The exuberant 20s were extraordinarily fertile years for language in America; dozens of new words and expressions sprang into existence. Much of the new verbiage was scornful of established ways; no less than half a dozen of the terms are roughly synonymous words meaning "nonsense." A partial list of terms that were coined or popularized in the decade appears below.


APPLESAUCE - A term of derogation; nonsense; same as baloney, bunk, banana oil, hokum and horsefeathers.
ALL WET - wrong; arguing a mistaken notion or belief.
BEE'S KNEES - a superb person or thing.
BELLY LAUGH - a loud, uninhibited laugh.
BERRIES - anything wonderful; similar to beeUs knees.
BIBLE BELT - an area in the South or south Midwest where Fundamentalist religion prevails.
BLIND DATE - A date with an unknown person of the opposite sex, usually arranged by a mutual friend.
BIG CHEESE - an important person
BRONX CHEER - a loud derisive noise from an audience ( coined by the humorist Bugs Baer, who credited Bronx rooters at athletic events with inventing this mode of expression).
BULL SESSION - an informal group discussion.
BUMP OFF - to murder.
BUNK - nonsense; same as APPLESAUCE, etc,. (A shortened form of bunkum, which is also spelled buncombe, from the name of North Carolina county whose representative in Congress in 1820 explained the irrelevance of a speech he was making by saying that he was "talking to Buncombe").
CAKE-EATER - a ladies man.
CARRY A TORCH - to suffer from unrequited love.
CATS MEOW - anything wonderful, similar to bee's knees, berries.
CHEATERS - eyeglasses.
COPACETIC - excellent.
CRUSH - an infatuation with a person of the opposite sex.
DARB - an excellent person or thing.
DOGS - human feet.
DRUGSTORE COWBOY - a fashionably dressed idler who hangs around public places trying to pick up girls.
DUMB DORA - a stupid girl.
FALL GUY - a scapegoat.
FLAPPER - a typical young girl of the 20s, usually with bobbed hair, short skirts and rolled stockings.
FLAT TIRE - a dull boring person.
FRAME - to cause a person's arrest by giving false evidence.
GYM - a girl's leg (from French dialect gambe).
GATECRASHER - a person who attends a party without an invitation, or a show without paying admission.
GIGGLE WATER - an alcoholic drink.
GIN MILL - a speak easy.
GOLD DIGGER - a woman who uses feminine charm to extract money from a man.
GOOFY - silly.
GYP - to cheat (from gypsy).
HARD-BOILED - tough; without sentiment.
HEEBIE-JEEBIES - the jitters.
HEP - wise.
HIGH-HAT - to snub.
HOKUM - nonsense; same as APPLESAUCE, etc.
HOOCH - bootleg liquor (from HOOCHINOO, a tribe of Alaskan Indians who made distilled liquor).
HOOFER - chorus girl.
HORSEFEATHERS - nonsense; same as APPLESAUCE, etc.
HOTSY-TOTSY - pleasing.
JAKE - okay (most commonly used in the phrase "Everything's jake").
JALOPY - an old car.
KEEN - attractive, appealing.
KIDDO - a familiar form of address.
KISSER - the mouth.
LINE - insincere flattery.
LOUNGE LIZARD - a ladie's man, same as cake-eater.
LOUSY - bad, contemptible.
MAIN DRAG - the most important street in a town or city.
NECK - to caress intimately.
NERTS (NUTS) - an interjection expressing the speaker's disgust.
PEPPY - full of vitality.
OSSIFIED - drunk.
PET - same as neck.
PINCH - to arrest.
PUSHOVER - a person or thing easily overcome.
RASPBERRY - same as BRONX CHEER.
RITZY - elegant (from Ritz, the Paris hotel).
REAL McCoy, THE - The genuine article (the derivation is in dispute, it comes either from a Scottish clan leader named McKay; a boxer named Kid McCoy, who had a rival with the same name, or a bootlegger named McCoy who did not adulterate his liquor).
RUN-AROUND - deceptive or delaying action, especially in response to a request.
SCRAM - to leave hurriedly (from scramble).
SCREWY - crazy; eccentric.
SEX APPEAL - a physical attractiveness to members of the opposite sex.
SHEBA - a young woman with sex appeal.
SHEIK - a young man with sex appeal.
SMELLER - the nose.
SPEAK EASY - a saloon or bar selling bootleg whiskey.
SPIFFY - having an elegantly fashionable appearance.
SPIFFLICATED - drunk.
STRUGGLE BUGGY - a car (from its use as a place in which boys tried to seduce girls).
STUCK ON - having a crush on.
SWANKY - ritzy.
SWELL - marvelous.
TORPEDO - a hired gunman.
UPCHUCK - to vomit.
WHOOPEE - boisterous, convivial fun.




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