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About This Quiz
Can you believe 1970 was 50 whole years ago? To say it was a different time is an understatement, but it was definitely a decade to remember, even if you weren't there to remember it. Some very cool things came out of that decade. People are still down with disco — just check out "Mamma Mia!" And if you have any doubt that the movies of the '70s are influential, perhaps you need to reacquaint yourself with 1977's "Star Wars."
There was a ton to watch on TV, a ton of very cool cars and there was the lingo. The way people spoke in the '70s was funky and fun. Some of their slang still survives all these years later, and some barely made it to 1980. You probably know who "the man" is, but can you guess why someone might be "dipping in your Kool-Aid"? It's unlikely anyone has told you to "keep on truckin'" lately, but they might hit you with a sick "burn" every now and then.
Whether you lived through the decade and are fluent in '70s slang or you missed it entirely but know it from movies and TV shows of the era, it's time to see how "far out" you can get with your '70s slang!
Let's mosey!
Let's blow this taco stand!
When it comes time to leave someplace, you want to do it with a little style. So why say, "let's go"? It's much more colorful to just toss out a line like "Let's blow this taco stand" and take yourself and your friends elsewhere.
Roll out!
Let's take a stroll.
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She's looking hot.
You need to look no further than the song "Brick House" by the Commodores to know that this term means someone looks very hot. In more specific terms, it's a reference to a person's body, which is to say, they're well built. Like a brick house.
She's stubborn.
She's unattractive.
She's tough.
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Breaking wood
Sleeping
Relaxing
"Chillaxin'" is one of the greatest portmanteau words of all time, merging "chilling" with "relaxing." Both of those terms essentially mean the same thing, so chillaxin' is just some very dedicated hanging out and doing nothing.
Heading to work
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Your hair
Your work
Your opinions
Your clothes
Having cool threads is always essential to looking good in any era, because your threads are your clothes. Makes sense, since your clothes were likely put together with a fair number of threads in the first place.
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An actual cat
A cool person
Back in the 1970s, it was the coolest thing in the world to come up with some generalized nicknames for people, and none was more effective than calling people "cats." For instance, if you're heading out for a night, you might go with the cool cat you know from work.
The bartender
A police officer
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A firefighter
A factory worker
A racecar driver
A drug user
Every so often you'll still run across this term today, though it's not that common anymore. In the '70s, and only as a pejorative, you'd call someone a "burnout" if they were a drug user and you were calling them out on it.
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When they're trying to be seductive
When they're trying not to swear
The unusual and essentially gibberish word "shazbot" owes its brief 1970s fame to the show "Mork and Mindy." The alien Mork, played by Robin Williams, would swear in his own language by saying "shazbot." People picked it up as a G-rated way to avoid actually swearing.
When they're building a robot
When they're angry
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They got burnt.
It's too hot out.
Someone just got brutally insulted.
Not a lot of '70s slang made it out of that decade to the present, but the word "burn" is still pretty common. A good burn is what you call a particularly brutal insult leveled at someone else, and the burn is in recognition of that insult.
They're hungry.
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Everything is good.
The word "copacetic" is a weird one because it sounds like one of those $10 words that's clearly smart and important in some way. It's not. It just means everything is fine, and no one is even really sure where the word came from originally.
Everything is falling apart.
Everything has changed.
No one has any idea what's going on.
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Dunderhead
Goblin
Hot dog
Jive turkey
A "jive turkey" was not a good thing to be, by any means. This term generally meant someone was disingenuous and not cool. Maybe you were putting on a front, trying to be cool and trying to fit in where you didn't belong ... that could make you a jive turkey.
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Do you understand?
If someone were to ask you, "can you dig it?" what they want to know is if you understand what they're saying, or if you agree with what they're saying. If you don't dig it, then you could probably say so, but a typical response is "I can dig it."
Does this make you happy?
Can you explain this further?
What happens next?
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Get a job.
Shut up.
Keep doing what you're doing.
"Keep on truckin'" is one of the most common phrases associated with the '70s, probably due to how little it means. It just means "keep going" or "keep doing what you're doing," with a hint of the '70s fascination with trucker culture tossed in for good measure.
Fight me!
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You're a nerd.
You're the teacher's pet.
You zoned out.
Saying that someone is a "space cadet" is an extreme way of saying that their head is in the clouds and then some. You've zoned out completely if you're a space cadet and are no longer paying attention to anything.
You got all As.
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Dance
It was never a bad time to boogie in the '70s, because who doesn't love some dancing? "Boogie shoes" were dancing shoes, "boogie down" just meant to really commit to dancing, and "boogie-oogie-oogie," well, that just sounded good in songs.
Fight
Sleep
Eat
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They'll see you downstairs.
They'll learn your secrets.
They're going to make you dinner.
They'll see you later.
Back in the '70s, you had limited ways to listen to music, and a popular option involved a record player and a vinyl record. If you wanted to hear more, you had to flip the record. The flipside of the record gave you more, so catching someone "on the flipside" meant you'd see them later.
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Take a chill pill.
When someone is decidedly not chill and they need to get chill, then you might recommend they "take a chill pill." It's a quick and easy way to let someone know that they're being a little uncool and need to take it down a notch.
Ease up on it.
Take a cold bath.
Have a Kit Kat.
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You're warning them to look out.
You're just kidding with them.
You'd say "psyche" to someone if you're messing with them or just joking around. For instance, you might say, "Hey, want this $10 bill?" and then, just before they grab it, you pull it away and say, "psyche!" It's not nice, but it is what it is.
You're mocking their intelligence.
You're angry at them.
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Bunk!
Hard cheese!
Right on!
"Right on" was a pretty ubiquitous phrase in the '70s, and it still gets plenty of use in the present as well. You'd say "right on" to indicate you like something, you approve of it or you just agree with what someone else is saying.
Flutter!
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This smells.
This is not very cool at all.
I concur!
"Cool beans" got a lot of play in both the '70s and the '80s, and you'll still hear it every now and then, even today. It's a playful way to say that you concur with someone, you agree with their point and it's good times.
I hate you.
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Someone who's awkward and bumbling
If someone accuses you of being a "spaz," they're claiming that you're a weird, awkward sort of bumbling character. Maybe you're over-excited or you have no chill. The word fell out of favor, as people started using it as an insult for people with various physical and mental disabilities.
Someone who's extra awesome
A great party
Food that makes you feel sick
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It's great!
It's old-fashioned.
It's disgusting.
You definitely don't come across the word "grody" too much these days, but it comes from the same place as "gross." Grody is a reference to something that is disgusting and unpleasant to you. You don't want a grody dinner.
It's something you've never seen before.
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They need a serious favor.
A favor is just a favor, but a "solid" is a next level sort of favor. Technically, it's probably just a normal favor, but saying it implies that it's something really important you're about to ask. For instance, "I need you to do me a solid and let me sleep on your couch tonight. I got kicked out."
They need money.
They need to take some time off.
They need your opinion.
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A recipe
A phone number
The time
Some gossip
When you need to know the "skinny," you want the scoop on something. You need the gossip about what's going on, as true or as factual as someone knows it. So if you hear your friend just got arrested, you might say, "What's the skinny on Dave going to jail?"
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To give the time
To confirm or agree
"Ten-four" or "10-4" is just trucker slang from back in the day that you can still run across pretty commonly today. It's a part of the 10 code that means "yes," for "affirmative." There are actually many other 10 codes, if you're interested to learn. For example, "10-20" means "Where are you?"
To give directions
To brush someone off
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Have a rest.
Shut up.
The Fonz was famous for saying this on "Happy Days," which would make you think it's '50s slang. However, they seem to have made it up in the '70s and just retroactively decided it was something people said in the '50s.
Go for a drive.
Keep a secret.
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Your dad
A hot guy
Police
This slang still gets tossed around today sometimes, but not as often as it once did. Someone referring to the police, or any law enforcement or government official, could call them "the man." It's generally not meant as a compliment.
A cool person
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They're crazy.
If someone is a "fry," then they're sort of wacky, sort of crazy, sort of cool. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but you can't always say it's a good thing, either. It's best used when someone does something mind-blowing and bizarre that's worth acknowledging.
They're boring.
They're too serious.
They're cute.
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Get your own Cheez-Its.
Lay off my Keds.
Release the hounds.
Stop dipping in my Kool-Aid.
Telling someone to mind their own business is pretty dry and blunt. It's much more fun to tell someone to stop dipping in your Kool-Aid in an effort to make the same point. After all, if you have some Kool-Aid, the last thing you need is someone putting their dipper in it.
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Not paying attention
If you're "out to lunch," the lights are on, but no one's home. Physically you're there, but mentally you're somewhere else. Like lunch! Basically, it just means you're being absent-minded and not paying attention at the moment.
Eating lunch
Working
Uninformed
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It's hard.
It's to the extreme.
When you do something "to the max," you're doing it in the most extreme way possible. You can party to the max, you can chill to the max, and you can probably nap to the max if you try hard enough.
It's the worst.
It's loud.
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Run!
"Book it" means it's time to make a speedy getaway, and that generally means it's time to run. You could use it just to mean you want to leave a place, but there's some haste implied in the term that should be respected.
Read.
Put it away.
Drop it.
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Hard to understand
Boring
Very cool
The term "far out" popped up in popular usage back in the 1960s, but it also stayed strong throughout the '70s. When you say something is far out, that's because it impressed you by being very cool in some way.
A lie
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A teacher
A girl at a disco
The term "stella" isn't a compliment, but as insults go, it's pretty tame as well. You'd call a girl at a disco a stella if you were being a little rude to her, maybe making fun of her dancing skills or just the idea of being at a disco in general.
Someone's mom
A female police officer
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Bogus
No one wants to be at a bogue party, because "bogue" means "bogus," and bogus just isn't good at all. Bogue is just the shortened form of bogus, but the spelling is the same length, so it works best when you speak rather than write it out.
Fun
The best ever
Over
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They told a joke.
They sped away quickly.
They farted.
Slang was never meant to be all that dignified and polite, so, you know, take this for what it's worth. If someone "laid a gasser," they farted. This is probably a good time to book it and leave the room.
They lied.
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You Got:
/35
