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Slang From the 1920s

post #1 of 21
5/10/09 at 11:16pm
Thread Starter 
I'm trying to bring back "23 Skidoo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_skidoo_(phrase)

23 skidoo (sometimes 23 skiddoo) is an American slang phrase popularized in the early twentieth century, first appearing before World War I and becoming popular in the Roaring Twenties. It generally refers to leaving quickly, being forced to leave quickly "we got out of there 23 skidoo" or taking advantage of a propitious opportunity to leave, that is, "getting [out] while the getting's good." The exact origin of the phrase is uncertain.

23 skidoo has been described as "perhaps the first truly national fad expression and one of the most popular fad expressions to appear in the U.S," to the extent that "Pennants and arm-bands at shore resorts, parks, and county fairs bore either [23] or the word 'Skiddoo.'

Many of the terms are still used today:

http://everything2.com/title/1920s%2520slang

ab-so-lute-ly: affirmative
Attaboy!: well done!; also, Attagirl!
baloney: Nonsense!
Blind Date - going out with someone you do not know
Copacetic - Wonderful, fine, all right
crush: infatuation
killjoy: a solemn person
knock up: to make pregnant
nifty: great, excellent
Real McCoy - The genuine article
tight: attractive
Swell - Wonderful.
Spiffy - An elegant appearance

And many aren't:

Berries - is attractive or pleasing; similar to bee's knees, As in "It's the berries."
Ducky - very good (I'm going to start using that one)
Egg - a person who lives the big life
Giggle Water - An intoxicating beverage; alcohol
Jake - OK, as in , "Everything is Jake."
Struggle Buggy - the backseat of a car. A parent's worst nightmare
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post #2 of 21
5/10/09 at 11:44pm
What a hoot! Thanks for posting, Adonis, that's a fun website to explore!
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post #3 of 21
5/11/09 at 5:15am
Great thread topic! Thanks for posting this. Berries, ducky and jake are still in my vocabulary -- I watched a lot of old movies.
Here is a terrific clip, from 1943. An adorable sparkplug of a singer, Betty Hutton. Introduction by Bob Hope. Obviously part of Hope's wartime shows. Although in the 1940s, it has a lot of the 20's slang terms which still had currency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClGNm89GZBE

Some may know this song from the movie Mona Lisa Smile, done by Tori Amos. That is a good version, but this is the original.
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post #4 of 21
5/11/09 at 5:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by odysseusm View Post

Here is a terrific clip, from 1943. An adorable sparkplug of a singer, Betty Hutton. Introduction by Bob Hope. Obviously part of Hope's wartime shows. Although in the 1940s, it has a lot of the 20's slang terms which still had currency.

Awesome. She kills it!
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post #5 of 21
5/11/09 at 11:04pm
Cripes
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post #6 of 21
5/12/09 at 9:18am
I though Tight was a 90's slang term well that shows how much 1920's slang influences us still today and by the way this list you made for us is the bees knees
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post #7 of 21
5/13/09 at 3:05am
I recommend you begin reading P.G. Wodehouse immediately! Here's some of his expressions for tying one on:

Under the surface, completely sozzled, fried to the tonsils, ossified, pie-eyed, plastered, polluted, squiffy, stewed, tanked to the uvula, tight as an owl.

A funny line: "He tottered blindly towards the bar like a camel making for an oasis after a hard day at the office.

Also, some plain good prose:
I was sauntering on the river bank with a girl named something that has slipped my mind, when there was a sound of barking and a large hefty dog came galloping up, full of beans and buck and obviously intent on mayhem. And I was just commending my soul to God and feeling that this was where the old flannel trousers got about thirty bobs worth of value bitten out of them, when the girl, waiting till she saw the whites of its eyes, with extraordinary presence of mind opened a coloured Japanese umbrella in the animal's face. Upon which it did three back somersaults and retired into private life.
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post #8 of 21
5/13/09 at 4:14am
This is great,

Can anyone tell me what "cut me a switch" means?
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post #9 of 21
5/13/09 at 5:12am
oud_girl: Wodehouse is hilarious, very funny. I knew a British girl who said that if she had too many beers, she got squiffy... which I found to be an adorable expression.

Andy: I think "cut a switch" is when a parent or teacher would cut a branch on a tree and prepare to discipline a child. Not politically correct these days. "readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic; learned to the tune of a hickory stick..."
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post #10 of 21
5/13/09 at 5:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by odysseusm View Post

oud_girl: Wodehouse is hilarious, very funny. I knew a British girl who said that if she had too many beers, she got squiffy... which I found to be an adorable expression.

My other half says that all the time but its more like....... "too many beers gives me a squiffy tummy"

Quote:
Originally Posted by odysseusm View Post

Andy: I think "cut a switch" is when a parent or teacher would cut a branch on a tree and prepare to discipline a child. Not politically correct these days. "readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic; learned to the tune of a hickory stick..."

Ah I see, so the ultimate punishment being "Go outside and cut me a switch" i.e. go and pick the stick im gonna batter you with.
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post #11 of 21
5/13/09 at 5:52am
  • kbe
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Moogle or Muggle:
1. A person who smokes *gage but is not a Cool Cat or a **viper

*marijuana
**one who smokes marijuana. Usually also a member of the Jazz sub-culture
...


Non-magicals in the Harry Potter books are referred to as "Muggles" so perhaps the author was substituting Magic as the subculture in her books and subtly alluding all the magical events were really THC hallucinations?
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post #12 of 21
5/13/09 at 7:57am
To "cut a switch" in my family meant that you had to go outside and cut your own peach tree branch with which to be spanked. That part was usually worse than the beating itself, trust me.
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post #13 of 21
5/13/09 at 8:16am
How 'bout "cut a rug"? Means to dance, I think. "Hey babe, wanna cut a rug?"

Sounds like Betty Hutton was dating Curly!

I've heard and use many of these expressions myself (e.g., "ossified" - which I haven't been in years).

Also, there's "hep", as in a hep cat. Did that originate in the 20's?
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post #14 of 21
5/13/09 at 8:42am
Let's listen to the great Cab Calloway, "Are you hep to the jive?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgW3RxKdN0Q
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post #15 of 21
5/13/09 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by odysseusm View Post

Let's listen to the great Cab Calloway, "Are you hep to the jive?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgW3RxKdN0Q

Love Cab Calloway! I love Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five, too.
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post #16 of 21
5/13/09 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tvlampboy View Post

To "cut a switch" in my family meant that you had to go outside and cut your own peach tree branch with which to be spanked. That part was usually worse than the beating itself, trust me.

For a few years I spent my summer days and after-school afternoons with the kids of a friend of my parents. Whenever we'd do something we oughtn't, she have us cut a switch from the schefflera tree (in Florida, scheffleras can get taller than a two-story house). She'd want a big, firm, green one too. If it wasn't approved-- double switchins.

Music and slang from the 1920s! I'll continue with the Jeeves and Wooster and offer up these videos:

Jeeves & Wooster - Minnie the Moocher

Jeeves & Wooster - Nagasaki
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post #17 of 21
5/13/09 at 8:33pm
Those are hilarious clips, oud_girl. Dry British humour!!

For lilybelle, here's Louis Jordan's swingin' hit, "Five Guys Named Moe"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m7jXpDaK58
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post #18 of 21
5/13/09 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by adonis View Post

I'm trying to bring back "23 Skidoo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_skidoo_(phrase)

I will join you in this quest. I've used it twice already today and shall continue to do so when appropriate.
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post #19 of 21
5/13/09 at 9:06pm
Within Death Valley National Park, there are the ruins of a mining camp, called "Skidoo".

(shifting gears)

How about

"mizake the mizan"

(circa 1920s American)

Any Cocteau Twins fans here? You should recognize that phrase. A handful of their song titles are taken from obscure pre-1920s American slang phrases. Also:

cherry colored funk - (black smoke)
fifty-fifty clown - (part time policeman)

...which leads to carny talk (of which "mizake the mizan" is an example)

I love this kind of thing. Language is fun.
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post #20 of 21
5/13/09 at 9:12pm
Great posts everyone! I really enjoyed those thoroughly! Loved that murder song, she nailed it! And Hugh Laurie singing like that was a long way from what he does now on tv! Awesome!
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post #21 of 21
5/14/09 at 6:09am
Hey there Tara. Glad you're enjoying these. Here's real fun one:
Slim Gaillard singing his signature song, Yep Roc Heresy. This clip says 1951 but he was doing it in his trio in the 40's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8iIwDCWAJg
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