Our favorite bits of 1920s slang Beyond the bee's knees, phrases
like French kiss, blind date, sexpert, and backseat driver were
all coined in the roaring '20s Clara Bow: The original It Girl.
Clara Bow: The original It Girl. Eugene Robert Richee/Hulton
Archive/Getty Images  No doubt: The 1920s were the bee's knees.
But the ads banking on the latest film adaptation of The Great
Gatsby would have you believe the Jazz Age was all about
flappers, fashion, and parties. It was more than that.  After
World War I, Americans had more money to spend. That combined
with "low prices... and generous credit made cars affordable
luxuries" in the early 1920s; by the end of the decade, "they
were practically necessities."  With "a car in every backyard,"
automobile-related language entered the everyday lexicon. There
was step on it, as in "step on the gas" or hurry up, in 1923;
jalopy in 1924; and in 1927, back-seat driver, "a passenger who
constantly advises, corrects, or nags the driver of a motor
vehicle," and by extensio