The 1950s gave Americans “oral sex” and “hidden agenda”; in the 1960s they got “dirty laundry” and “ego trip.”

When the American English dictionary Merriam-Webster adds new words, it also records the year the word was first printed. A new tool from the dictionary-maker, called Time Traveler, lets you search words by the year of their first appearance in the language. By proxy, it reveals the sometimes highly specific anxieties of each historical moment.

In 1987 Americans coined “beer goggles,” a term for someone who only seems attractive because you’ve had too much to drink. In 1984 they invented “phone tag,” for when you call someone and they call you back but you keep missing each other. And in 2001, “cankles,” a word for when ankles and calves are close in size.

Time Traveler offers an unusual look at how Americans named the concerns of each new generation: The early 1980s saw the first uses of “AIDS” and “PTSD.” At the same time, Americans coined new words for a class of young urban professionals, “yuppie,” and the genocide inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, “killing field.” By the end of the decade, the US had growing concerns over “ADHD” and “physician-assisted suicide” and coined neologisms for protecting their data online—”cybersecurity”—and hovering—”helicopter”—parents.

The 1990s were marked by concepts to redefine gender expectations: “heteronormative,” “metrosexual,” “cisgender.” And as Americans grew more paranoid about GMOs and worried about their environmental impact, they added “pescatarian” and “Frankenfood.” By the mid-aughts new words crept up over the proliferation of social media, as people adjusted to publicizing their lives online: “photobomb,” “unfriend,” “humblebrag,” “tweep.”

Below see the last 40 years of American anxiety through the words invented to express them.

Health and medicine

“PTSD” and “AIDS” start the decade, and are joined by “HIV” in 1986. “ADHD” and “SSRI” come toward the end of the decade. Later “autism spectrum disorder” is printed for the first time, followed in a few years by “neurotypical.”

year words 1980 gateway drug, white coat hypertension, post-traumatic stress disorder 1982 AIDS, filovirus 1983 seasonal affective disorder, designer drug, liposuction 1984 age–related macular degeneration, vaginosis 1985 tumor suppressor gene 1986 hepatitis D, HIV 1987 attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, physician–assisted suicide, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor 1991 smart drug 1992 autism spectrum disorder 1993 dissociative identity disorder 1994 neurotypical 2002 norovirus 2010 CRISPR

Work

year words 1983 stressed-out 1988 mommy track 1989 viral marketing 1997 webinar 2006 walk back

Relationships

In the 1980s and 1990s, the US gave words to the way people assault each other: “date-rape” and “roofie,” and new words for creepers, like “sleazeball.”

year words 1981 scuzzball, sleazeball 1982 G-spot, codependent 1984 date-rape, horn dog 1985 sexual predator 1987 beer goggles 1991 heteronormative 1992 booty call 1994 roofie 2001 bromance 2003 unfriend

Technology

year words 1984 phone tag 1989 bcc, cybersecurity 1990 malware, spam 1993 cyberterrorism, digital divide 1999 clickbait 2003 binge-watch 2004 e-waste, paywall 2008 photobomb

The self

The early 1980s saw new ways to describe doing nothing: “chill out,” “veg out,” “couch potato,” and “cocooning.” Americans also coined all kinds of physical imperfections: “unibrow,” “cankle,” and “muffin top.” And they embraced “meh,” probably from Yiddish.

year words 1980 comb-over, chill out, veg out 1982 couch potato 1986 cocooning 1988 bad hair day, unibrow 1992 meh 2001 cankle 2003 muffin top, manscaping 2006 bucket list

Society

“Hate crime” is used for the first time in the mid-1980s to give a name to violence motivated by hatred toward a group, and “N-word” appears as a way to reference an increasingly unacceptable slur. We also see a short-lived phrase, “mouse potato,” a computer version of a couch potato, which never quite took off.

year words 1980 differently abled, ecofeminism, yuppie 1981 weekend warrior, wannabe 1982 teensploitation, skanky 1984 hate crime, sucky, womanism 1985 N-word 1986 crackhead 1987 thirtysomething 1988 boomerang child, declinist, emo 1989 helicopter parent, generation X, intersectionality, multiculti 1990 twentysomething 1992 man cave 1993 mouse potato, metrosexual 1994 cisgender 1997 judgy 2002 humblebrag

Food and sustainability

year words 1981 acid snow 1982 food secure 1983 cruelty-free 1986 ozone hole 1988 mad cow disease 1991 pescatarian 1992 Frankenfood 1994 supersize 1999 carbon footprint 2004 locavore

Misc anxiety