slang

Every single person uses slang in one form or another.

Defined as “very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language,” slang is sorta like the rebellious teen of our vocab.

Appropriately enough, the origin of the word slang is unruly as well. The word is first recorded around 1750–60, and was used early on for the special, secret lingo of the underground, often referred to as thieves’ cant.

One now obsolete theory connected slang to sling, imagining slang as the kind of language that’s tossed or thrown around. Another theory links slang to another sense of slang, meaning a “narrow strip of land,” which became associated with the territory that hawkers traveled and their unique speaking style.

Slang ain’t alone: it finds lots of company in other English words that seem simple but whose origins are not. Discover more in our slideshow “‘Dog,’ ‘Boy,’ And Other Words That We Don’t Know Where They Came From.”

Slang can be a single word like cool (“great”) or an expression, such as I feel you (“I relate to you”). Slang is informal and fast-changing. It generally originates within an in-group (especially marginalized communities), and using a slang term is a way of signaling identity in that group.

Because slang is fast-changing and can become quickly outdated, slang words don’t often survive long or pass into the mainstream. There are many exceptions: consider cool, for one. Others quickly become dated. Sorry, on fleek. Today, slang words and phrases often spread—and die out—very quickly thanks to social media.

Because slang is a product of people, place, and time, slang words and phrases are often closely associated with those factors. For example, hearing the slang codswallop or groovy probably makes you think of people from specific places (the U.K.) or time period (the 1960s). And so, we frequently specify slang by its in-group 9e.g., surfer slang, prison slang, Internet slang, military slang).

But keep in mind this other fact about slang: it’s almost always older than you think, because informal language hasn’t historically gotten documented in the written record. For instance, groovy dates back to the 1930s—though it has become closely associated with the 1960s.

As noted, slang is considered a type of informal language—but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily “wrong” or “bad” or “ignorant” language. That said, many slang terms and expressions are offensive, dealing with vulgar or taboo topics.