Slang
From the Twenties to the Forties
Prepared by: Kim
Cox
The way people
talked in the twenties, thirties, and wasn’t that much different from today. As
a matter of fact you’ll see a number of the same words used today. Of course
speech patterns change from town to town, state to state and country to
country. But one that’s stayed the same all through the decades, although
different, is fabs and the use of slang. This is like "a breath of fresh air"
to me since I assumed all forms of dialogue then would be stuffy and boring.
Yes, I know what assuming does and so it did it to me. What I’ve done is
compile lists of popularly used slang for each ten years.
TWENTIES
To the flappers,
the most common slangs dealt with drinking alcohol or being intoxicated.
alcohol--giggle
water or hooch
to drink--to lap
speakeasy--gin
mill
plesantly
tipsy--half-cut or soaked with a bar rag
drunk--tanked,
stewed to the hat, splifficated, shot, shellacked, potted, polluted,
plastered, piffled, pie-eyed, out like a light, ossified, oiled, juiced,
jiggered, jammed, fried, crocked, canned, bolognied, barreled
person who could
hold their liquor--non-skid
serious
drinker--hip hound
drunken
goof--flask
drunken
sailor--apple alley
THIRTIES
Language in the
thirties, adopted by the young swing fans came from the jive used by jazz
musicians.
swing fans--cats
or alligators
Instruments
saxophone--gobble
pipe
drums--skins
xylophone--wood
pile
guitar--gitter
accordion--groanbox
clarinet--gob
stick
trombone--tram
string
base--doghouse
cornet--iron horn
Two Basic Jazz
Schools:
Hot (Swing)
*low down
blues--gut-bucket
*free and easy
jamming or improvising--barrel-house
*wild
swing--clam-bake
*extremely slow
swing--center collegiate
*very hot swing--dillinger
Sweet
(Conventional)
*old-fashioned
jazz--corn
*overly
sentimental music--schmaltz
*restrained
jazz--salon
*cloying, sweet
jazz--lollypop
*sweet band--the
long underwear gang
Musicians
band members
except for the leader--sidemen
play by ear--fake
drummer--skin
tickler
a magician who
used sheet music--paperman
violinist--squeaker
female
singer--canary
guitarist--whanger
wood
instrumentalist--lip-splitter
Techniques of Music
a soft
finish--easing it in
final chorus--wong
worked into its sock chorus
notes--spots
lay-outs--rests
a medley of
songs--after a gang
warming
up--licking the chops or frisking the whiskers
pick up the
beat--quit mugging light and mug heavy
play without an
arrangement--to jam
play louder--wang
it
to practice a new
song in private--to woodshed
a hot passage or
performance--a solid sender that would chill ya
to improvise--to
kick out
to play with vigor
or inspiration--to be in the groove, break it down, get hot, swing out,
send, give it a ride, go to town
musical
embellishment in an improvisation--a break, take-off, get-off, riff, lick
FORTIES
The slang for
youth of the forties was inspired by the Jive of the thirties. These next
slangs describe body-parts.
an ugly
face--puss, phiz, map
the face--knob,
index
the body--the
frame
mustache--brush
whiskers--face
lace, moss
head--biscuit,
dome, idea pot, noggin, think box
eyes--blinkers,
lamps, spotters, pies
eyelids--shutters
toes--ten
ears--flippers,
sails, flops, mikes, lugs (large ears)
feet--plates,
hocks
nose--sneezer,
handle (large nose), schnozz, horn
legs--uprights,
drumsticks, stumps, pillars, stems, slits
knees--prayer
dukes
jaws--chops
tonsils--snags
mouth--bone box
teeth--chewers,
choppers, crumb crunchers
stomach--bread
basket, pale
neck--stretcher
elbows--hinges
heart--pump,
clocker, ticker
shoulders--brace
o’ broads
arms--floppers,
brace o’ hookers
fingers--wigglers,
feelers, stealers, fish hooks, pickers, forks
hands--grabbers,
paws, meat hooks, paddlers
fists--dukes
