Before social media allowed us to seek out inspiration from creatives and cultures all across the globe with ease, people mostly spoke, dressed and acted like everyone else around them. Now, we can step outside and see outfits influenced by the hippies of the 60s, punks who took over in the 80s and the 90s grunge movement, just to name a few. Along with clothing, generations past used unique language to express themselves, as you’ll see in the list of 70s slang terms we’ve outlined below.
The 70s saw a notable decrease in tension around the world as some of the many years-long conflicts between countries came to an end. The disco era had music lovers much more concerned about hitting up a club to boogie down than preserving their record collection from potential missiles, leaving them with much more time to come up with groovy synonyms for the word “cool.” Read on to see which 70s slang words you already use on a regular basis and feed more into the nostalgia with our list of the decade’s biggest bands.
70s Slang Words and Phrases We Love
Later Days/Peace Out: Goodbye
Keep On Steppin’: Keep it moving; go away
What’s Crackin’?/What It Is?: What’s up?
Far Out/Funky/Groovy/Nifty/Radical/Stellar/Slammin’: All different variations of “cool”
Freaky Deaky: Strange and unusual
Good Vibes: Uplifting energy, anything that feels positive to be around
Bummer: Too bad
Copacetic: No need for conflict; calm
Jeepers Creepers: Oh my goodness!
To The Max: The modern-day equivalent of raging like Travis Scott; taking things to new extremes
Take A Chill Pill: This is what one might say to someone taking things past the max, encouraging them to calm down
Stoked: Feeling excited/thrilled
Go Bananas: Letting loose, maybe even acting a fool without a care in the world
Trippin’: When you get in your feelings, often without having all of the necessary facts warranting an emotional episode
Flower Power: Choose peace over war
The Lowdown: Debriefing someone on the facts/details of a situation
Brick House: An attractive, curvy female as sung about by the Commodores on their 1977 song of the same name
Foxy Mama: Another phrase women might hear cat-called at them while walking down the street in her best bell bottoms; this 70s slang can most closely be compared to a “baddie” in 2024
Casanova: A ladies’ man
Jive Turkey: Someone unsuccessfully trying too hard to be cool
Space Cadet: A person whose mind seems to be on another planet; an airhead
The Man: Refers to authority figures, usually members of law enforcement
Crib/Pad: Also known as your apartment or the place you call home
Shaggin’ Wagon: Classic hippie van decked out with a bed in the back
Threads: Describes all forms of clothing/apparel
Rip Off: Unauthenticated goods, poor quality purchases
Boogie Down/Get Your Groove On: Dancing like no one’s watching
Book It: To quickly run away, usually from people of authority such as “the man”
Do Me A Solid: Asking someone for a favor
What’s Your 20?: Where are you?
You Decent?: Are you dressed? Or also, may I come in your room?
You Jivin’ Yet?: Are you having a good time?
Can You Dig It?/Catch My Drift?/Do You Copy?: All different ways of checking to make sure the person you’re conversing with is on the same page as you and understands the message you’re expressing
Ten-Four Good Buddy: An affirmative response to any of the above questions
Mind Your Potatoes/Stop Digging In My Kool-Aid: Creative ways to tell an overzealous person to stay in their own lane
