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!
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