Fosbury flop Look up Fosbury flop at Dictionary.com
high-jumping technique, 1968, in ref. to U.S. athlete Dick Fosbury (b.1947), who used it to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal.
zonk Look up zonk at Dictionary.com
1950, "to hit hard;" 1968, "to put into a stupor;" slang term, of echoic origin.
bananas Look up bananas at Dictionary.com
"crazy," 1968; earlier (1935) it was noted as an underworld slang term for "sexually perverted."
bleep Look up bleep at Dictionary.com
"electronic noise," 1953, imitative. Verb meaning "edit a sound over a word deemed unfit for broadcast" is from 1968.
red-eye Look up red-eye at Dictionary.com
"airplane flight which deprives travelers of sleep," 1968, from the red eyes of sleeplessness; earlier as a noun meaning "raw and inferior whiskey" (1819, Amer.Eng.).
LED Look up LED at Dictionary.com
1968, acronym from light-emitting diode.
LCD Look up LCD at Dictionary.com
1973, acronym from liquid crystal display, which is attested from 1968.
clunky Look up clunky at Dictionary.com
"blocky, ungraceful," by 1968 (when it was the name of a style of women's shoe), from clunk.
dweeb Look up dweeb at Dictionary.com
1968, U.S. college student slang, probably a variant of feeb "feeble person."
ATM Look up ATM at Dictionary.com
1976, acronym for automated teller machine (1974), which was first developed in modern form c.1968.
collateral damage Look up collateral damage at Dictionary.com
by 1873 in legal cases; in modern use, generally a euphemism for "the coincidental killing of civilians," U.S. coinage, c.1968, at first generally with ref. to nuclear weapons.
commodification Look up commodification at Dictionary.com
1968, from commodity. Originally in Marxist political theory, "the assignment of a market value," typically to something the user feels ought not to have one.
high-five Look up high-five at Dictionary.com
originally U.S. basketball slang, 1980 as a noun, 1981 as a verb, though the greeting itself seems to be older (e.g. Dick Shawn in "The Producers," 1968).
kir Look up kir at Dictionary.com
"white wine and crème de cassis," 1966 (popular in U.S. 1980s), from Canon Felix Kir (1876-1968), mayor of Dijon, who is said to have invented the recipe.
tanzanite Look up tanzanite at Dictionary.com
"violet-blue gemstone," 1968, named by Henry B. Platt, vice president of Tiffany & Co., because the stone was discovered in the African nation of Tanzania.
autistic (adj.) Look up autistic at Dictionary.com
1912 (Bleuler), from autism (q.v.). Noun meaning "person with autism" is recorded from 1968.
biker Look up biker at Dictionary.com
"motorcycle rider" (especially with reference to club affiliation), 1968, Amer.Eng., from bike in its slang sense of "motorcycle" (1939).
cutesy Look up cutesy at Dictionary.com
"artificially or annoyingly cute," by 1968, from cute.
Peter Principle Look up Peter Principle at Dictionary.com
1968, "in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence," named for (and by) Laurence Johnston Peter (1919-1990) Canadian-born U.S. educationalist and author, who described it in his book of the same name (1969).
Oort cloud Look up Oort cloud at Dictionary.com
in reference to the hypothetical cloud of small objects beyond Pluto that become comets, proposed 1949 by Du. astronomer Jan Hendrick Oort (1900-1992), and named for him by 1968.
sexist Look up sexist at Dictionary.com
1965, on model of racist, coined by Pauline M. Leet, director of special programs at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S., in a speech which was circulated in mimeograph among feminists. Popularized by use in print in Caroline Bird's introduction to "Born Female" (1968).
scuzzy Look up scuzzy at Dictionary.com
1968, N.Amer. colloquial, perhaps a blend of scummy and fuzzy. First attested use is in ref. to Ratso Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy."
SALT Look up SALT at Dictionary.com
Cold War U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons negotiations, 1968, acronym for "Strategic Arms Limitation Talks." The last element sometimes also is understood as treaty.
survivor Look up survivor at Dictionary.com
1504, in the legal sense of "one who outlives another," from survive. Meaning "one who has a knack for pulling through adversity" is attested from 1971. Survivor syndrome is first recorded 1968.
aerobics Look up aerobics at Dictionary.com
method of exercise and a fad in early 1980s, Amer.Eng., coined 1968 by Kenneth H. Cooper, U.S. physician, from aerobic (also see -ics) on the notion of activities which require modest oxygen intake and thus can be maintained.
tank top Look up tank top at Dictionary.com
1968, from tank suit "one-piece bathing costume" (1920s), so called because it was worn in a swimming tank (n.), i.e. pool.
Oreo Look up Oreo at Dictionary.com
derogatory word for "black person felt to have a 'white' mentality," 1968, black Amer.Eng., from the snack cookies, which consist of dark chocolate wafers and white sugar cream filling (hence "brown outside, white inside"). The cookies (made by Nabisco) date from 1912; the source of the name has been forgotten.
black hole Look up black hole at Dictionary.com
in astrophysics, 1968, probably with awareness of Black Hole of Calcutta, incident of June 19, 1756, in which 146 British POWs taken by the Nawab of Bengal after the capture of Ft. William, Calcutta, were held overnight in punishment cell of the barracks (meant to hold 4 people) and all but 23 perished.
pulsar Look up pulsar at Dictionary.com
1968, from pulse, the form on analogy of quasar. When discovered in 1967, they were thought perhaps to be signals from alien civilizations and astronomers informally dubbed them LGM for "Little Green Men."
nod (v.) Look up nod at Dictionary.com
"to quickly bow the head," late 14c., of unknown origin, probably an O.E. word, but not recorded; perhaps related to O.H.G. hnoton "to shake," from P.Gmc. *khnudojanan. The noun is first attested 1540. Meaning "to drift in and out of consciousness while on drugs" is attested from 1968.
unisex Look up unisex at Dictionary.com
"sexually indistinguishable or neutral," 1968, from uni- + sex.
firmware Look up firmware at Dictionary.com
1968, from firm (adj.) + ending from software.
Scorpio Look up Scorpio at Dictionary.com
zodiacal constellation, 1391, from L. scorpio "scorpion" (see scorpion). The meaning "person born under or ruled by the sign of Scorpio" is recorded from 1968.
Band-Aid Look up Band-Aid at Dictionary.com
trademark registered 1924 by Johnson & Johnson for a stick-on gauze pad or strip. The British equivalent was Elastoplast. Fig. sense of "temporary or makeshift solution to a problem, pallative" (often lower case, sometimes bandaid) is first recorded 1968; as an adj., from 1970.
Mace (3) Look up Mace at Dictionary.com
chemical spray originally used in riot control, 1966, technically Chemical Mace, a proprietary name (General Ordnance Equipment Corp, Pittsburgh, Pa.), probably so called for its use as a weapon, in ref. to mace (1). The verb is first attested 1968.
fellate Look up fellate at Dictionary.com
1968, verbal derivative of fellatio. Related: Fellated; fellating.
pratfall Look up pratfall at Dictionary.com
1939, from prat "buttocks" (1567), originally criminals' slang, of unknown origin. Prat in British slang sense of "dolt, fool" is recorded from 1968.
workaholic Look up workaholic at Dictionary.com
1968, coined from work (n.) with second element abstracted absurdly from alcoholic, setting up the Rodney Dangerfield joke, "My old man was a workaholic: every time he thought about work, he got drunk."
toke (n.) Look up toke at Dictionary.com
1968, "inhalation of a marijuana cigarette or pipe smoke," U.S. slang, from earlier verb meaning "to smoke a marijuana cigarette" (1952), perhaps from Sp. tocar in sense of "touch, tap, hit" or "get a shave or part." In 19c. the same word in British slang meant "small piece of poor-quality bread," but this probably is not related.
decriminalization Look up decriminalization at Dictionary.com
1945, from de- + criminal + ization. Especially in reference to narcotics since c.1968.
desertification Look up desertification at Dictionary.com
1973, from desert (n.1) + -fication. In Fr., désertisation is attested from 1968.
liberation Look up liberation at Dictionary.com
mid-15c.; see liberate. liberation theology (1969) translates Sp. teologia de la liberación, coined 1968 by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez.
hijack Look up hijack at Dictionary.com
1923, Amer.Eng., from high(way) + jacker "one who holds up." Originally "to rob (a bootlegger, smuggler, etc.) in transit;" sense of "seizing an aircraft in flight" is 1968 (also in 1961 variant skyjack), extended 1970s to any form of public transportation.
smartmouth (n.) Look up smartmouth at Dictionary.com
1968, from smart (adj.) + mouth.
downplay Look up downplay at Dictionary.com
“de-emphasize,” 1968, from down (adv.) + play (v.).
Hare Krishna Look up Hare Krishna at Dictionary.com
1968, from title of a Hindu chant or mantra, from Hindi hare "O God!" + Krishna, name of an incarnation of the god Vishnu.
potty (n.) Look up potty at Dictionary.com
1942, child's word for "chamber pot," from pot (1). Potty-training is attested from 1958. Potty-mouth "one who uses obscene language" is student slang from 1968.
inner Look up inner at Dictionary.com
c.1400, from O.E. inra, comp. of inne (adv.) "inside" (see in). Inner city, in ref. to poverty and crime, is attested from 1968.
Jones Look up Jones at Dictionary.com
for the surname, see John. Phrase keep up with the Joneses (1913, Amer.Eng.) is from the title of a comic strip by Arthur R. Momand. The slang sense "intense desire, addiction" (1968) probably arose from earlier use of Jones as a synonym for "heroin," presumably from the proper name, but the connection, if any, is obscure.
retro Look up retro at Dictionary.com
1974, from Fr. rétro (1973), short for rétrograde, supposedly first used of a revival c.1968 of Eva Peron-inspired fashions (see retrograde). There is an isolated use in Eng. from 1768.