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Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in small town Iowa had many benefits for which I am grateful. At the same time, when you leave home and get into the "real" world this set-up can leave you with a deficit of worldly knowledge.
In the late '50s I acquired a sweatshirt imprinted with slang and illustrations from the "beat generation." Beatnik words like "cool," "Daddy-O" "square," and "fuzz" were common slang in the post-war beat counter-culture and 11-year-old me tried to comprehend them all.
In my early '60s teen years there was a new slang. Things that had been cool in the '50s were now also "groovy" or "salty." If we said "dig it" we meant that we understood it. Things that were awesome back then were "far out." Money was "bread" and having a lot of money was "out of sight."
I thought I had acquired a decent slang vocabulary but shortly out of high school I embarrassed myself by misusing a slang term. I made a mental note to not repeat that faux pas and have tried to stay abreast of teen slang over the years.
The 1970s were not far removed from the '60s so I had little difficulty. During this decade I learned that "grody" was disgusting or messy. A "spaz" was someone who was clumsy or awkward and someone who was forgetful or out of touch was a "space cadet." At the same time "totally" became a slang word for agreement. I was totally cool with that.
By the 1980s I had worked myself into a newspaper management career and my wife and I were parents. Still, I tried to keep up. The groovy things from my teens became "radical" or "rad." Things became confusing because "gnarly" could mean excellent or gross. The space cadet of the 1970s was now an "airhead" or a "ditz." And to express disgust the '80s cool kids said "gag me with a spoon."
Slang continued to evolve and in the 1990s we began hearing the phrase "talk to the hand" to shut down a conversation because, of course, the face wasn't listening. A casual acceptance of blame might be stated as "my bad." Speaking of bad, something that was bad or not cool was "wack."
Then came the first decade of the 21st century. We survived Y2K and now people who were our family or friends were our "peeps" and a close friend was a "homie." Flashy, expensive jewelry became known as "bling" and "peace out" (while displaying the peace symbol) became a way to say goodbye.
Time marched on and while us older folks were working harder at keeping up with slang, the decade of the 20-teens introduced more slang words. "Salty" was resurrected from the 1960s but now it meant being upset or jealous of a minor situation. We also were introduced to "G.O.A.T." — an acronym for "Greatest Of All Time." This phrase was assigned to top athletes, musicians, etc. A term from the gym moved into slang. "Flex" now meant to show off or boast about yourself or your possessions.
So here we are in the 2020s and keeping up with slang is no easier. If you have charm and natural seduction skills you are now "rizz." If you are called "sus" you are suspicious to someone. I like this one: someone who is delusional is called "delulu." Perhaps the current generation of teenagers has pinpointed a national dilemma. A current slang term, "brain rot," is defined as, and I quote Google, the result of "losing touch with reality from consuming too much hyper-stimulating digital content."
A year ago our teenage grandchildren puzzled us with a new phrase: "six-seven" (commonly expressed in print as "6-7.") They explained that 6-7 has no definition. It is a viral phrase that has no literal meaning. Young people use 6-7 as an inside joke, probably to relate to peers, and to confuse their elders.
When I was a kid I would have enjoyed confusing my elders. Now I'm so old I have fewer elders to confuse.
The 6-7 joke was short-lived but for a time it was so widespread Dictionary.com chose "6-7" as its 2025 Word of the Year.
I must admit, teen slang has become more sophisticated over the decades. That is totally groovy! I dig it.
(Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2026 by Huisman Communications.)