Jazz Age slang

A few years ago, I started a database of Jazz Age slang terms. The intention was to help our artists stay a little more true to the spirit of their favorite eras. I also made a note of recording when the terms were first reported, so you wouldn't mix your decades too much.

As I poured through old documents, I found an excellent distraction in Sarah Churchwell's "Careless People." Inside her overview of Jazz Age culture, I found a treasure trove of fun words I'd like to share.

If you don't feel comfortable expanding up your vocabulary with some less-than-savory language, you'd best run now.

"A list of the words first recorded in English between 1918 and 1923 reads like a Jazz Age divination of the century to come, a catalog of the origins of our life. The year 1922 alone added: 'brand-name,' 'Hollywood,' 'moviegoing,' 'rough cut,' 'performative,' 'robot,' 'sparkly,' 'schlep,' 'dimwit,' 'no-brow,' 'oops,' 'multilayered,' and 'rebrand...'"

Here are some of my favorites:

• ad lib (circa 1919)
• arbitrage (circa 1923)
• atom bomb (circa 1921)
• bagel (circa 1919)
• biracial (circa 1921)
• brand-name (circa 1922)
• cartwheel (circa 1920)
• check-up (circa 1921)
• columnist (circa 1920)
• comfort zone (circa 1923)
• comparison-shopping (circa 1923)
• cool (circa 1918)
• cross-selling (circa 1919)
• debunk (circa 1923)
• deflationary (circa 1920)
• devalue (circa 1918)
• dimwit (circa 1922)
• encode (circa 1919)
• existentialism (circa 1919)
• extrovert (circa 1918)
• fantasist (circa 1923)
• Fascist (circa 1921)
• feedback (circa 1920)
• French kiss (circa 1923)
• food chain (circa 1920)
• fucked-off (circa 1923)
• fundamentalism (circa 1923)
• hitch-hike (circa 1923)
• Hollywood (circa 1922)
• homosexually (circa 1921)
• hypermodern (circa 1923)
• inflationary (circa 1920)
• junkie (circa 1923)
• market research (circa 1920)
• mass media (circa 1923)
• merchant bank (circa 1921)
• mock-up (circa 1920)
• motherfucker (circa 1918)
• moviegoing (circa 1922)
• multi-purpose (circa 1920)
• multilayered (circa 1922)
• no-brow (circa 1922)
• nouveau poor (circa 1921)
• nutritionist (circa 1921)
• off-the-rack (circa 1920)
• oops (circa 1922)
• performative (circa 1922)
• posh (circa 1919)
• post-feminist (circa 1919)
• power play (circa 1921)
• prefabricated (circa 1921)
• psyching (circa 1920)
• publicized (circa 1920)
• race-baiter (circa 1921)
• racialized (circa 1921)
• rebrand (circa 1922)
• ritzy (circa 1920)
• robot (circa 1922)
• rough cut (circa 1922)
• sadomasochistic (circa 1921)
• schlep (circa 1922)
• slenderize (circa 1923)
• slinky (circa 1921)
• sophisticate (circa 1923)
• sparkly (circa 1922)
• subprime (circa 1920)
• supersonic (circa 1919)
• swankiness (circa 1920)
• tear-jerker (circa 1921)
• teenage (circa 1921)
• to ace (circa 1923)
• ultrasonic (circa 1923)
• upgrade (circa 1920)
• white-collar (circa 1919)
• wimp (circa 1920)

Do you have favorites of your own?  Share them here!