It's difficult to trace exactly when slang words started showing up in the English language. We don't even see the actual word "slang" used in print until around 1800, but we can probably assume there were slang words being used before that.
One of the earliest known uses of slang is the word "bad" which has been used to refer to "good" since the late 19th century. When we look at the overall culture of slang used in the English language we can almost break it down by decade. Each one seems to have a unique set of slang words that are easily identifiable with the time period. Slang words are now woven into the fabric of pop culture and are common in music, literature and everyday conversations. With the advent of texting on smartphones, slang and abbreviated sayings are commonplace.
The older you get, the more sophisticated your verbiage may become, but you might still like to keep up on the current lingo. Just like technology, the way we communicate seems to be changing at a breakneck speed. Gone are the days of throwing out a couple "rad dudes" or "cool cats" and getting away with it. Now you can be eviscerated on social media and banished to the annals of the "uncool." No matter, you still have a handle on the times and a boss vocabulary to prove it. See if you can go postal on this quiz to tell us what these slang words and phrases mean and we will try and guess which generation you belong to!
If someone told you that you were acting salty, what would you think they meant?
