10 slang words from the ’70s that need to make a comeback ASAP
The slang of every generation tends to be retired, almost always by the generation after. Some of the most colorful vocabulary of the 1970s has waited fifty years for the moment when the culture swings back far enough to make it functional again. Some of these could easily find their way into modern conversation with little to no translation needed.
The terms below are drawn from Mental Floss, SlangWise and Kate Knows. Some are functionally synonymous with things Gen Z is already saying. Others were just better.
Ten of them, below.
Jive turkey
The exact word from the 1970s for what the current generation calls an NPC. According to Mental Floss, it was first found in a 1966 Philadelphia Tribune glossary, meaning “liar,” rooted in jazz culture. By the 1970s, it described anyone performing rather than being. It deserves a full rehabilitation.
Far out
Beat poets coined it in the 1950s and the 1970s made it a stamp of cosmic approval. SlangWise confirms that skate culture gave it a partial revival in the 1990s. “Far out” expresses something current vocabulary lacks: the sense that something has moved beyond the ordinary into territory worth noticing.
Catch you on the flip side
A farewell phrase that came directly from radio and vinyl culture, where the flip side meant the B-side of a record. According to Kate Knows, it crossed from the DJ booth language into everyday goodbyes in the 1970s. Vinyl made a comeback. The phrase did not, which is its own kind of inconsistency.
Solid
In the 1970s, “solid” described a reliable person, a good plan, a wise decision, or anything that worked exactly as it should. SlangWise notes it functioned as both an adjective and a standalone affirmation. Someone does something right, you say solid. The word survives but has lost the warm approval it carried in the 1970s.
Right on
Social justice movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s gave this phrase its charge. SlangWise confirms it conveyed approval and solidarity in a single word. Today’s equivalent is “facts,” same function, none of the warmth.
Boogie
To boogie was never only about dancing. According to Kate Knows, it meant to party, to move, to get somewhere with genuine enthusiasm. Nothing current quite captures that specific combination of action and mood.
Stone fox
A high-level compliment for someone who is not just attractive, but specifically and powerfully so. Kate Knows finds it in romance novels and everyday 1970s conversation. “Foxy” survived into the 1980s. “Stone fox” did not, which is a genuine loss.
Can you dig it?
A question meaning “do you understand me?” or “do you agree?” but carrying an invitation to actually think about what was being said. According to Mental Floss, it was part of the same jazz-rooted vocabulary as “jive.” Participatory rather than declarative. That distinction mattered.
Keep on truckin’
Resilience, condensed. A phrase that meant to persist regardless of circumstances, to keep moving when things got difficult and to do so without making a scene. SlangWise traces it to comic strip culture. The 1970s turned it into a philosophy. “Keep going” is the content without the personality.
Bread
Money, simply and directly. In the 1970s, bread was the prevalent slang for cash across urban communities and countercultural circles alike. As SlangWise confirms, it was ubiquitous. Less confrontational than “cash,” more interesting than “funds.”
The bottom line
Slang dies when nobody carries it forward. Which means most of what is on this list is not outdated in concept or worn out in sound. It simply went quiet when the decade ended.
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