’60s Slang: 13 Popular Words And Phrases From Everyone’s Favorite Decade

The Rolling Stones immortalized this phrase for a fun time. It came from their song "Jumpin' Jack Flash" with the repeated line, "it's a gas, gas, gas." And it was quick to catch on and long to stick around.

According to dictionary.com, this was inspired by the iconic image of actor Humphrey Bogart with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. You can use it for just about anything, though. These days, it's commonly used to refer to someone who is taking more than their share of something — often while sharing the popular herbal drug from the era.

Pretty self-explanatory, but this was a colorful term for someone who had a bald head. It's still as funny as it ever was. Still, this is one we don't hear too often these days.

You can hear the Beach Boys referencing this phrase in "I Get Around" while describing themselves as a "real cool head."

Basically, they were claiming to be the hippest guys around. It's definitely hard to argue with the dreamy picture of drummer Dennis Wilson above.

This was frequently heard while discussing things that were also a real bummer. "That's a drag" will probably be around for the long haul. It just hits the nail right on the head.

S.E. Hinton used this term for the preppy kids at school in her iconic 1967 novel, The Outsiders. No one really says "sosh" anymore. If they did, though, that would be very "sosh" of them.

Fans of the mod scene would use this shortened term for "marvelous" when they found something especially delightful, as dictionary.com explains. This is one that we should totally bring back. Wouldn't that be marvy?

This was how you would ask someone if they agreed with you about a certain situation. It can also mean you just really like something. It was also the name of a song by The Monkees from their 1968 film, Head.

A bag was what someone's scene was, like a mod or a rocker. John Lennon later wrote a song called "Bagism," admonishing the phrase for pigeonholing people into stereotypes. Bagism is certainly around today. The word, though? Not so much.

Money was called "scratch" or "bread," something Audrey Hepburn's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's would need a lot of to purchase one of the items at the jewelry store. If you called cash money scratch these days, people today might not know what you mean. We bet your scratch they don't!

This was heard frequently on Dragnet to refer to police officers. It's at least nicer than calling them "pigs." The fuzz still wasn't a super complimentary term, however.

This phrase for asking someone to give you the information. It became popular even before Goldie Hawn used it on a regular basis on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. You might still say "sock it to me." But if you do, you might also be old.

This wasn't used for splitting a check or sharing an item, but a way of saying they were going to leave wherever they were. That's the end of the list, so we're gonna split now, too!

Do you remember using these words and phrases back in the 1960s?

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