Born 1946-1964

Excellent, fashionable, pleasurable, in keeping with the spirit of the time. From jazz slang of the 1930s and 1940s, where it described music that was "in the groove" (playing well, in rhythm). Adopted by 1960s youth culture as a general-purpose expression of approval. Became the defining slang word of the hippie era. Now used almost exclusively with irony or nostalgic affection. "Groovy" is to the 1960s what "rad" is to the 1980s: a single word that places you in a decade.

Excellent, extraordinary, beyond the ordinary range of experience. Applied to music, ideas, people, and experiences that were exceptional or mind-expanding. The spatial metaphor suggests something beyond normal boundaries: the frontier of what is known. Peak usage 1966 to 1972. Also used with a more genuine sense of wonder for things that were literally hard to comprehend: "far out, man" could mean genuinely astonishing as well as simply good.

An expression of enthusiastic agreement or approval. "Right on" validated what someone had just said, particularly if it had political or countercultural content. From African American political speech of the late 1960s, adopted by the broader counterculture. Used as punctuation at political rallies and as general affirmation in casual conversation. The political weight lightened as the decade progressed; by the mid-1970s it was an expression of mild approval with little of its original charge.

Excellent, impressive, beyond ordinary standards. Originally jazz slang, absorbed into the 1960s vernacular. The logic is of something so good it transcends normal categories of evaluation: it is beyond the sight of what you would normally see. Similar in function to "far out" and used in the same contexts. Both carried a genuine sense that the experience of the 1960s (the music, the politics, the substances) was genuinely unprecedented.

Fashionable, exciting, at the centre of things. "That's a happening place" means it is where the interesting people and events are. Also used as a noun: a happening was an avant-garde event or performance, often deliberately unstructured and participatory. The term was associated with the New York art scene and figures like Allan Kaprow. "A happening" was both a specific art form and a description of any spontaneous, lively event.

To understand, appreciate, or be enthusiastic about something. "I dig that." "Can you dig it?" From jazz and bebop culture, where "dig" meant to listen to and understand music with real attention. Absorbed into the 1960s mainstream as a general-purpose expression of appreciation and comprehension. "Can you dig it?" became a rhetorical invitation: do you understand, do you agree, are you with me? Also to investigate or examine closely: "dig into" survives in this sense.

Serious, profound, emotionally or intellectually weighty. "That's heavy" meant the thing under discussion had significant implications, was emotionally affecting, or was difficult to process. Not pejorative: heavy was a compliment when applied to music or ideas that took on serious themes. A heavy conversation was a real, substantive one. Heavy metal borrowed its name from this sense: music with serious, dark, substantial weight.

The atmosphere or feeling produced by a person or place. Not a Boomer invention (it comes from "vibrations" in mid-century jazz culture) but the Boomer generation made it mainstream. "Good vibes" at a concert. "Bad vibes" from someone you don't trust. The word survives intact through every subsequent generation, which is unusual: most slang is discarded within a decade. "Vibes" is now so integrated into everyday English that its slang origins are largely forgotten.

A stylish, relaxed, admirable person. From jazz culture, where "cat" was a musician and "cool" described the detached, understated aesthetic of cool jazz. A cool cat was someone who embodied that style: unruffled, tasteful, assured. The phrase predates Boomers but they inherited it from the 1950s and kept it into the 1960s before it became dated even within the era. The individual words have both survived in separate lives.

A conventional, conformist person who does not participate in or understand the counterculture. Someone with straight, right-angle values: inflexible, unimaginative, locked into the establishment. The opposite of hip. A square had a regular job, voted conservatively, did not listen to jazz or rock, and was deeply suspicious of anything that deviated from the post-war consensus. The counterculture defined itself partly by not being squares.

The establishment: the government, the police, employers, institutions of authority. "Sticking it to the Man" meant resisting or subverting institutional power. "The Man" was impersonal and systemic: it described not a specific person but the whole apparatus of authority and conformity that the counterculture positioned itself against. The term came from African American experience of systemic racism and was adopted by white counterculture with varying degrees of understanding of its original context.

Money. From Cockney rhyming slang (bread and honey = money), picked up by American jazz musicians and filtered into the 1960s vernacular. "I need some bread" means I need money. Not widely used past the 1970s, but durable within the era. One of several food-based money euphemisms (dough, cabbage, lettuce) that circulated across the same decades.

Tense, anxious, rigid, or repressed. Someone who was uptight was unable to relax, held too tightly to convention, and could not go with the flow. The counterculture valued looseness, spontaneity, and openness: uptight was the failure of all three. Also used as approval in a brief early-1960s jazz context where "uptight" meant in good shape or well-placed, before the negative meaning took over.

To leave. "Let's split" means let's go, let's get out of here. Casual, immediate departure. The word implies some urgency or readiness: you don't split from somewhere you are settled. You split when you are ready to move, when the party is over, when something more interesting is happening elsewhere. Still in occasional use but primarily identified with the 1960s and 1970s.

To sleep, or to stay at someone's home unexpectedly or without prior arrangement. "Can I crash here?" means can I sleep here tonight. From the 1960s countercultural lifestyle of communal living and informal hospitality: crash pads were places where people could sleep, often strangers, often for free. The term entered mainstream use and remains in everyday English, one of the more durable pieces of Boomer slang.

A disappointment, an unpleasant experience, a piece of bad news. "That's a bummer" acknowledges something has gone wrong without excessive drama. Mild, accepting, somewhat stoic: the tone is of someone who expected life to produce bummers periodically and is not surprised. One of the more durable Boomer terms: it survives in everyday use because it occupies a useful register that no other word quite fills.

A bore, a tedious person or situation. "This party is a drag." "He's such a drag." Something that slows you down, impedes the good time, draws energy from the room. From mid-century jazz slang. The image is of something being dragged: a dead weight on forward motion. Also used for a cigarette (a drag), which shares the etymology of pulling something through.

To have an overwhelming, transformative effect on someone's thinking or perception. "This album will blow your mind." "That experience blew my mind." The 1960s vocabulary of mind-expansion was partly literal (psychedelic substances) and partly metaphorical (new music, ideas, and experiences that seemed genuinely unprecedented). The phrase survived the era and remains in common use, now meaning impressive rather than transformative.

An invitation to pursue your own interests, express yourself freely, and not conform to others' expectations. "Do your thing" was a philosophical position as much as an expression: it asserted that individual authenticity and self-expression were values worth protecting. Part of the broader counterculture rejection of the conformist 1950s. The phrase expressed a genuine politics of selfhood that was new in mainstream culture, even if what people chose to do with it varied enormously.