1920s Slang For Woman (Helpful Content!)

The most common slang term for a woman in the 1920s was “flapper”. You would also hear “doll” and “dame”. These were the most widespread, all-purpose terms. Other terms that were more specific included “fire alarm” and “fire bell” for divorced and married women respectively. Other terms included “rock of ages” and “tomato”.

The 1920s was a time rich in new slang.

Relationships and social expectations between men and women were at best changing and at worst completely breaking down.

While this had always been going on under the surface, things were very different in this time, and this is reflected in how women talked about themselves and how others talked about them.

Let’s find out more.

1920s Slang For Woman

What were women called in 1920s slang?

There were a variety of slang terms for women in the 1920s, though without a doubt the most widely known and quintessentially 1920s is the term “flapper”.

Flapper

This was a broadly western subculture, though it certainly got started in and was most associated with the United States.

Flappers were the younger generation of women characterized by energetic freedom and liberation in how they dressed and styled themselves.

They wore short skirts, bobbed hair, enjoyed jazz and openly flaunted their defiance of social expectations.

“I’m a flapper and proud!” for example.

There were, of course, many other general terms used for women in this time and “flapper” was really something quite specific.

Doll/Dame

Terms that were commonly associated with the first half of the 20^th Century, like “doll” and “dame” were also commonly used in the 1920s.

At this time, though, many women were beginning to think of these terms as degrading or infantilizing—though not all.

“Hey doll, you want to go for a drink?” for example.

The two terms were more or less interchangeable.

Fire Alarm/Fire Bell

1920s slang being so rich and varied, there were a few other terms for women that had rather more specific meanings.

“Fire alarm” and “fire bell” were terms used for divorced women and married women.

Naturally, these were most often used in the context of men trying to court them, though women also used the terms as well.

Rock of ages

For any woman over the age of 30, a slang term sometimes used was “rock of ages”.

Again, some women didn’t mind this term while others found it to be at least mildly insulting.

Tomato

The term “tomato” was used for young women considered “shy of brains”, so most certainly did not like being called this.

Why were women called flappers in the 1920s?

The exact etymological origin of the term “flapper” is the cause for some debate.

Some believe it related to the term “flapper” as it was used in the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, referring to a wild young duck or partridge, flapping its wings as it learned to fly.

The connection would be that flapper women were young and wild, flapping their arms in their dancing.

Others think it instead related to a dialectal term of northern England, where flapper simply meant “teenage girl”.

The term “flap” had meant a young woman of loose character since at least 1610, and had come to mean prostitute by the end of the 19^th Century, so all of these are possible origins for the term.

Ultimately, we don’t know, but any one of these explanations is just as plausible as another.

Indeed, they may all simply have converged on one another in the 1920s.

Many derogatory terms like this were appropriated by women in the 1920s as part of movements like Suffrage in order to empower women and take away the insults men had for them.

Why were women called “fire alarm” and “fire bell” in the 1920s?

In a dictionary of slang terms used for flappers published in 1922, Ella Hartung recorded a number of different, more specific terms that were used for women around this time.

Unfortunately, we don’t really know much about their origins.

As mentioned, a fire alarm was a divorced woman, and fire bell a married one.

It most likely simply related to the relationship that men would have to married and divorced women—divorced women were an alarm to attract you, bells a warning to stay away.

Again, though, we are far from sure.

Why were women called “tomato” in the 1920s?

This term may have some slightly different meanings depending on who you ask, but it’s quite clear that the origin of the term was related to something other than what it is recorded as meaning in the 1920s.

As mentioned, the term usually referred to a young woman “shy of brain”, a careful euphemism for “stupid” or “small-minded”.

By at least the early 1920s, though, it had come to mean an attractive girl, and this was based on the idea of a “plump” girl being attractive in the same way a tomato is juicy and plump when ripe.

So, again, it’s not quite clear why its meaning shifted slightly as it did, and during the same period any two people may have used the term in different ways—though it always meant a girl.

Whether you think these terms outdated and chauvinistic, or you think them just a fun, subversive way for even women to talk about themselves, it’s plain to see from these words alone the way social obligations were changing in this period.

Women were throwing off the shackles of Victorian sensibilities and coming fully into their own as independent people—and it’s hard to argue with that!

More in 1920s Slang

• 1920s Slang For Alcohol
• 1920s Slang For Cool
• 1920s Slang For Crazy
• 1920s Slang For Dancing
• 1920s Slang For Fun
• 1920s Slang For Man
• 1920s Slang For Money
• 1920s Slang For Nonsense
• 1920s Slang For Party
• 1920s Slang For Police
• 1920s Slang For Woman