Image: aeduard / E+ / Getty Images
About This Quiz
World War I and the decade that followed brought rapid change to all aspects of life. From technological and industrial advancements to radical movements in art and culture, the world was quickly redefining itself. With the staid Victorian Era firmly in the past and the Roaring '20s on the horizon, the lexicon swelled to adapt as the 19th century was swept away, and a still-young America asserted itself as a military, economic and cultural superpower.
As the First World War brought mechanization to the battlefront, youth culture expanded as never before and African Americans were making unprecedented strides into the American mainstream through art, literature and music. Industrialization, radio and the automobile allowed people to travel, communicate and do business as never before, and just as the new century took shape, so did a new vocabulary.
This quiz will transport you back to the early days of the 20th century when Jazz was king, the Yanks were coming and Henry Ford would sell you a Model T in any color you liked, as long as it was black. So, whether you're a doughboy, a dewdropper, a flapper or a vamp, we challenge you to test your linguistic mettle! Can you identify these 100-year-old words and phrases?
Flivver
In 1908, Henry Ford forever changed American life with the introduction of the Model T bringing the automobile to the masses. Appearing in print for the first time in 1910, the origin of flivver is unknown but was one of many colorful nicknames for Ford's affordable car.
Jalopy
Hoopty
Lemon
Advertisement
Crabs
Cooties
Although "cooties" would evolve into a perennially popular schoolyard term for an imaginary germ, the word was originally applied to body lice by British soldiers in World War I. The term's history is uncertain, but it possibly references the coot, an aquatic bird that is a notorious carrier of lice.
Mozzies
Skeeters
Advertisement
Fire water
Loudmouth soup
Giggle water
Considered a feminine appellation for any intoxicating drink, giggle water was a term popularized by the flappers. Men of the era, however, would probably prefer the far less descriptive term "hooch" for their bootleg liquor.
Devil's brew
Advertisement
Foul ball
Bad billiards
Dirty pool
Dirty pool first came into use in 1918. In this usage, the word pool is derived from the French word "poule," meaning "hen." Originally applied to a card game, poule later became synonymous with billiards. Using dirty to describe something as unsavory or immoral dates as far back as the 16th century.
Tricky tennis
Advertisement
Hot dogs
Pup tails
Growlers
Barkers
Life in the trenches of the First World War was notoriously miserable, and this misery undoubtedly extended to food rations. In a bit of half-joking gallows humor, soldiers called their low-quality, government-issued sausages barkers.
Advertisement
Schlock
First appearing in print in 1915, schlock is derived from the Yiddish word "shlak," which itself originates from the German "schlacke" meaning "dregs" or "scum." A synonym for trash, schlock is most often used today to describe low-quality films and entertainment.
Kitsch
Schmutz
Schlep
Advertisement
Ballerino
Danseuse
Balletomane
Balletomane is a word of Russian origin coined in 1919. This word is an etymological melting pot combining the French and Italian ballet with the suffix "-man" from the Russian word "maniya," which is derived from the Greek and Latin mania.
Hoofer
Advertisement
Huckster
Mesmerist
Svengali
Becoming a generic term for any evil and dominating seducer in 1919, Svengali refers to the villain in George du Maurier's 1895 novel "Trilby." Svengali seduces and exploits the book's eponymous heroine making her a famous singer for his own gain.
Don Juan
Advertisement
Femme fatale
Maneater
Floozy
Vamp
This word for a dangerously flirty seductress is derived (obviously) from the familiar vampire. The vamp was a popular stock character in early cinema. It was possibly first applied to the popular silent-era actress Theda Bara for her role as "The Vampire" in the 1915 film "A Fool There Was."
Advertisement
Ah, applesauce!
"Ah, applesauce!" was a popular Jazz Age retort to flattery or a ridiculous statement. It was used as a more appetizing or light-hearted alternative to another, still popular exclamation with the initials "B.S."
What a bunch of bananas!
Frankfurter sandwiches!
That's a load of apricots!
Advertisement
Juke party
Jazz hop
Rent party
The end of World War I saw a mass migration of African Americans from the South to the North. Searching for jobs and greater opportunity, they often encountered prohibitively high rent. This gave rise to the rent party, a house party where the attendees were charged entrances fees to raise needed funds.
Cash bash
Advertisement
Doozy
Used to describe something unique or extraordinary, "doozy" has been long thought to have been derived from the Duesenberg Motor Company, an American car manufacturer founded in 1916. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the word predates the car company and is more likely a corruption of daisy.
Goody
Dazzler
Stunner
Advertisement
Sniffer
Sneezer
Snot tap
Beezer
Beezer is old prize-fighting slang for nose. Its etymology is murky; however, it should not be confused with the British usage, which describes something that is excellent or attractive.
Advertisement
Vigorish
The vigorish (sometimes shortened to "vig") is usually a fee taken by a gambling house or bookie on bets. Its meaning has been extended to include loan interest. The term likely originates from the Russian word "vyigrysh" meaning "profit."
Spread
Cover
Push
Advertisement
Jimmy
Roscoe
Dating to 1914, roscoe, like "heater" or "gat," is a slang term for pistol or handgun. Experts are not sure why this particular name caught on, but it was especially popular in detective fiction of the 1920s and '30s.
Billy
Butch
Advertisement
Shell shocked
Pogey bait
Basket case
Although its meaning has evolved to describe mental rather than physical infirmity, the original definition of "basket case" was a soldier who had been maimed so badly they had to be removed from the battlefield in a basket, or, more specifically, one who had lost all four limbs.
Spike-bozzled
Advertisement
The old college try
The phrase "old college try" first appeared in print in 1918 in a quote from New York Giants manager John McGraw. Initially, the phrase was somewhat exclusive to baseball and used to describe any great, but likely to fail, effort on the field. It later came into broader use outside of the sport.
The stiff upper lip
The new jack swing
The old campus shuffle
Advertisement
MoMA
German Expressionism
Dada
Dada was a movement in modern art and literature that began in Zurich, Switzerland, around 1916. Nihilistic and intentionally nonsensical, it was a reaction to the horrors of World War I and the seeming absurdity of modern life.
Impressionism
Advertisement
Polyester
Pleather
Naugahyde
Invented in 1914, Naugahyde is an artificial leather made of a knit fabric material coated with rubber or vinyl resin. Its name is derived from Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it was first manufactured. The word was first recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1919.
Latex
Advertisement
Mosaic
Papier-mâché
Pointillism
Collage
Literally the French word for "gluing," collage as an art technique first entered the lexicon in 1919. The ready availability of printed paper media in the early years of the 20th century gave rise to this popular method of creating art.
Advertisement
Okey dokey
Satisfactual
Copacetic
Surprisingly, the etymology of copacetic is a mystery. Linguists have many theories as to its origin, none of which can be substantiated. Song and dance man Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who did much to popularize the word, claimed to have coined it; however, there is much anecdotal evidence against this.
Dandy
Advertisement
Dewdropper
This word for one who is lazy, shiftless and usually unemployed is similar in meaning to words such as lollygagger or the more modern slacker. After the 1920s, it seems to have fallen out of fashion.
Flapper
Doughboy
Floorflusher
Advertisement
Sideline
Offline
We may think of offline as a recent addition to the language due to the role that computers play in modern life. Nevertheless, the word actually originated with railroads. Any part of a railroad's business conducted away from the tracks like ticketing and business operations was considered offline.
Online
Trackside
Advertisement
Lash one's tongue
Beat one's gums
This phrase is similar in definition to "chewin' the fat" or "shooting the breeze," however, its usage has more negative connotations. "Beating one's gums" generally refers to wasted effort on the part of the speaker.
Grind one's teeth
Chew the furniture
Advertisement
Jinx
Jinx as a noun to denote a person who brings bad luck or the condition caused by a jinx first appears in print in 1904. The verb form shows up sometime later in 1917. Some linguists believe that the word is an alteration of "jynx," a species of bird once thought to have occult powers.
Sap
Strafe
Whack
Advertisement
The goat's spectacles
The fish's bicycle
The bear's bolar
The cat's pajamas
The years after the First World War through the 1920s brought a plethora of faddish animal phrases used to describe excellence or outstanding qualities. These fun non-sequiturs included "the bee's knees," "the monkey's eyebrows" and many others. "The cat's pajamas" is among the most enduring of these.
Advertisement
Gad about
Chew the rag
Take a ride
Horse around
The idiom "horsing around" first appears in print in 1919 and is likely related to the much older horseplay. Although horseplay generally refers to roughhousing or rowdy play, "to horse around" describes silly, joking behavior one indulges in to avoid work.
Advertisement
Cushy
Cushy is derived from the Hindi word "khush," which means "pleasure." This alteration was adopted by British troops stationed in India and was applied to anything that presented comfort, safety or little difficulty.
Fluffy
Snugly
Swanky
Advertisement
Cabin fever
Although movies, TV and popular fiction present cabin fever as a form of insanity that often ends with a murderous rampage, it's much more akin to a simple case of the blues. A person with cabin fever is probably too listless to pick up an ax.
Space madness
Closet lunacy
Shack shivers
Advertisement
Put up or shut up
Fish or cut bait
Make-or-break
This binary phrase from 1919 remains in use today and is used to describe everything from sports plays to business transactions. A situation is make-or-break when any course of action will lead to unmitigated success or abject failure.
Stand or ball
Advertisement
Boxers
Briefs
Skivvies
Skivvies, originally naval slang for underwear but later used by all branches of the military, is another word with no clear origin. Many sources claim that it was formerly a trademarked brand, although there is no evidence of this before the 1950s.
Unmentionables
Advertisement
For Pete's sake!
"For Pete's Sake" is a prime example of a minced oath, the euphemistic substitution of a mild word for an objectionable one in an exclamatory phrase. Why is Pete standing in for God? Although there is no concrete evidence, some sources say the name references St. Peter.
Gosh darn it!
Great Caesar's ghost!
Hot spit and monkey vomit!
Advertisement
Shut your crump hole!
Cease the flap!
Tamp your pipe!
Put a sock in it!
The oft-told tale that "Put a sock in it!" arose from the practice of stuffing a piece of hosiery in the horn of a phonograph to control its volume is false. The phrase with its current definition actually originates with British and Australian troops in World War I.
Advertisement
Crabby
Grouchy
Grumpy
Snarky
Sometimes, old words can get a new lease on life, as is the case with snarky. Originally meaning irritable or cranky, the word has evolved over the decades to its current definition: snide, mocking, sarcastic, or pointedly critical behavior.
Advertisement
Clink
Joint
Pokey
Pokey, one of many unusual slang words for jail, first enters the lexicon in 1919. Although its etymology is unknown, it may derive from the slightly older "pogey," which means "poorhouse."
Tank
Advertisement
You Got:
/35
