Order by the year each slang sense was first recorded, per Merriam-Webster, the OED or the Online Etymology Dictionary. You place all 29 cards on one timeline, one at a time. You start with three lives, and ten right in a row wins a lost one back.
Every card is a slang word or phrase, with a short meaning printed under it. You place them by the year that slang sense was first recorded, as dated by Merriam-Webster, the Oxford English Dictionary or the Online Etymology Dictionary. One word sits on the line to begin, its year showing. Put each new card in the gap you think fits. A right answer reveals the year; a wrong one still slides the word to its real place but uses up one of your three lives.
Dictionaries date a word from its earliest written example, and that is often years before it took over playgrounds, radio or social media. So the moment a word felt everywhere is only a rough guide. Jazz musicians, surfers, gamers and rappers each coined their own waves of slang, and the internet era packs many words close together. A few of these turn out to be far older than they sound.
Want a longer game? On the deck tree you can tick this deck alongside any other one measured in release years and dates, and they shuffle into a single timeline together.
Here are 28 of the 29 cards you might be dealt, with 1 more in the deck. Their values stay hidden until you place them.
