1980's Slang

Let's travel back about three decades ago to a time of leg warmers, crazy hairstyles, and a whole other language. Learning about slang from the 1980's might set you on a path of memories or might introduce you to an entirely new language all together.

Chances are though, whether you were a child of the 80's or are a millennium baby, you have heard some of these phrases used before, as slang tends to permeate the generations, even if certain words go into hiding for awhile.

Here are some of the most popular phrases from the 80's.

• Acid house
• Adult child
• Airhead
• Awesome
• Bad to the bone
• Barf bag
• Barf me out
• Bimbette
• Bodacious
• Bogus
• Bomb
• Boy toy
• Chocoholic
• Cocooning
• Couch potato
• Deep houe
• Dink
• B.F.F.
• Bag your face
• Betty
• Big time
• Bite me
• Blar
• Blitz
• Bogart
• Boho
• Bohunk
• Bombdiggity
• Book
• Bootleg
• Brand new
• Brill
• Burn out
• Butter's
• Cheeuh!
• Chicken
• Chill
• Take a chill pill
• Clutch
• Clydesdale
• Cold lampin
• Cornchip
• Cowabunga
• Deadly
• Dexter
• Dip
• Ditz
• Down
• Exo skeleton
• Face
• Facial
• Fantabulous
• Fave
• Fine
• Flange
• Freaked out
• Freak out
• Freak
• Freddy
• Fresh one
• Glam
• Goth
• Gothic
• Harsh
• Head banger
• Hella
• Herb
• Hi guy
• Homegirl
• Hood
• Hotdogger
• House
• I kid you not
• The jam
• Jams
• Joanie
• Jock
• Juiced
• Kirk out
• Lame
• Later
• Later days
• Legit
• Mad
• Mall-maggot
• Mega
• Mental
• The mods
• Most definately
• Most triumphant
• Motor
• Mung
• Narbo
• No can do
• No doy
• Ooglay
• Peg
• Pegged
• Posse
• The punks
• Putt
• Ralph
• Schweet
• Scrapin'
• Scratch
• Space cadet
• Spiffy
• To the curb
• Tough
• Veg
• Very
• Wail
• Wannabe
• Warped
• Waver
• Whatchu talking bout
• Where's the beef
• Whoa
• Wigging
• Wig out
• Za and brew
• Bodacious
• Bogus
• Choice
• Dude
• Excellent
• For sure
• Gag me with a spoon
• Goonie goo-goo
• Gnarly
• Hacker
• Heinous
• New wave
• Outrageous
• Psych
• Radical
• Righteous
• Spaz
• Yes, way
• Beat Box
• B-boy
• Def
• Dope
• Drop science
• Faze
• Fly
• Fresh
• Homeboy
• Hype
• Jack move
• New jack
• Step off
• Sucka
• Posse
• Funky fresh gear
• Human beat box
• Stupid
• Sucka MCs
• Poppin and lockin
• Chill
• Ill
• Tubular
• Totally
• Like
• Gnarly
• Care bear stare
• Valley girl
• Chill pill
• Def
• Don't have a cow
• Don't worry be happy
• Going together
• Give a hoot
• Gotta motor
• Help...I've fallen and I can't get up!
• How very
• I am sure
• I know you are, but what am I?
• Major
• Nerd
• Only you can prevent forest fires
• Scarfing
• Smooth move ex-lax
• So '87
• Spaz
• Stellar
• Stoked
• That's the ticket
• Where's the beef
• Wicked
• Yo
• Your mama

Look at the list of 1980's slang words and phrases again. Do you notice some of them or realize that you might use them in everyday speech today? Chances are that you do, since these words were not reserved explicitly for the usage of people chatting in the 1980's. Some of them came into existence before the decade began, and some of them, such as "So '87" did not appear until later on in the decade.

In any case though, looking at these words and phrases shows you some important lessons about language. You might think that you invented "Wicked" or "Your Mama," but they have actually been around for awhile.