The Best Neologisms By Decade

1790s

Best: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”

Runner-up: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”

1800s

Best: “Tell it to the Marines”

Runner-up: “England expects that every man will do his duty”

1810s

Best: Dipsomania

Runner-up: Balkanization

Completely forgotten: “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!”

1820s

Best: “What a Pushkin, what a son of a bitch!’

Runner-up: Worldbuilding; pea soup fog

1830s

Best: Turtles all the way down

Runner-up: Almighty dollar; as the crow flies; lumberjack; shiver my timbers

1840s

Best: Lisztomania

Runner-up: Lumpenproletariat

1850s

Best: Chercez la femme

Runner-up: Muscular Christianity, Sea Peoples

1860s

Best: Heterosexuality

Runner-up: See a man about a dog

Older than I would have guessed: End of history, girlfriend, Great American Novel

1870s

Best: Highbrow

Runner-up: Jam tomorrow

1880s

Best: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

Runner-up: “You press the button, we do the rest”

1890s

Best: Hobo; monorail, “the love that dare not speak its name”

Runner-up: Brunch; curate’s egg; slice of life

Older than I would have guessed: What would Jesus do?

Completely forgotten: Will it play in Peoria?

1900s

Best: 23 Skidoo

Runner-up: “After you, Alphonse. No, you first, my dear Gaston”

Most Inscrutable: Rinehart

Older than I would have guessed: Simp

We must bring this one back: Oh! You Kid

1910s

Best: Faggot

Runner-up: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”

1920s

Best: Scofflaw

Runner-up: I say it’s spinach

We must bring this one back: Dumb Dora

1930s

Best: “Take my wife…please!”

Runner-up: “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”; Boop-Oop-a-Doop; “The butler did it”; capsule wardrobe, “I will moida da bum”

1940s

Best: “Ain’t I a stinker?”/”What’s up, Doc?”

Runner-up: “You have two cows”

1950s

Best: “Let’s all go to the lobby”

Runner-up: Tyranny of numbers

Older than I would have guessed: “Don’t have a cow, man”; fakelore; frenemy; nothingburger