28 Slang Words Boomers Used to Say That Millennials Have Never Heard Of

Would you believe that the slang word “pad” has a dark origin story? Most of us grew up hearing “pad” used to describe someone’s house, apartment, or room. We have no idea if this slang is still used today (it probably isn’t), but back in the day, it was pretty commonplace. So where did this word come from and how did it become common slang? 

The word pad is way older than the 1960s and 70s. “Pad” used to refer to straw beds that poor travelers would sleep on in 17th-century England. Eventually, dealers and shady figures started using “pad” to describe a place where people would gather to do drugs and crash (literally and figuratively). Hippies adopted the slang, and it eventually made its way to mainstream slang, albeit in a much more PG-rated sense.