Known as the Roaring Twenties, the Jazz Age, the Age of Wonderful Innocence and the Age of Intolerance, the American twenties spurned the birth of a new slang culture.

The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over that of the older generations. “There was a huge generation gap between the parents who fought in World War I and the teenagers at that time,” junior Sonya Raymakers, a devotee to twenties fashion, said. “This gap, in addition to many other historical events at the time, probably led to the creation of many new slang terms.”

One of these events was the momentous Women’s Rights Movement and the flapper subculture. “Upon gaining the right to vote in 1920, women rebelled against the conservative expectations that were held against them,” Raymakers said. “New terms were created by both the women and the disapproving older generation around them.” Women coined terms such as having a “blind date,” a “crush” and getting “dolled up” around this time, reflecting their newfound liberation.

In addition, according to American History and AP United States History teacher Chris Johnson, Prohibition in 1919 also gave rise to new slang terms. “Prohibition outlawed alcohol, so of course these was a great amount of illegal alcohol trade,” he said. “’Bootlegger’ was used to describe underground alcohol traders, a term still used today.”

Slang of the “bootleggers” and other groups allowed for group identification. “Slang creates a sense of kinship,” Johnson said. “Slang usage identifies those who were ‘in-the-know’ as members of a social group.”

A final contribution to twenties slang was the overall optimistic feeling of the times. “After World War I there was an explosion of freedoms,” theater teacher Jim Shelby said. “People wanted to exploit all that was possible, and they felt like nothing was out of reach. Social morals were changing, and so did the language. It was quite a time.”

Many terms from the twenties are sill common today. “Pushover” described someone easily swayed, used by the newer, stronger women; “swell” meant good, developing from that age of change and opportunism; and—eponymous with the song—a “golddigger” was a woman in relations with a man for his money, not a rare occurrence for the freed women.