A doozy, a word first seen in 1903, is something that is what?Answer: Extraordinary. Source: Wiktionary: doozy
A fuddy-duddy, a word from the United States of about 1900, is what kind of person?Answer: Old-fashioned. Source: Wiktionary: fuddy-duddy
Discombobulate turned up in the United States in 1834. What does it mean to discombobulate someone?Answer: To throw them into confusion. Source: Wiktionary: discombobulate
Humdinger was first attested in a Montana newspaper article of June 4, 1883. What is a humdinger?Answer: Something outstanding or unusual. Source: Wiktionary: humdinger
If a job is done lickety-split, an American expression first attested in the 19th century, how is it done?Answer: As fast as possible. Source: Wiktionary: lickety-split
In 1785 the English antiquary Francis Grose produced a famous dictionary of slang. What is it called?Answer: A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Source: Wikipedia: Francis Grose
In the popular press of the 1880s and 1890s, dude was a new word for what kind of man?Answer: An extremely well-dressed one. Source: Wikipedia: Dude
Scuttlebutt, slang for rumor or gossip, was first a sailors' name for what?Answer: The ship's cask of drinking water. Source: Wikipedia: Scuttlebutt
Show all 67 questions (59 more)
Old-time slang, continued
Slang is informal vocabulary. According to its definition, the members of an in-group may also use it for which purpose?Answer: To set the group apart and shut outsiders out. Source: Wikipedia: Slang
Soldiers of the Civil War years began to skedaddle. What does skedaddle mean?Answer: Run away. Source: Wiktionary: skedaddle
Spiffy has been found in print since 1852. What does it describe?Answer: Dapper and neat. Source: Wiktionary: spiffy
To flabbergast someone, a verb known from the late 18th century, is to do what to them?Answer: Stun them with amazement. Source: Wiktionary: flabbergast
The word slang first appears about 1756. What did it mean then?Answer: The special vocabulary of tramps or thieves. Source: Wiktionary: slang
The Jazz Age to the 1940s 14
Copacetic gained currency in American slang around 1920. If everything is copacetic, how are things?Answer: Fine, in excellent order. Source: Wiktionary: copacetic
Eric Partridge's well-known Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English came out in which year?Answer: 1937. Source: Wikipedia: Eric Partridge
The first known reference to a square, in the slang sense, is from 1944. What kind of person is a square?Answer: A conventional, old-fashioned one. Source: Wikipedia: Square (slang)
Gobbledygook is first attested in a memo of 1944 that banned such language. Which bird's sounds does the word apparently imitate?Answer: The turkey. Source: Wiktionary: gobbledygook
Groovy had its heyday from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In which decade did the word originate, in jazz culture?Answer: The 1920s. Source: Wikipedia: Groovy
The heebie-jeebies, a general feeling of unease, have been found in print as far back as 1923. Where?Answer: In a newspaper comic strip. Source: Wiktionary: heebie-jeebies
Honcho, slang for a boss, probably entered English during World War II. In Japanese, what was a hanchō?Answer: A squad leader. Source: Wiktionary: honcho
In 1938 the bandleader Cab Calloway published a dictionary of jive, the first dictionary by an African American. What did its title call a jive speaker?Answer: A hepster. Source: Wikipedia: Jive talk
In diner lingo, the kitchen slang that was most popular from the 1920s to the 1970s, what was moo juice?Answer: Milk. Source: Wikipedia: Diner lingo
In Royal Air Force slang of the 1920s, gremlins were mischievous creatures blamed for faults in what?Answer: Aircraft. Source: Wikipedia: Gremlin
Jive talk, the slang of the jazz world, developed in which neighborhood of New York City?Answer: Harlem. Source: Wikipedia: Jive talk
Malarkey, meaning nonsense, was popularized from 1922 by a man of which trade?Answer: A cartoonist. Source: Wiktionary: malarkey
The sense of cool as something fashionable is said to have been popularized in jazz circles by which tenor saxophonist?Answer: Lester Young. Source: Wikipedia: Cool (aesthetic)
The word jalopy was first recorded in writing in 1924. What is a jalopy?Answer: An old, run-down car. Source: Wiktionary: jalopy
The 1950s to the 1990s 12
The abbreviated language of mobile phone text messages, common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is called SMS language or what?Answer: Textese. Source: Wikipedia: SMS language
Couch potato was coined in 1976. Which spin-off names a person who spends too much time in front of a computer?Answer: Mouse potato. Source: Wikipedia: Couch potato
Dweeb comes from American college slang of 1968. What kind of person is a dweeb?Answer: A boring, studious or socially inept one. Source: Wiktionary: dweeb
The first documented appearance of the word nerd is as the name of a creature in a children's book of 1950. Who wrote the book?Answer: Dr. Seuss. Source: Wikipedia: Nerd
In the 1960s the old word dude changed its meaning. What did it come to mean?Answer: Any male person. Source: Wikipedia: Dude
The mods, a subculture that began in London in the late 1950s, took their name from which word?Answer: Modernist. Source: Wikipedia: Mod (subculture)
The slang senses of gnarly were popularized in the 1970s by which American culture?Answer: Surf culture. Source: Wiktionary: gnarly
Snail mail sounds like a joke from the age of email, but the phrase was in print as early as which year?Answer: 1968. Source: Wiktionary: snail mail
Strine, a name coined in 1964 for broad Australian speech, is a squeezed-together way of saying which word?Answer: Australian. Source: Wikipedia: Strine
Tubular, dated American slang for awesome, is believed to come from surfing. What was tubular at first?Answer: The wall of water round a surfer. Source: Wiktionary: tubular
Valleyspeak, a way of talking that became a fad in the 1980s and 1990s, is named after which valley of the Los Angeles area?Answer: The San Fernando Valley. Source: Wikipedia: Valley girl
The word hippie came from which older slang word?Answer: Hipster. Source: Wikipedia: Hippie
The internet age 13
A popular story says that bae stands for before anyone else. Where did the word really come from?Answer: A shortening of baby or babe. Source: Wikipedia: Bae (word)
According to Oxford University Press, the first recorded use of the term brain rot is in a book of 1854. Which book?Answer: Walden. Source: Wikipedia: Brain rot
Cheugy was coined in 2013. What does it say about a style?Answer: That it is the opposite of trendy. Source: Wikipedia: Cheugy
The earliest known evidence of the word facepalm is an online post of which year?Answer: 1996. Source: Wikipedia: Facepalm
FOMO, the fear of missing out, was coined and popularized in an opinion piece of which year?Answer: 2004. Source: Wikipedia: Fear of missing out
Hangry is a blend of which two words?Answer: Hungry and angry. Source: Wiktionary: hangry
Leet, an online style of modified spellings that is also written 1337, takes its name from which word?Answer: Elite. Source: Wikipedia: Leet
LOL, short for laughing out loud, was first used almost exclusively on which early online network?Answer: Usenet. Source: Wikipedia: LOL
Pwn, gamers' slang for defeating someone, was possibly born out of a typing slip for which word?Answer: Own. Source: Wiktionary: pwn
What does a person do when doomscrolling, a word coined around 2018?Answer: Spends too long on upsetting content. Source: Wikipedia: Doomscrolling
Which piece of internet slang, likely short for charisma, did Oxford University Press name its word of the year for 2023?Answer: Rizz. Source: Wikipedia: Rizz
Which word did the Collins English Dictionary name its Word of the Year in 2014?Answer: Photobomb. Source: Wikipedia: Photobombing
Why did internet slang first arise, according to the history of the shorthand used on early networks?Answer: To save keystrokes. Source: Wikipedia: Internet slang
Rhyming slang and other codes 15
Amscray is the Pig Latin form of which word?Answer: Scram. Source: Wikipedia: Pig Latin
As early as the 1870s, hobos were reported to leave each other cryptic signs. How were the signs made?Answer: Chalked in prominent places. Source: Wikipedia: Hobo
Back slang is thought to have begun in Victorian England. Who mainly used it, to talk in private in front of customers?Answer: Market sellers. Source: Wikipedia: Back slang
In Cockney and Australian rhyming slang, who is your china plate, or your china for short?Answer: Your mate. Source: Wiktionary: china plate
In Cockney rhyming slang, what are you being told to do when someone says "Use your loaf"?Answer: Think. Source: Wiktionary: use one's loaf
In Cockney rhyming slang, what are your plates of meat?Answer: Your feet. Source: Wiktionary: plates of meat
In Cockney rhyming slang, what is the dog and bone?Answer: A telephone. Source: Wiktionary: dog and bone
In Pig Latin, the consonant sound at the start of a word moves to the end. What is added after it?Answer: Ay. Source: Wikipedia: Pig Latin
In the slang of Australia and New Zealand, when is the arvo?Answer: The afternoon. Source: Wiktionary: arvo
Ixnay is the Pig Latin version of nix. From which language did English borrow nix?Answer: German. Source: Wikipedia: Pig Latin
Rhyming slang swaps a word for a phrase that rhymes with it. What often happens to the rhyming word itself?Answer: It is dropped. Source: Wiktionary: rhyming slang
Rhyming slang was first used in the 19th century in which part of London?Answer: The East End. Source: Wikipedia: Rhyming slang
Thieves' cant was a secret vocabulary once used by thieves and beggars in Great Britain. By which other name was it known?Answer: Peddler's French. Source: Wikipedia: Thieves' cant
Verlan, a French slang that inverts the syllables of words, gets its own name by inverting which phrase?Answer: L'envers. Source: Wikipedia: Verlan
Yob began as back slang. Which word is it, said backwards?Answer: Boy. Source: Wikipedia: Back slang
How this list was compiled: Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, what is said in the source named and linked beside the question: the word's English entry in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org), or an English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org), both under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. The passage that states each meaning, date or origin was found in that source on October 15, 2026 before the question was kept. 62 sources are linked, 27 dictionary entries and 35 articles, none for more than three questions. A date is given only as the source gives it: first attested, first recorded, coined or popularized. Only clean words are asked: slang that turns on drink, drugs, an insult to a people or anything unfit for a family table was left out, although the reference works linked beside the questions record such words too. No living person is named. Dictionaries, publishers and libraries are named only as facts; this page is not affiliated with any of them. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits a curious adult, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its source was read. Licence: own work
How it works
Which bird gave us gobbledygook, and which book of 1854 holds the first brain rot? This slang trivia goes by decade: each question gives a word and asks for its meaning, its date or its origin. Clean words only.
Read the full guide
Slang trivia by decade
Old-time slang has skedaddle, humdinger and scuttlebutt. The Jazz Age to the 1940s brings the heebie-jeebies, malarkey and the jalopy. The 1950s to the 1990s runs from the first nerd to snail mail, and The internet age from pwn to doomscrolling.
Rhyming slang, back slang and Pig Latin
Rhyming slang and other codes is the round to read aloud: the dog and bone, plates of meat, amscray, and a French slang that got its own name by turning a word back to front. At a table of mixed ages, give the grandparents the internet round and the teenagers the Jazz Age.
Before you tap, ask the table to use the word in a sentence. The best sentence earns a bonus point on paper.
Questions and answers
What are some slang trivia questions?
What did soldiers of the Civil War years do when they skedaddled? What is a jalopy? Which word did Oxford University Press name its word of the year for 2023? The answers are ran away, an old run-down car and rizz.
Where does the word slang come from?
It first appears about 1756, meaning the special vocabulary of tramps or thieves. Wiktionary says it is not believed to be connected with language or lingo, and that it possibly came from a Scandinavian source.
What is the difference between slang and jargon?
Jargon is the specialized terminology of a particular field, such as a trade or a profession. Slang is informal vocabulary, often the talk of one in-group. Both can be used to keep outsiders out of a conversation.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 15, 2026 in the source linked beside it: 27 Wiktionary entries and 35 Wikipedia articles. A date is given only as that source gives it. The pack asks clean words only, though those reference works record ruder ones too.