Ladies and Fellas, Grab a Sinker & a Joe – It’s Time to Learn Some Swell Slang!

It’s funny how much slang changes from generation to generation; sometimes in listening to my 19 year old sister, I already find myself feeling out of touch. When working on a period show like Rope it is important to have a sense of the slang from the time, both to understand the text and to help with improvising. I came across an amazing list of 1920s & 30s slang and couldn’t resist sharing it here; I think it’s time we bring some of these back, they really are the bee’s knees.

*Original post found at http://www.1929anupperclassaffair.com/Flapperspeak.pdf
Flapperspeak: Dictionary of Words From the 1920’s and 1930’s
From the AACA Potpourri website and Mark McCutcheon’s Writer’s Guide To Everyday Life From Prohibition Through World War II

Ab-so-lute-ly – affirmative

All six, hit on – to hit on all six cylinders, 100% percent performance

All wet – describes an erroneous idea or individual, as in, “he’s all wet.”

And how – I strongly agree!

And howl – emphatic response like, “You said it!”

Applesauce – an expletive same as horsefeathers, As in “Ah applesauce!”

Attaboy – well done!; also Attagirl!

Baby – sweetheart. Also denotes something of high value or respect.

Baby vamp – attractive female usually used by college boys – other terms include: angel, thrill, bird, liveone, peach, choice bit of calico, sweet patootie, panic

Balled Up – confused, messed up

Baloney – nonsense!

Bank’s Closed – no kissing or making out – i.e. – “Sorry, Mac, the bank’s closed.”

Barb – college student that was not part of a fraternity

Barleycorn, John – popular personification of bootleg alcohol – this term was used throughout Prohibition

Barrel House – illegal alcohol distillation plant

Bearcat – a hot-blooded or fiery girl

Beat it – scram or get lost

Beat one’s gums – idle chatter

Bee’s knees – extraordinary person, thing, idea; the ultimate also “Cat’s Meow”

Beef – a complaint or to complain

Beeswax – business, i.e. None of your beeswax.”

Bell bottom – a sailor

Bent – drunk, ossified

Berries – That which is attractive or pleasing; similar to bee’s knees, as in “It’s the berries.”

Bible Belt – Area in the South and Midwest where Fundamentalism flourishes

Big six – a strong man; from auto advertising, for the new and powerful; six cylinder engines

Bimbo – a tough guy

Bird – general term for a man or woman, sometimes meaning strange or odd

Blind Pig – place where illegal alcohol was served, like a speakeasy. Blind Pigs had deceptive or “blank” fronts –often were in basements, behind peep-holed doors or in the back of legitimate businesses

Blocker –Southern term for moonshiner or bootlegger

Blotto – drunk, ossified, bent

Bluenose – An excessively puritanical person, a prude

Bohunk – derogatory term to describe a central European immigrant (used from 1900-1930)

Bootleg – illegal liquor also called busthead

Breezer – a convertible car

Brown – Bootlegger’s term for whiskey

Brown plaid – bootlegger’s term for Scotch

Bubs – women’s breasts (used as description from 1900 on)

Bug-eyed Betty – unattractive or unpopular girl, often this term was used by college boys – other 1920’s slang include: pig’s coattail, washout, mess, flat tire, chunk of lead, crumb

Bull – (1) a policeman or law-enforcement officer including FBI (2) nonsense (3) to chat idly, to exaggerate

Bull Session – Male talkfest, gossip, stories of sexual exploits

Bum’s Rush – ejection by force from an establishment

Bump Off – to murder or kill

Bunny- term that conveys sympathy and endearment for lost or confused person

Bus – old, worn out big vehicle (used from 1915 onwards)

Bushwa – softer version of bull shit also spelled booshwash

Butterfly’s boots, the – anyone or anything that is great or dreamy like the cat’s meow

Cake-eater – a ladies’ man

Canned – drunk, ossified, bent

Caper – a criminal act or robbery

Carry a torch – To have a crush on someone

Cash – a kiss

Cash or check? – Do you kiss now or later?

Cast a kitten – to have a fit

Cat’s meow – Something splendid or stylish, similar to bee’s knees; the best or greatest, wonderful.

Cat’s pajamas – Same as cat’s meow or cat’s whiskers or gnat’s eyebrows

Chase yourself, go -get lost (from 1900 onwards)

Chassis – the female body from 1930

Cheaters – Eyeglasses

Check – kiss me later

Chewing gum – double talk

Copacetic – Wonderful, fine, all right

Coffin varnish – bootleg or homemade alcohol, also called horse liniment, stuff, and tarantula juice

Crush – An infatuation

Daddy – a young woman’s boyfriend or lover, especially if he’s rich

Dame – a female (term used since 1900, gained wide use in the 1930’s and 1940’s)

Dapper – a Flapper’s dad

Darb – An excellent person or thing (as in “the Darb” – a person with money who can be relied on to pay the check)

Dead soldier – an empty beer bottle

Deb – a debutante

Dick – a private investigator

Doll – an attractive woman

Dolled up – dressed up

Dope – drugs

Double-cross – to cheat, stab in the back

Dough – money

Drag – college dance

Dry – person who is against drinking and for Prohibition

Dry up – shut up, get lost

Dumb Dora – a stupid female also called Dumbbell

Earful – enough

Eel’s hips – variation of cat’s meow

Edge – intoxication, a buzz

Egg – a person who lives the big life

Ethel – effeminate man

Fag – before 1920, a cigarette, after 1920, a cigarette or effeminate man

Fella – guy

Fire extinguisher – a chaperone

Fish -(1) a college freshman also can be a first timer in prison

Flapper –free-spirited young woman

Flat tire – a dull, insipid, disappointing date. Also known as a pill, pickle, drag, rag, oil can

Flivver – a Model T; after 1928, could mean any old broken down car

Flapper – A stylish, brash, hedonistic young woman with short skirts & shorter hair

Fly boy – a glamorous term for an aviator

Fried – drunk, ossified, bent

Frosh –first year student at college

Gay – happy

Giggle water – an intoxicating beverage; alcohol

Gin mill – An establishment where hard liquor is sold; bar

Glad rags – “going out on the town” clothes

Gold digger – A woman who associates with or marries a man for his wealth

Goods, the – the desired material

Goof – stupid bumbling person

Goon – hoodlum

Hair of the dog – a shot of alcohol

Half seas over – thoroughly drunk also known as “half under”

Heel – scoundrel

He-man – a masculine man

Hayburner – (1) a gas guzzling car (2) a horse one loses money on

Heebie-jeebies – The jitters, anxiety

High-hat – To snub or a snob

Hip – savvy –used since 1915

Hip flask – small container used to carry alcohol, hidden by the hip or in a big pocket –fad item in 1920’s

Hit on all sixes – to perform 100 per cent; as “hitting on all six cyclinders”

Hokey-Pokey – inexpensive candy or ice cream for children

Hooch – Bootleg liquor

Hooey – nonsense

Hoofer – Dancer

Horsefeathers – an expletive; same usage as applesauce

Hotsy – totsy – pleasing

Hurdy-gurdy – a hand organ often played in the streets

It – sex appeal

Iron – a motorcycle

Jack – money

Jake – all is is okay, as in, “Everything is Jake.”

Jalopy – Old car

Jane – any female

Java – coffee

Jitney – a car employed as a private bus. Fare was usually five cents; also called a “nickel”

Joe – coffee

Joe Brooks – someone who is fashionably dressed

Joe Zilch – any male college student also known as Joe College or Joe Yale

John – a toilet

Joint – an establishment

Juice joint – a speakeasy

Joint – A club, usually selling alcohol, also called speakeasy, club, juice joint

Kale – money

Keen – Attractive or appealing

Knock-up – get pregnant not on purpose

Know One’s Onions – know what you are talking about

Lady legger – female bootlegger

Lam, on the – running away from the police

Lay off – knock it off

Level with me – be honest

Line – Insincere flattery

Live wire – a lively person – wild

Milquetoast – timid, mild person

Mind your own potatoes – mind your own business

Moonshine – bootleg alcohol

Neck – Kissing with passion

Nifty – great, excellent

Ofay – African American term to describe white people

Old Boy – male term to address other men also “Old man”

On the lam – fleeing from police

On the level – legitimate, honest

On the up and up – on the level

Ossified – a drunk person

Owl – a person who’s out late

Palooka – (1) a below-average or average boxer (2) a social outsider, from the comic strip character Joe Palooka

Pet – Same as neck, but more so

Piker – (1) a cheapskate (2) a coward

Pill – (1) a teacher (2) an unlikable person

Pin – announce an engagement or agreement to be serious by giving or receiving a sweetheart’s fraternity pin

Pinch – To arrest

Pinko – liberal

Pip – extraordinary person or thing, sometimes used sarcastically

Prom-trotter – gregarious student who attends school social functions and likes to dance

Putting on the Ritz – after the Ritz hotel in Paris; doing something in high style

Quiff – cheap prostitute

Rag-a-muffin – a dirty or disheveled individual

Razz – to make fun of or take the piss out of, heckle

Ritzy – Elegant (from the hotel)

Rub – student dance party

Rube – hick

Rummy – drunk, alcoholic

Rush – try to get into a fraternity

Sap – a fool

Says you – a reaction of disbelief

Scratch – money

See a man about a dog, have to – phrase to describe “I need to leave now”, often referring to going out and buying bootleg whiskey

Sheba – A woman with sex appeal (from the move Queen of Sheba) or (e.g. Clara Bow)

Sheik – A man with sex appeal (from the Valentino movies)

Shiv – a knife

Sinker – a doughnut

Sitting pretty – in a great position

Snake’s hips – cat’s whiskers or bee’s knees

Snoot full, have a – to be drunk

Snuggle pup – teenager term for a sweetheart who likes to cuddle

Sockdollager – knock out punch

So’s Your Old Man – reply showing irritation from 1915 onwards

Speakeasy – Irish word to describe an illicit, undercover bar selling bootleg liquor also called blind pig and scatter

Spifflicated – Drunk. The same as canned, corked, tanked, primed, scrooched, jazzed, zozzled, plastered,owled, embalmed, lit, potted, ossified or fried to the hat

Spoon – to neck, or at least talk of love

Stuck On – infatuated, in love with

Struggle buggy – the backseat of a car (where young couples made out)

Stuck On – Having a crush on

Swanky – Ritzy

Swell – Wonderful. Also: a rich man – more in later 1930’s

Talkies – movies with sound

Tin Pan Alley – the music industry in New York, located between 48th and 52nd street

Tomato – a female

Toot, on a – drinking spree

Up and up – on the level, legitimate

Wet – stupid, unsophisticated also can be someone who is against Prohibition and for the legalization of alcohol

Wet Blanket – a solemn person, a killjoy

Whisper Sister – female proprietor of a speakeasy

Whoopee – To have a good time

Wife – affectionate term to describe college dorm roommate

Wooden nickels, don’t take any – a fad expression of 1920, that meant “don’t do anything stupid – takecare of yourself.”

TERMS FOR DRUNKENNESS

Bleary-eyed, bent, blind, blotto, boiled, boiled as an owl, burning with a blue flame, canned, corked, corned, crocked, edged, embalmed, fried, four sheets in the wind, full, ginned, half-cocked, half seas over, half-screwed, half-shot, happy, high, hoary-eyed, jazzed, jingle, lathered, liquored, lit, lit up like a Christmas tree, lit up like a store window, lit up like the commonwealth, loaded, loaded for beer, loaded to the muzzle, lubricated, oiled, over the bay, ossified, owled, paralyzed, plastered, pie-eyed, pickled, piffed, piped, polluted, potted, primed, saturated, slopped, sloppy, stiff, stinko, soused, squiffy, stewed, sprung, tanked, tight, lit,under the table, wall-eyed, wet, woozy

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