1920s and 1930s slang
Using the correct slang for an era is absolutely key in capturing the feel of the time and making the characters’ dialogue sound right. There are a lot of slang lists floating around the internet already, but I thought I’d add this one to the mix. All of these terms are ones I have come across in primary sources from the 1920s and 1930s. I’ll be adding to it periodically.
awfully: very (e.g. “would you mind awfully?”)
beastly: terrible
blamed fool: an idiot
blue: sad/depressed
cake of soap
chummy pair: two close friends
cool your heels: wait
corking: wonderful
crook: criminal
devil: common swear word (e.g. “why the devil did you do that?”)
dinky: little
dough: money
famously: good/well (e.g. “he got on famously with them.”)
fast set: group of fashionable people
good egg: a good person
gosh
“had a hankering for”: wanted something
hell: common swear word (e.g. “the hell of it is”)
honey/hon: a good thing/person (e.g. “we thought that was a honey”)
hooey: nonsense
hot dog kennel: roadside refreshment stand
howling: great (e.g. “a howling success”)
“I’m-from-Missouri attitude”: very critical and skeptical
“in a funk”: depressed/sad
jig time: fast (e.g. “it’s on the job in jig time”)
jolly: good
“keep your trap shut”: keep your mouth shut
lamb: a sweet person
lousy: crappy
mental capacity: intellgence
old bean: a man
old bus: an older car
“on the level”: true
phoney: fake
plug: kill
rotten: crappy
a scrap: a fight (e.g. “a dandy scrap”)
shiftless: unreliable (e.g. “shiftless fellows of no account”)
sister: a girl
skunk: a jerk
smashed to flinders: wrecked, like a car
smackers: dollars
snappy: cute/fashionable
sock on the nose: a punch
spooner: a teenage couple
sport: an easy-going/accommodating person (e.g. “what a glorious sport you are!”)
swell: good
“taken for a buggy ride”: fooled
tinsmith’s delight: a car
“why the heck”
“you could have knocked off their eyes with a barrel stave”: surprised