Flapper words

For several years now I have been celebrating the 100th birthdays of words used by Americans, at least according to Sol Steinmetz in his 2010 book There's a Word for It. I've noticed that many of the words seem to reflect the times in which they were coined, which certainly makes sense.

By 1922 the war had been over for a few years and Prohibition had yet to begin. The Roaring Twenties were in full swing, and so many of the words coined that year seem to reflect happy times. I'm thinking of words like beauty queen, beauty salon, bistro, chorine, downfield, duplex, gigolo, jayvee, motorboat, moviegoing, mudpack, off-tackle, oops, playset, Pollyannaish, prepper, putt-putt, rumba and tux. These are fun words, words that suggest gaiety and leisure.

Other words that first appeared in print that year suggest more serious topics, reflecting new technology and social change, among other things. These include bicarb, broadcaster, decommission, entrepreneurial, Formica, isolation, libidinal, millisecond, notarize, polyester, pre-puberty, sickle-cell anemia, sodbuster and transvestite.

Some words from 1922 may seem older than that. Sodbuster, for example. Haven't we heard that word in movie westerns set in an earlier time? Uncle Tom was first used in that year too, decades after Uncle Tom's Cabin was published. Other words, such as vacuum used as a verb and putt-putt, might sound newer to us.