10 slang words from the ’60s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
10 slang words from the ’60s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
Ricardo RamirezSat, March 28, 2026 at 12:52 PM UTC
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10 slang words from the ’60s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
We have already taken you through the slang of the ’70s, the ’80s, and the ’90s. The ’60s started it all: a decade of sit-ins, the Summer of Love, and a generation that borrowed from jazz culture, the beatnik scene, and the streets to invent its own language.
Some of it has aged well. Most of it has aged like a mood ring.
That said, their era deserves a second look.
Image Credit: Nikolay Tsuguliev/Istockphoto.
Outta sight
Something was not merely good. It was outta sight. Rooted in African American Vernacular English, the phrase had circulated in the jazz scene for years before the ’60s gave it its widest audience. Today, it mostly appears in ironic quotation marks.
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Dig
To understand something at a gut level. Dig originated in African American and jazz slang long before the ’60s took it mainstream. The word passed through the decade and then quietly stepped aside.
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Bread
Money, not the baked kind. Practical and poetic at the same time. Counterculture figures made it common currency. Today, it reads as either charming or deeply confusing, depending on who hears it.
image credit: skyNext / iStock
Split
“I gotta split” required no elaboration and left no loose ends. The word itself has since been replaced by “bounce” and “dip” and a dozen others that mean the same thing with less elegance.
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Square
The classic insult for anyone immune to cool. Jazz musicians coined it in the 1940s as a dismissal of outsiders, and the ’60s broadened it into a general-purpose accusation. Today, it sounds less like an insult and more like a geometry lesson.
Image Credit: iStock / Chinnapong.
Hang loose
Relax. Don’t force anything. The phrase carried the entire ’60s philosophy of going with the flow in two words. The hand gesture survived into Hawaiian surf culture; the expression itself did not.
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The fuzz
The police. Nobody is entirely sure where it came from, though the crew-cut hairstyle of officers has been offered as a theory. The counterculture needed a word for authority with a note of contempt, and the fuzz fit perfectly. Today, it surfaces mostly in period films.
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Bummer
A situation that simply did not go the way you hoped. One word, no drama. Linguists trace its modern usage to the ’60s specifically. It still surfaces occasionally, making it one of the more durable entries on this list.
Image Credit: iStock / Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Bag
“That’s not my bag” meant something wasn’t for you, no apology required. The term evolved from jazz and beatnik usage before it was fully adopted in the ’60s. Saying it today prompts a very different kind of confusion.
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Freak flag
To show your unconventional self without apology. Jimi Hendrix coined it in “If 6 Was 9” in 1967, and it instantly became an anthem for outsiders. Today it is more likely on a coffee mug than in an act of rebellion.
Close up of old English dictionary page with word slang
Wrap up
Every decade produces language that feels urgent in its moment. The ’60s produced more of it than most. These words captured something real about a generation reinventing the world. They just stopped needing them once the world caught up.
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