The Jazz Age Glossary
The exuberant '20's were extraordinarily fertile years for language in America;
dozens of new words and expressions sprang into existence. Much of the new verbiage
was scornful of established ways; no less than half a dozen of the terms are
roughly synonymous words meaning "nonsense." A partial list of terms that were
coined or popularized in the decade appears below.
Additions, corrections and suggestions are welcome. Write to nick@wiseup.org.
- all wet
- wrong; arguing a mistaken notion or belief
- applesauce
- a term of derogation; nonsense;same as baloney, bunk, banana oil, hokum and horsefeathers
- baloney
- nonsense; same as applesauce
- banana oil
- nonsense; same as above
- bee's knees
- a superb person or thing
- belly laugh
- a loud uninhibited laugh
- berries
- anything wonderful, similar to bee's knees
- bible belt
- an area in the South or south Midwest where Fundamentalist religion prevails (coined by H.L. Mencken)
- blind date
- a date with an unknown person of the opposite sex, usually arranged by a mutual friend
- big cheese
- an important person
- bronx cheer
- a loud derisive noise from an audience (coined by humorist Bugs Baer, who credited Bronx rooters at athletic events with inventing this mode of expression)
- bull session
- an informal group discussion
- bump off
- to murder
- bunk
- nonsense; same as applesauce, etc. (a shortened form of bunkum,
which is also spelled buncombe, from the name of a North Carolina
county whose representative in Congress in 1820 explained the irrelevance
of a speech he was making by saying that he was "talking to Buncombe")
- cake-eater
- a ladies man
- carry a torch
- to suffer from unrequited love
- cat's meow
- anything wonderful; similar to bee's knees, berries
- cheaters
- eyeglasses
- copacetic
- excellent
- crush
- an infatuation with a person of the opposite sex
- darb
- an excellent person or thing
- dogs
- human feet
- drugstore cowboy
- a fashionably dressed idler who hangs around public places trying to pick up girls
- dumb dora
- a stupid girl
- fall guy
- a scapegoat
- flapper
- a typical young girl of the '20's, usually with bobbed hair, short skirts and rolled stockings
- flat tire
- a dull, boring person
- frame
- to cause a person's arrest by giving false evidence
- gam
- a girl's leg (from French dialect gambe)
- gatecrasher
- a person who attends a party without an invitation, or a show without paying
admission
- giggle water
- an alcoholic drink
- gin mill
- a speak-easy
- gold digger
- a woman who uses fiminene charm to extract money from a man
- goofy
- silly
- gyp
- to cheat (from gypsy)
- hard-boiled
- tough; without sentiment
- heebie-jeebies
- the jitters
- hep
- wise
- high-hat
- to snub
- hokum
- nonsense; same as applesauce, etc.
- hooch
- bootleg liquor (from Hoochinoo, a tribe of Alaskan Indians who made distilled liquor).
- hoofer
- chorus girl
- horsefeathers
- nonsense; same as applesauce, etc.
- hotsy-totsy
- pleasing
- jake
- okay (most commonly used in the phrase "Everything's jake")
- jalopy
- an old car
- keen
- attractive; appealing
- kiddo
- a familiar form of address
- kisser
- the mouth
- line
- insincere flattery
- lounge lizard
- a ladies' man; same as cake-eater
- lousy
- bad; contemptible
- main drag
- the most important street in a town or city
- neck
- to caress intimately
- nerts (nuts)
- an interjection expressing the speaker's disgust
- ossified
- drunk
- peppy
- full of vitality
- pet
- same as neck
- pinch
- to arrest
- pushover
- a person or thin easily overcome
- raspberry
- same as Bronx cheer
- ritzy
- elegant
- real McCoy, the
- the genuine article (the derivation is in dispute; it comes either from a Scottish clan leader named MacKay; a boxer named kid McCoy, who had a rival with the same name, or a bootlegger named McCoy who did not adulterate his liquor)
- run-around
- deceptive or delaying action, especially in response to a request
- scram
- to leave hurriedly (from scramble)
- screwy
- crazy; eccentric
- sex appeal
- physical attractiveness to members of the opposite sex
- sheba
- a young woman with sex appeal
- sheik
- a young man with sex appeal
- smeller
- the nose
- sob sister
- a woman reporter who leans toward sentimentality in the treatment of her subject matter
- speak-easy
- a saloon or bar selling bootleg whiskey
- spiffy
- having an elegantly fashionable appearance
- spifflicated
- drunk
- struggle buggy
- a car (from its use as a place in which boys tried to seduce girls)
- stuck on
- having a crush on
- swanky
- ritzy
- swell
- marvelous
- torpedo
- a hired gunman
- upchuck
- to vomit
- whoopee
- boisterous, convivial fun