Kerfuffle, groovy, hot, square, goody-goody, teacher's pet. When these words come up, does it throw you back in time?

These are just a few slang words that Linda Guthrie, 67, and Lee Campbell, 79, two ladies spending an afternoon at the Monterey centre, in Oak Bay remember from their youth.

Now cue to today. How many of the following words have you heard/know what they mean? 'Delulu', 'rizz', 'do it for the plot', 'gas', 'bougie'. If you don't know what these mean, you're not alone. These are just a few words the internet generation uses, and Guthrie and Campbell had never heard of them. Well, most of them.

"My son said my water was bougie water because I buy water," she says with a laugh. "It means fancy, like 'bourgeoisie'."

One thing is for certain. Language evolves with culture, reflecting the values, trends and innovations of each era. It also captures the spirit of the times, serving as a linguistic time capsule. And that's one thing that Guthrie appreciates about it.

"I love slang because I think it defines the culture," she says.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word slang first crystallized into a word in the 1740s, emerging to describe a shared speech used by an underclass of thieves and beggars. The word since has come to refer to a language for a particular group of people or context. Whether it's 'internet slang', 'boomer slang' or 'schoolyard slang', the language is colloquial and informal, and can sometimes be used to express ridicule with a sharp wit. For instance, Campbell remembers the insult of being called a "square". Or, the word "straight" used to mean you were narrow-minded or more conforming in your way of thinking.

If one wants to take a trip back in time, language can be a quick way to do it. Take the Post-War Boom of the 1950s for example. Slang was influenced by rock 'n' roll, the rise of television, and the optimism of the post-war era. Some examples include "cool cat", "hip", and "daddy-O."

And then there was the influential '60s.

"Hippie culture had a huge influence," said Guthrie. "And the Vietnam War, which was on the TV every night."

Social upheavals driven by protests and the civil rights movement brought along words like "groovy" and "far out." Another popular phrase, "flower power", emerged thanks to poet Allen Ginsberg's 1965 essay, which advocated for protestors to hand out flowers to policemen, the press, politicians and spectators. 

Today, slang is even more complex thanks to the internet and cell phones, says Susan Roundtree, a retired physicist who programmed and managed computing centres.

"Cell phones with instant response, the shorthand symbols, that's changed everything," she says. "It's had a huge impact on how people communicate."

Roundtree likens it to the way she created her own form of shorthand at university to take notes. Many slang words today involve shortening down words, making them easier to type. Words such as "rizz" which is short for charisma, for instance.

Whether or not slang is 'music to your ears' depends on the ears of the beholder and the context. But for those who feel completely out of the loop, there's always urbandictionary.com to help translate modern lingo.

This article is from Living 60+.