1920s Slang For Cool (Helpful Content!)

Common slang terms for cool in the 1920s included terms like “cat’s meow,” “slick”, “spiffy” and “copacetic”. More general terms for something very good, and often cool, included “cat’s pajamas” or “berries”. Many terms that you’ll still hear today were also used in the 1920s, such as “dynamite,” “hip” or “bang-up”.

The “cool” aesthetic as we know it today was in many ways started in the 1920s.

Though our idea of what makes someone or something cool has changed a lot over the last century, the very idea itself of “cool” was really a notion that got started in the 1920s.

Let’s find out more.

What was 1920s slang for “cool”?

Slang for “cool” in the 1920s was more than a little varied.

There were many different ways of describing things as cool, some which have fallen out of use and others which are still extremely common even today.

Some of the most quintessentially 1920s slang terms for cool included terms like “the cat’s meow” or “the cat’s pajamas”.

The cat’s pajamas just more generally meant something was very good, although it could mean cool.

“Cat’s meow” was more specific, and meant something very cool.

Other terms you’d hear for cool in the 1920s included common terms like “slick” and “copacetic”.

These are both still used to some extent today, though they were more popular and more common in the 1920s.

“Slick” usually had the specific sense of a suave and confident man, maybe a man who was really good with the ladies, who dressed nicely and always carried himself well.

A “cool” man in the most pure sense.

“Copacetic” was really something used to mean a situation was cool or okay, and is still used today, though not very much.

“Spiffy” was sometimes used to mean cool, although this was not as common in the U.S.

Those who did use it tended to mean something a bit different to what we might think of as cool, though it was still used to some extent.

Some other terms which were common in the 1920s included “dynamite”.

This again was usually quite specific and mostly used of a person, particularly a very attractive or very cool person.

This could be used of a man or a woman.

“Hip” was also common at this time and referred to a cool person who was in the know and well-informed.

“Bang-up”, finally, was common in Britain at this time to mean cool.

Where do we get all these terms, then?

Why did people say “cat’s meow” in the 1920s?

A cartoonist named Thomas A. Dorgan is credited with having coined this term.

It’s not really clear what the significance was supposed to be.

“Cat” at this time was a common slang term for a man, and though it could be more general, it most often referred to a cool person. thus, this association of cats with cool things meant that phrases using “cat” were most often associated with cool things.

The term was popularized by a film of the same name in 1924, and even as late as the 1960s it was still used in television to refer to something very cool.

Why did people say “slick” in the 1920s?

The term “slick” had many different meanings over time.

The sense which is most relevant to this question is the sense of “first rate” which was recorded in use by 1833.

This was related to the more literal meaning of the term, which was to do with smoothness and sleekness.

Typically, this referred to hair. It also came to mean smooth or plausible later on, which related to the later meaning of cool.

By the 1920s, it had come to mean a handsome, smart, well dressed and well-groomed man—in other words, a very cool man!

To be slick was to be smooth and suave, usually very capable with the ladies.

Why did people say “dynamite” in the 1920s?

“Dynamite” had a couple of different senses at this time.

Of course, the literal meaning just referred to the explosives.

By 1922, it had come to mean something potentially dangerous, naturally arising out of the very dangerous explosives.

It is most commonly associated with later periods in the sense of cool, but it’s thought that it certainly did have this meaning by this time.

It’s thought to have simply related to the fact that dynamite was very flashy and showy, as a very cool thing or person would be.

Why did people say “bang-up” in the 1920s?

“Bang-up” was much more common in Britain than America, though you would hear it both places from time to time.

Originally, the term in the 19^th Century meant very fashionable or stylish, being “bang up” to the standards of fashion and coolness.

Thus, by the 1920s, it had come to more generally mean something that was very good and very cool, something done very well and someone who knows what they are about.

So, there were more than a handful of slang terms for cool in the 1920s.

From the most basic and generic terms to the more specific types of cool, there was a word for just about everything in the 1920s cool lingo.

Again, the very idea of “cool” is really an early 20^th Century invention, and we owe much of what we think of as “cool” in the first place to the 1920s.

More in 1920s Slang

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• 1920s Slang For Woman