Everyone’s heard of “the cat’s pajamas” and “the bees knees,” but here are some slang terms from the early twenties that I’ll bet you’ve never heard of:
Airdale — a homely man
Alarm clock — a chaperone
An alibi — a box of flowers
Bean picker — one who tries to patch up trouble
The berries — applied to express surprise, disgust, indignation: “Ain’t that the berries!”
Blue serge — a sweetheart
Cake basket — a limousine
Cellar-sheller — a young man who always turns up wherever there’s free liquor
Clothesline — one who tells the neighborhood secrets
Corn shredder — a young man who dances on lady’s feet
Crepehanger — a reformer
Cutting yourself a piece of cake — making yourself wait patiently
Did I was — an exclamation of approval
Dog kennels — pair of shoes.
Ducksoup — anything agreeable, easy or congenial to the moment (so this is where the title of the Marx Brothers film came from!)
Egg harbor — a dance hall where no admission is charged
Feathers — small talk
Fig leaf — a one-piece bathing suit
Finagler — a young man who stalls until someone else pays the check
Fire alarm — a divorced woman
Flatwheeler — a young man who takes a young lady to an egg harbor
G. G. — refers to a man; a coded form of the English expression Gullible Goof (this is pretty self-explanatory)
Grubstake — an invitation to dinner
Hiphound — one who drinks hooch
His tempo’s bad — a phrase used about any one who’s being off color in any way
Holyholy — a flapper who won’t indulge in a mugging match (whatever that is)
Mugging match — a necking party (ah, so THAT’S what that is)
Oilcan — an impostor
Out on parole — a person of either sex who has been divorced
Owl — a flapper who cuts classes and is only seen at night at dances and parties; usually smart enough to get good grades
Punching the bag — act of a man who chats with a girl–and keeps on chatting
Rug hopper — a young man who never takes a girl out; a “parlor hound”
Sweetie — anybody she hates
Swift’s premium — a clumsy flapper or wall flower
Tomato — a good-looking but brainless girl
Windsucker — any person giving to boasting
A Wow — denoting something extremely clever, brilliant or pleasing
And lastly…you know all about the “cat’s whiskers,” but did you know that “the cat’s the dog’s nightshirt”?
The more you know!
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Source: The wonderful site Taylorology, which has a huge collection of vintage news stories, magazine articles and interviews.
What a delightful list. I’ll keep this in a handy place to consult whenever I want to talk like a flapper, which will likely be often, now that I’ve learned these delicious phrases.
Certain ones are begging to be a part of everyday vernacular again. For instance, “grubstake.” 😀
I’ll try to work these into my conversations today! Thom.
Did I was! 😉
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