TLDR: The 1970s gave us some of the most memorable and colorful slang in American pop culture history, from the laid-back hippie holdovers of the early decade to the disco-era expressions that took over by the late 70s.
Whether you were saying “groovy,” “far out,” or “keep on truckin’,” this was a decade that knew how to talk.
There was something about the 1970s that produced language unlike any other decade. Maybe it was the cultural collision between the fading hippie movement and the rising disco era.
Maybe it was the explosion of television bringing new expressions into living rooms across America every night. Or maybe people in the 70s just had a gift for turning ordinary moments into something worth saying out loud.
Whatever the reason, the slang of the 1970s has a warmth and texture that takes you straight back. Here are the expressions that defined the decade and the stories behind where they came from.
Groovy
If something was excellent, exciting, or just generally wonderful in the 1970s, it was groovy.
The word had actually been around since the 1930s jazz scene, where it referred to a musician who was perfectly in the groove of a song. By the time the 70s arrived it had become the all-purpose compliment of a generation.
You could use it for almost anything. A great meal was groovy. A sunny afternoon was groovy. The new album your friend brought over was definitely groovy. It carried a sense of relaxed approval that felt distinctly of the era, unhurried and genuinely pleased with the world.
Far Out
“Far out” was what you said when groovy wasn’t quite enough. Something far out wasn’t just good, it was beyond the ordinary, mind-expanding, almost hard to believe. I
t carried the spirit of the counterculture in two words: the sense that the best things in life took you somewhere unexpected.
It showed up everywhere in 70s pop culture, from television comedies to the conversations happening around kitchen tables across the country.
If you heard someone described as far out, you knew they were the most interesting person in any room they walked into.
Can You Dig It?
Asking “can you dig it?” was asking whether someone understood, appreciated, or was on board with whatever was being said. It was a question and a challenge at the same time, an invitation to see things the way you saw them.
“Dig” in this sense meant to understand or appreciate something deeply, and it had roots in African American vernacular that had spread into mainstream American speech by the early 1970s.
The phrase got a particularly famous moment in the 1979 film The Warriors, when the gang leader Cyrus uses it in his speech to unite the gangs of New York. Audiences have been quoting it ever since.
Keep On Truckin’
This one was everywhere in the early 1970s, appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, and patches before most people even knew where it came from.
The phrase was popularized by cartoonist Robert Crumb in his underground comics, where he drew elongated figures strutting forward with one foot dramatically extended, the embodiment of perseverance with a grin on its face.
“Keep on truckin'” became a kind of secular motto for the decade, the idea that whatever was happening around you, you just kept moving forward. It was optimism without pretension, encouragement without a lecture attached.
Right On
“Right on” was the enthusiastic agreement of the decade. Someone made a good point? Right on. Something went the way it was supposed to go? Right on. It was affirmation and applause compressed into two syllables, and it carried real energy when it was delivered with conviction.
The phrase had strong roots in the civil rights and Black Power movements of the late 1960s, where it was used as a rallying expression of solidarity. By the early 1970s it had spread across the cultural landscape and could be heard just about anywhere people were expressing genuine enthusiasm.
Jive Turkey
Calling someone a jive turkey was a pointed insult, reserved for people who were being dishonest, foolish, or just generally full of themselves. “Jive” in this context meant nonsense or deceptive talk, and combining it with “turkey” (long-established slang for a foolish person) created something that had real sting without needing to be crude about it.
The phrase became one of the decade’s most recognizable insults, popularized through blaxploitation films and television comedies alike. Today it mostly gets used nostalgically, but back then it carried genuine weight.
Catch You on the Flip Side
This was how you said goodbye in the 1970s if you wanted to sound cool about it. The phrase came straight from CB radio culture, which exploded in popularity mid-decade. Truckers and amateur radio operators used “flip side” to refer to the return trip or the other direction on the highway, and it worked perfectly as a casual farewell that implied you’d be seeing someone again soon.
The CB radio craze gave the 70s a whole vocabulary of its own. “Smokey” for police, “handle” for your radio nickname, “10-4” for understood. But “catch you on the flip side” traveled furthest beyond the radio and into everyday conversation, where it stayed for the rest of the decade.
Boogie
In the 1970s, to boogie was to dance, and dancing was essentially the central activity of the decade’s social life. The word had been around in various forms since the 1920s, but it took on new life with the rise of disco culture in the mid-70s. When the Bee Gees were on the radio and the dance floor was lit, you didn’t go dancing. You went to boogie.
It also worked as a verb for leaving. “Let’s boogie” could mean it was time to hit the dance floor or time to get out of wherever you were. Either way it implied momentum, a kind of joyful forward motion that felt exactly right for the era.
Don’t Have a Cow
Long before Bart Simpson ever said it, “don’t have a cow” was already in circulation as a way to tell someone to calm down and stop overreacting. The expression dates back at least to the 1950s but had its widest use in the 1970s, when it was a standard response to anyone getting worked up over something that didn’t warrant it.
The visual logic of the phrase was always part of its appeal. The idea of someone figuratively giving birth to a large farm animal captured the absurdity of excessive anxiety better than any more literal expression could have managed.
What a Fox
In the 1970s, calling someone a fox was one of the highest compliments you could pay. It meant they were strikingly attractive, and it was used for both men and women, though perhaps more commonly for women. The expression had enough currency that it showed up in song lyrics, film dialogue, and everyday conversation throughout the decade.
It was part of a broader 70s tendency to use animal terms as compliments, something that gave the decade’s slang a distinctive earthy quality. A fox was sleek, clever, and impossible to ignore. Saying someone was a fox was saying something worth saying.
Dynamite
Good Times premiered on CBS in 1974 and gave America J.J. Evans, played by Jimmie Walker, whose signature exclamation of “Dy-no-mite!” became one of the most recognizable catchphrases of the entire decade. Within months of the show’s debut, “dynamite” and its variations were everywhere.
It meant something was fantastic, explosive with quality, impossible to contain. The word already existed, of course, but J.J. Evans gave it a particular energy that made it feel new. If something was dynamite in the 1970s, everyone in the room knew exactly what you meant.
Solid
“Solid” was the cool, understated cousin of “groovy.” Where groovy was enthusiastic, solid was measured and confident. If you said something was solid, you were communicating that it was reliable, good, exactly what it needed to be. No complaints. No reservations. Just solid.
It was also used as a standalone affirmation, the way you might say “perfect” or “great” today. Someone tells you the plan for the evening and everything sounds good? Solid. It conveyed competence and quiet satisfaction in equal measure, which made it one of the decade’s most versatile expressions.
The 1970s were a decade that knew how to talk. Whether it was the laid-back vocabulary of the early years or the livelier expressions that arrived with disco and CB radio culture, the language of the era had personality built into every phrase.
Some of these expressions have faded completely.
Others are still showing up in conversation fifty years later, which tells you something about just how solid they really were.
