Words that first appeared in print the year you were born

1970: Dorky: foolishly stupid Runner-ups:

lo mein

punk rock

zip line 1970: Dorky: foolishly stupid Runner-ups:

lo mein

punk rock

zip line Photo: Nick Dolding/Getty Images Photo: Nick Dolding/Getty Images Image 1 of / 59 Caption Close Words that first appeared in print the year you were born 1 / 59 Back to Gallery

The English language is constantly evolving.

While some words — like floppy disk — are becoming increasingly obsolete, words like selfie and emoji have become part of our every-day conversations.

However, there are are some words — like meme or latte — that were introduced to our language in unexpected years.

A LITTLE LESS PROPER: These were the slang words being used the year you were born

Merriam-Webster's dictionary has released a tool called the Time Traveler that allows users to go back as far as before the 12th century to see when a word was first used in print.

Words we use regularly, like pizza or floats or even snooze were introduced well before the 20th century, which made us wonder what words became popular during our time.

Take a look through the gallery above to see which common word(s) was used in print the year you were born, and see how the language has changed since.



