101 years in 101 words

Eggheads, wizards, punks and beatniks! Stand by your hot-desks. This is your opportunity to illustrate that dumbing down is a thing of the past.

Punk, Big Apple and dunk (1974, 1928 and 1937 respectively)

A study of when new words became common during the past century has had some surprising findings, such as the word "celebs" being used in 1913, the word "sex" meaning sexual intercourse being first used in 1929, and "mobile phone" dating from 1945.

Egghead (1907), wizard (1922), punk (1974), beatnik (1958), hot-desking (1991), and dumb down (1933) might also strike you as being whizzo (1905).

To mark this linguistic love-in (1967), we are inviting you to create a story of 150 words maximum using as many of the words from the list below as possible. The subject is up to you, but special recognition will be given to those entries which work as convincing stories in their own right.

Please indicate on your entry your total number of words, and also the number of words from the list you have included. The best will be published here at this URL (1992).

Submit your story using the form at the bottom of the page.

101 YEARS IN 101 WORDS
1904	hip	1937	dunk	1971	green
1905	whizzo	1938	cheeseburger	1972	Watergate
1906	teddy bear	1939	Blitzkrieg	1973	F-word
1907	egghead	1940	Molotov cocktail	1974	punk
1908	realpolitik	1941	snafu	1975	detox
1909	tiddly-om-pom-pom	1942	buzz	1976	Trekkie
1910	sacred cow	1943	pissed off	1977	naff all
1911	gene	1944	DNA	1978	trainers
1912	blues	1945	mobile phone	1979	karaoke
1913	celeb	1946	megabucks	1980	power dressing
1914	cheerio	1947	Wonderbra	1981	toyboy
1915	civvy street	1948	cool	1982	hip-hop
1916	U-boat	1949	Big Brother	1983	beatbox
1917	tailspin	1950	brainwashing	1984	double-click
1918	ceasefire	1951	fast food	1985	OK yah
1919	ad-lib	1952	Generation X	1986	mobile
1920	demob	1953	hippy	1987	virtual reality
1921	pop	1954	non-U	1988	gangsta
1922	wizard	1955	boogie	1989	latte
1923	hem-line	1956	sexy	1990	applet
1924	lumpenproletariat	1957	psychedelic	1991	hot-desking
1925	avant garde	1958	beatnik	1992	URL
1926	kitsch	1959	cruise missile	1993	having it large
1927	sudden death	1960	cyborg	1994	Botox
1928	Big Apple	1961	awesome	1995	kitten heels
1929	sex	1962	bossa nova	1996	ghetto fabulous
1930	drive-in	1963	peacenik	1997	dot-commer
1931	Mickey Mouse	1964	byte	1998	text message
1932	bagel	1965	miniskirt	1999	Google
1933	dumb down	1966	acid	2000	bling bling
1934	pesticide	1967	love-in	2001	9/11
1935	racism	1968	It-girl	2002	axis of evil
1936	spliff	1969	microchip	2003	sex up
		1970	hypermarket	2004	chav
Source - Larpers and Shroomers: The language report

 

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It was in Trekkie detox that I first heard the F-word. Some egghead wizard who'd been pissed off since the Blitzkrieg was caught in an acid tailspin. He was doing beatbox karaoke to bossa nova punk, dressed in trainers and a Wonderbra. It would have been avant garde but this Botox beatnik, with his bling-bling and gangsta kitsch, looked like a Big Apple cyborg. He wanted a love-in with the It-girl, he wanted to sex-up a microchip. How do you dumb down Generation X? Some hippy ceasefire? Smoke the DNA spliff and say "Cheerio!" to the cheeseburger blues? Get hip to the green genes: Watergate was ad-lib brainwashing, toyboy powerdressing. From the fast-food to the non-U bagel, it's an axis of evil that thrives on sex. Anyways, it's all in my text message; you can read it later.
Graham Cranfield, Richmond, Virginia, US (138 words, 50 from the list)

Conrad: Sonya, you look whizzo, awesome! Sexy and cool. You've not changed a bit. What's your secret?
Sonya: Very flattering, Conrad. It must be my Wonderbra, Botox facelift, kitten heels, and power dressing. But I have changed: remember, I used to be a punk, a beatnik, avant garde. We were both hippy peaceniks, into acid, I wore miniskirts. We mixed with some non-U naff lumpenproletariat types. Now you're a celeb, two mobiles, making megabucks, into power dressing, an egghead. You're always on the box talking about Big Brother, Watergate and 9/11.
Conrad: Sonya, you think I'm having it large, but I'm pissed off, what a snafu today. Let's dunk a bagel in a latte.
Sonya: After the hypermarket let's meet at that drive-in fast food place. But don't get the wrong idea: a cheeseburger, then home, or my new toy-boy will kill you.
Conrad: Sonya, that's wizard!
Sonya: Cheerio!

Aviva Perlmutter, Jerusalem, Israel (150 words, 38 from the list)

Whizzo sat sipping a latte and eating his bagel, wishing he'd instead ordered a fastfood cheeseburger. This egg-head trekkie was hot-desking today at his company Generation-X - he was a dot-commer. Whizzo was into power-dressing but had naff-all style due his love of cool trainers. He was pissed-off due to waiting for a text message on his mobile from Kitten Heels, a sexy it-girl with a love for mini-skirts and Wonderbras. They were due to be having it large that evening at a hip karaoke bar called Boogie. That place had such a buzz and was always full of celebs on acid or smoking a spliff. Suddenly Whizzo's mobile phone rang. It was his lady. Refraining from using the F-word he asked where she'd been. "Detox" she said, that club where all the chavs hang out, dressed in their bling bling. "Sounds awesome, meet you there in 10" he said.
Chris Lloyd, Ipswich, UK (150 words, 36 from list)