10 Unexpectedly Funny Slang Terms from the Roaring Twenties

The 1920s were a very strange time for a lot of different reasons. For one, it was a free-wheeling era that saw people act wild and crazy, far beyond what had come about in the previous few decades. There were flapper girls, wild dancing parties, and all kinds of people getting rich during an economic boom time. And then… the infamous events of October 1929 and the brutal Great Depression followed. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Let’s stick with the ’20s for now.

In this list, we’ll take a look at the weirdest slang terms that came into popular use in the 1920s. These slang terms are funny, strange, and head-scratching all at once. In fact, some of them are actually pretty cool. Come to think of it, maybe we should bring them back into common usage nowadays. Let’s just hope a reversion to the Roaring Twenties of last century doesn’t land us in another Great Depression by the end of the decade…

Related: 10 Creative Expletives That Aren’t Swears at All

10 Know Your Onions

Let’s start this list with a term that’ll define the rest of this list: knowing your onions. If you “know your onions,” as the century-old saying used to go, you know a lot about a particular subject. So, hopefully, by the end of this list, you’ll “know your onions” in 1920s slang. Weird one, right? Easy to learn and easy to deploy, but a definite head-scratcher about where it came from. Why onions? And who knew their onions so well that this goofy saying caught on with the masses way back in the day?

As the story goes, there was a man named S.G. Onions who used to make fake coins to help teach little kids about the value of money. (We’ll talk more about fake coins later in this list, so remember that for a moment and put it in the corner of your brain.) Anyways, when a kid became really wise about money, it was said that he or she “knew his onions” thanks to old S.G.’s tutelage. Truth be told, we’re a little skeptical about how true that old hand-me-down story is, but let’s run with it. Do you know your onions?^[1]

9 Oliver Twist

Strangely enough, the slang phrase “Oliver Twist,” as used in the 1920s, had nothing to do with any small beggar children living in London in the 19th century. Sorry, Charles Dickens. Instead, this phrase had everything to do with calling out someone who was a particularly good dancer. More than any decade before it, the Roaring Twenties was a time when people really got down to boogie on the dance floor and cut a rug. So, it makes sense that the youth culture of that era would create a whole host of slang phrases to reference those rug-cutting achievements.

We’re not sure how “Oliver Twist” became a signifier of a good dancer besides the most obvious part of it (you know, the “twist”). But lots of the dance-related phrases from that era were born out of its Jazz Age. That was a golden time for jazz in America and the rest of the Western world, too, and that subculture created a million different phrases. Cool cat, cut a rug, Oliver Twist… the list goes on. Let’s face it: The party kids of the 1920s were cooler back then than we are today.^[2]

8 Wooden Nickels

Remember how in that first “know your onions” explainer, we told you we’d be talking about money again soon? Well, here we are. It’s time to discuss wooden nickels. One of the strangest phrases of the 1920s—that is even somehow still in use among the oldest people in society today—has to do with wooden nickels. As the phrase went, when you’d go out on the town for the night or head out on some big adventure one day, your mom or dad would say to you, “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” Huh?!

As the phrase was intended, that meant that you shouldn’t be stupid or do anything dumb. See, if you took any wooden nickels from anybody, that means you got duped by somebody. But if you were smart and kept yourself out of trouble, well, you wouldn’t be at risk of being scammed or victimized by those pesky wooden nickel-passers apparently running rampant in society. So, if you want to tell somebody not to do anything dumb, tell ’em not to take any wooden nickels. And then enjoy the strange look that’ll come over their face as their brain realizes what you just said to them!^[3]

7 Wurp & Bluenose

Let’s give you a two-for-one on this next slang explainer. And these are both words that deal with major Debbie Downers! No, “Debbie Downer” wasn’t a phrase used in the 1920s. We’re not even sure “Debbie” was a name in common use at that point. But people back then nevertheless had sayings, phrases, and terms to describe their friends and family members who seemingly always loved to suck the fun out of everything. Lots of parallels to those killjoys we all know (and despise) today, right?

A “wurp” back in the 1920s meant exactly that: somebody who loved to be a buzzkill. You’d get excited about something, you’d come to them with some energy in your voice, and they’d knock you down a peg or two. Similarly, a “bluenose” was used in a roughly parallel way. That word described a wet blanket. You know, the kind of person who just loves to put a damper on a happy moment or a festive occasion. Womp womp!^[4]

6 Bimbo

Did you know that a “bimbo” was originally meant as a term of address for men? Yeah, it wasn’t a bread company. And it also wasn’t, well, uh, the definition that term has come to take on in the modern era. Back at the turn of the 20th century, the word “bimbo” arrived in America from Italy. Derived from the Italian word for a baby boy, it quickly became a slang term for a person who was a menacing, mean, nasty bully. Huh?! How did a term for a baby boy turn into a slang word for a bully? Perhaps it’s because many stereotypical bullies are stocky—like a baby is chubby—or something? We’ll never know, but that was the crossover into the English lexicon.

Anyways, the term got popular early in the 20th century and saw its heyday meant for bully-like men through the Roaring Twenties. Every time somebody was a little too mean or pushy with the people around them, instead of calling them a bully like we do now, they’d call the guy a “bimbo.” It sounds insane, considering how the word is used today, but that’s really how things were back then. Can you even imagine?! And then… everything changed.

In 1920, a song called “My Little Bimbo Down on the Bamboo Isle” was written for a Broadway play. That song didn’t refer to a brutish man—but a curvy, sexy, beautiful woman. Over time, the term “bimbo” morphed along with the rise in popularity that came from the Broadway song. It didn’t happen overnight, of course; it took decades for “bimbo” to traverse the English lexicon from a male-focused word to a female one. But eventually (long after the ’20s), the transfer happened. And now, we don’t think we’ll ever go back to the original meaning of “bimbo” as they used it a century ago.^[5]

5 Manacle & Handcuff

How about another two-for-one? But this time, let’s focus our slang selection on words related to love and marriage! The 1920s were like any other decade (especially back then) when it came to commitment in relationships. But the Roaring Twenties were also such a party period that those years were the first time in modern history (at least in America) that the foundations started to crack when it came to the union of marriage. More than ever before, jokingly or not, people saw getting hitched as being tied down to the old ball and chain. And forever after, television sitcoms used that trope to their wild success.

Here’s what we mean: there were two major anti-marriage phrases used, albeit lightheartedly, during that decade. One was “manacle.” That word technically refers to a shackle or a bond. But in the 1920s, it meant that someone had been restrained by a wedding ring. You know—locked down!

And it wasn’t the only one. Folks in the ’20s had a word like that for engagements, too: “handcuff.” If you “handcuffed” somebody during that era, you locked them down with an engagement ring in preparation for a wedding. Sounds like nobody in the 1920s liked marriage at all!^[6]

4 Tell It to Sweeney

The phrase “tell it to Sweeney” was popular in the 1920s as a way to say “tell it to somebody who is naive enough to believe it.” It’s a pretty random reference. Who’s Sweeney? And was he really gullible? And the answer is… well, maybe! According to most sources, the phrase first arose in the British Navy way back in the early 1800s. It wasn’t focused on Sweeney back then, though. In the early 19th century, British sailors would say, “Tell it to the Marines” to each other. Basically, they thought the Marines were a particularly gullible and stupid group of people. So, if somebody was trying to pull one over on another sailor, “Tell it to the Marines” would come out.

The phrase was so common in Britain in the 19th century that it made its way into both Lord Byron’s poem “The Island” and Sir Walter Scott’s novel “Redgauntlet.” Then, in the late 1800s, a switch flipped. Perhaps seeking to needle their Irish friends (and sometimes enemies), British people came up with the new variation of “tell it to Sweeney.” But why Sweeney, you may ask? Well, Sweeney was one of several names of the Irish “everyman” that the Brits liked to make fun of—Murphy, Kelly, O’Brien, O’Connor, Sullivan, Walsh, and… Sweeney.

The phrase then jumped the shark—er, jumped the pond—in the early 20th century. The Americans figured out what “tell it to Sweeney” meant and fell in love with it. No doubt, the influx of Irish immigrants to America helped bring that not-so-subtle anti-Irish sentiment to the surface. By the 1920s, “Tell it to Sweeney” was a common phrase up and down the East Coast of the United States. Young people used it like crazy. And then, over time, as is true of pretty much all slang terms, it faded. Sayonara, Sweeney!^[7]

3 Iron Your Shoelaces

There are all kinds of funny phrases that are meant to discreetly announce to others that you have to leave the dinner table, party conversation, or other public gathering to use the restroom. Personally, one of our favorites is that you “have to go see a man about a horse.” It’s utterly nonsensical in the modern era, and thus, it is perfect for getting people to look at you strangely while you head out to do your thing in the restroom. And back in the 1920s, they had another phrase for that exact awkward announcement occasion: You had to go “iron your shoelaces.”

It’s as goofy as any other bathroom-related announcement, and it serves the same purpose. Basically, you can use it to tell somebody that you’ve got to go take a leak without, uh, sounding so graphic and gross like what we just said. Let’s practice a bit of discretion for the rest of the 2020s, and use phrases like “iron your shoelaces” to discuss bathroom activities, shall we? All of society will be better off for it.^[8]

2 Mazuma

Who doesn’t love some cash? You know, money! Greenbacks, cheddar, cheese, scrilla, whatever term it is the kids are using nowadays to talk about moolah! (Actually, come to think of it, do the kids nowadays even know what cash is? Or do they just deal with digital currencies like Bitcoin and other stuff? Are we outing ourselves as old and out of touch here with these questions? Hmmm. Perhaps. Get off our lawns! Anyways, we digress…)

For as long as money has been a thing, there have been slang terms for it. And with every subsequent generation, kids have developed new and fun slang terms to add to the repertoire. The 1920s were no different. And considering that decade saw massive economic growth in a lot of sectors (you know, uh, before the Great Depression), cash was on everybody’s mind.

There were a lot of cash-related slang terms in the ’20s, but the best one by far is “mazuma.” That could be used simply, just like you’d use any cash-related quip today. Let’s go down to the bank and get some mazuma. Let’s put some mazuma on the ponies over at the track today. So on, and so forth. This slang term is pretty cool, to be honest. Let’s bring it back!^[9]

1 Icy Mitt

Let’s close out our list on a bit of a downer. Say you’re an enterprising gentleman back in the 1920s, and you like a girl. You want to go out on a date with her, so you want to ask her to do whatever it was they did back then. You get up the courage, shower, groom, and dress in your Sunday best. You go up to her to ask about taking her out, and Ouch! But guess what? There was a phrase for that! Back then, people would say you got the “icy mitt.”

That funny and evocative phrase meant that one person had expressed feelings for another person, but sadly, those feelings weren’t reciprocated. Think of it like a cold shoulder but for love. Or perhaps we might even say nowadays that you were “friend-zoned.” Either way, it had to do with rejection. You tried your hardest and hoped for the best, and you got hit with the “icy mitt.” Ah, well. No handcuff or manacle for you this time around. Better get your mazuma up and move on to a new love interest! You don’t want to be a bluenose, do you?^[10]