21 Slang Terms From the ’70s To Make You Oh So Nostalgic
From disco and hard rock music to the original Rocky movie, living in the ’70s was no short of special. But just like platform shoes and bell-bottoms, some of the trendiest words and phrases were destined to fall into obscurity.
These 1970s terms may not find much use in our modern lexicon, but they still hold a nostalgic significance worth recalling.
1: Casanova
“Casanova” stems from an 18th-century Italian adventurer known for his romantic exploits. So, people in the ’70s used this word to refer to a man skilled in the art of wooing ladies. A 1971 TV mini-series revitalized interest in the adventurer’s amorous adventures.
2: Skinny
“What’s the skinny?” was a common question in the 1970s. Today, we might say, “What’s going on?” or “Fill me in.”
3: Psych
Psych was typically said with an exclamation point at the end, as in, “Psych!” It meant you’d just been fooled.
4: Hairy Eyeball
If someone’s giving you a hairy eyeball, they’re shooting you a menacing stare. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the term came from a 1961 Reno Evening Gazette article, but “hairy eyeball” hit peak use in the ’70s.
5: Brick House
Memorialized by the Commodores’ 1977 song, “Brick House,” this 1970s term described a good-looking woman. It was often given specifically to women who had a certain amount of curves.
6: Fry
Usually said, “What a fry!” this slang word meant someone was wacky or acting strange. Given America’s love of french fries today (we consume over 4.5 billion pounds of them), calling someone a fry now might be mistaken for a compliment.
7: Threads
In the 1970s, if someone complimented your threads, it meant they liked your outfit. Threads were a way of referring to clothing.
8: Bogue
Bogue is short for “bogus.” In the 1970s, just like many millennials and Gen Zers do today, teens often shortened their predecessors’ slang to make new terms.
9: Copacetic
Copacetic means “in excellent order,” and it was popular in 1970s surfer culture. The affirmative term captured 1970s laid-back grooviness in a way that few other adjectives managed.
10: Right On
Saying “right on” was a way of expressing your full agreement with something. You got extra 1970s slang points for adding “man” at the end.
11: Boogie
To boogie means to dance. However, you can also use the term to express moving from one place to another, as in, “Let’s boogie over to the bar.”
12: Turkey
A turkey, or a “jive turkey,” refers to someone who is slow and inept. It can also mean someone is deceitful and dishonest.
13: Dy-no-mite
The phrase “dy-no-mite” came from the 1970s TV show Good Times. One of the show’s main characters, J.J. Evans (played by James Carter Walker Jr.), used it as a catchphrase on the show and later in TV commercials for 8-track tape players.
14: Stella
Calling someone a “Stella” was not a compliment. It was used mainly in the disco-dancing world to say that someone was full of themselves or arrogant.
15: Buff
Even now, we use the term “buff” to refer to someone whose muscles are well-defined. However, in the 70s, the term could also be used to refer to someone without their clothes on.
16: Bunk
In the 1970s, “bunk” usually meant fake or low-quality. People often used the term when talking about a cheap supply of contraband substances.
17: Clodhoppers
Why say boots when you can say clodhoppers? Boots is admittedly shorter, but “clodhoppers” has so much more character. At least, that’s what we presume the teens of the 1970s were thinking when they adopted the term.
18: Ride
Ride was often a noun in the 1970s rather than a verb. Many used the term when referencing their car.
19: Wicked
In the ’70s, calling something “wicked” was a compliment. The term meant something was especially cool or edgy.
20: Truckin’
If you were cruising down the highway in the 1970s, you might say you were just truckin’ along. The term has technically been around since the 1930s, but it hit its prime in the ’60s and ’70s.
21: Furnace
If you knew someone who smoked relentlessly in the ’70s, you might have called them a furnace. Americans peaked with using cancer sticks in the mid-1960s when the U.S. Surgeon General began issuing health warnings.
Slang Power
Slang from any era, including the 1970s, gives people the power to define their culture, exercise imagination, and create their own lexicon. If you know it, you’re instantly part of the tribe. And if you don’t, you’re too old to join.
Youthful Defiance
Oppression is one factor that leads to the development of new slang, and there’s one group we’ve all been part of that almost always feels oppressed: the youth. The youth of the 1970s rallied against their parents, the government, and power structures, creating a wicked gallery of slang terms.
Constant Regeneration
Like all slang, terms unique to the 1970s have fallen out of fashion. That’s the thing about slang: It must constantly regenerate to survive. The Casanovas, jive turkeys, Stellas, and fries of the ’70s can live only in the memories of those lucky enough to live through the most copacetic decade.
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