818. Anatoly Liberman writes here an extensive account of the established origin of the word from the Northern England noun slang "a narrow piece of land running up between other and larger divisions of ground"...
Sure, kids these days probably know that banks are closed on holidays and Sundays. But in the 1920s, the slang phrasebank's closedhad nothing to do with where you got your money from. Instead, this meant "no kissing" or "no making out." So you could tell that guy you're not intere...
77: But the people from the downtown program began to infiltrate it and tried to disrupt it, by talking about, ‘Let's not have a union; let's have an association.’ That was shitless. It didn’t have any force. 2. see separate entry. ...
And yet, you could have the face to expect to be employed and trusted by the fourth [F&H]. 1714 Spectator No. 566: A man has scarce the face to make his court to a lady, without some credentials from the service to recommend him [F&H]. 1838 ‘Extra-Ordinary’ in Bentley’s Misc....
of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: bitch, a she dog or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may be gathered from the regular Billingsgate or St. Giles’s answers, ‘I may be a whore, but can’t be a ...