Word: flapperisms
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...stodgy" and the commonplace. The Opposition in college today is not composed of the rigid economic dogmatists of yesterday with fixed ideas on the distribution of wealth, labor unions and the revolution, but rather is it made up of the care-free, mentally and morally loose-jointed "flapper" whose twin passions are disrespect and personal nonesty and whose favorite word is "moron." It is all very gay and most earnestly flippant. Evans Clark. In The New York Times Magazine...
...hazards a guess as to the causes. He has caught the color of a large section of undergraduate discontent when he uses the words, "Menckenism," "negation," "cynicism." But he concludes that it all proceeds from a type of student he designates as "the carefree, mentally and morally loosejointed 'flapper.'" Had he looked deeper Mr. Clark might have discovered that this is neither a very penetrating nor very accurate judgment...
Such an experiment, perhaps the germ of a wider literary movement, has come at a propitious time. The much-abused and misunderstood renaissance of America's younger generation, of which the flapper-is commonly considered the only product, is-well started. Youth has asserted itself variously and with considerable effect. Up to this time it has had to fight for recognition and being immature, has in its enthusiasm acted often rashly or gone to sensational extremes. All contests for independence are characterized by such exhibitions--witness the French Revolution...
...born of sudden inspiration, or actual need for a specifying word. It strengthens the language until that time arrives when its meaning has been so twisted and broadened that it becomes no longer respectable. Either it will escape this calamity and become a real word, or like the term "flapper", which originally was an apt expression, it will sink to the level of drab profanity...
Words like "flapper", "vamp", "necker" and what not insult countless ears besides those of Representative Branch of Florida until they come to be completely disregarded and overlooked. Thus, a nourished, they at last die out, but such protests as this suggested bill in Florida will only glorify and strengthen them. There are always people to cry for the right of the citizen to express himself in his own choice...